This July landed me an interesting assignment: the State of New Hampshire and the NH Aerospace Defense Consortium were leading a trade mission to the UK, with the primary goals of visiting the biennial Farnborough International Airshow and then doing a small side trade mission to West Yorkshire, focusing on Leeds. This was an excellent trip in itself (Farnborough is one of the best airshows in the world for both aircraft displays and having virtually every aerospace company in the West in attendance), but my trip also gave me a handful of days before and after the official trip to visit with my brother and sister-in-law in London. Shortly after arrival, Dan announced that we should go out for lunch, and had a specific destination in mind: heading out to Peckham for pozole.
While London is one of the world’s best destinations for having a good diversity of world cuisines, it is a little weak when it comes to non-American, Western Hemispshere cuisines. Particularly, it isn’t exactly known for Mexican food, and much of the nominally “Mexican” offerings are actually offshoots of the various “Americanized Mexican” food, reformulated for milder British tastes. While the situation has markedly improved over the last two decades, if you are craving something particular and authentic like, say, a good traditional pozole, you’re going to have to do a bit of searching. Which brings us to Rye Lane Market in Peckham, home to many Latin American restaurant stands, one of which is Guacamoles. Originally starting as a pop-up in Hounslow, a few years ago, Guacamoles is the product of London Manolo de la Torre, better known as “Taco Manny”, whose family traces back to Veracruz, and who has been trying to create a place where people can experience traditional Mexican street food.
Arriving in Peckham’s Rye Lane Market, you can immediately find Guacamoles, it is at the center of the market’s food court area. You can tell immediately that this place has potential, since they’ve got the basics all in place: vertical spits for tacos al pastor, agua fresca bubblers, a big comal, Mexican flags… This stand would look right at home in Arizona.
Looking at the menu, which is a simple marker board next to the register, you can see that Guacamoles keeps all the basic Mexican fare available: eight different types of taco (including lengua, a favorite of mine), birria, quesadillas, chilaquiles… and most importantly, pozole. I adore a good, proper pozole with a rich broth and large chunks of tender hominy. Since I was still fairly hungry after a long flight from Boston, I ended up ordering a trio of tacos al pastor, a bowl of pozole, and some house-made jamaica.
So, lets start with the tacos. These are traditional al pastor tacos, carved right off the vertical spit (complete with the tradition bit of pineapple at the top). Rich and tender pork with just enough sear to give it a good crisp, this was a great filling. Add in some obviously nicely hand-pressed tortillas (extremely rare for London, although I do prefer the frequent approach of US taquerias in double-stacking the tortillas to avoid “taco blowout”), and some nice fresh-chopped onion and cilantro, and these were perfect street-style tacos. I’d happily get these again.
But the real star here was the pozole: traditional Mexican stew (Guacamoles uses the traditional pork recipe), made with hominy and topped with lettuce, radishes and avocado, and served with both red and green salsas on the side. This was the exact sort of pozole I enjoy, with particularly rich broth and flavorful hominy flavors just perfusing into the broth. Add in some fresh chips on the side, and this was a nice way to recover from an international flight.
So yeah, unlike a lot of my more disappointing experiences with “Mexican” food in London, Guacamoles delivers. The food is great, and authentic enough that if I were to order and receive these exact items in, say, San Diego, I wouldn’t be disappointed at all. The flavors and textures were spot on, the ingredients nice and fresh, and the staff very pleasant. It’s worth the trip out to Peckham if you really find yourself craving Mexican food, but in London.
