Vegan Bar Food at Local 44, Philly: Gimme All You Got

      For Thanksgiving, my best friend gave me a squash she bought at the farmers market. I know you’re thinking, how nice is that! What a lovely friend! Squash can feed people! You know what else squash can do? KILL PEOPLE. You know what else? DEMOLISH TALL BUILDINGS.
      Yeah, so my friend gave me the BIGGEST SQUASH IN THE ENTIRE WORLD (that wasn’t entered into some sick contest of genetically mutated growths at a county faire or anything), the enormous Blue Hubbard Squash. With a slightly blue-tinted skin, this squash weighed about 15 pounds and gave me the shivers. For days (weeks? I lost track of time. no it was just days) I stared at it, half hoping to get inspired as to its uses, and half hoping to somehow break it open with my mind. I sat there with my hands on it, hoping that through osmosis my desires would lead the monster to freak the eff out and shake shake shake senora and then crack open. Pretty much I couldn’t figure out how to open it, ok? My collection of 31 knives was no match for this. 
            And then. And then. And gentlemen and then. My mom and I did this: 

       THAT’S RIGHT! We put that crazy mother hubbard in a trash bag and dropped it off the deck. Happy Thanksgiving, here’s a trashbag full of smashed orange goop! (The trashbag part was genius, and necessary, though.) NB that right before Operation Dumbo Drop, my dad was yelling about how it would crack the cement and he’d have to redo the backyard because of it. That’s how scared we all were of this thing. We promised my dad that we wouldn’t drop it, but then we did. It’s what Thanksgiving is all about. Luckily, no property damage occurred, and guess what – it worked PERFECTLY.

      This stew is very comforting and hearty, perfect for these increasingly cold evenings. Or days; it’s all dark outside, who can tell the difference. Anyway, all the squash pictured is what I had after making this soup, so more Blue Hubbard squash recipes will be coming! And thanks best friend! 

In the days leading up to our exciting reservations at Club Mexicana’s residency at Pamela bar in Dalston, we were making our fair share of “PaMELah” jokes in the style of Borat, cultural guide in all situations. Oh Pamela we are now married! Agreement not necessary! Little did we know that that was indeed the Pamela that Pamela Bar is talking bout! The walls above our seats at the bar were covered with pictures of Pamela Anderson! I was very surprised, but it was kind of nice because she is vegan and a pretty strong advocate for animals, so it made sense that she would be watching over the current kitchen residents, vegan Mexican wonder Club Mexicana. Pamela’s kitchen residents change often, as that is what residencies usually mean. However, the Club Mexicana residency is open-ended! That means I can go again and you have even more time to try to go, and you should, because the food is sooo good. 

     First of all, make a reservation. It was packed. I mean we did go on a Saturday night so there were plenty of people hanging around the bar (and thus us oy back off smellers)  just drinking, but I have a feeling it’s always busy. And for dern good reason. I could eat their tacos every day; they’re the best I’ve found in London and by far the most interesting for vegans. The menu at Pamela seemed created specifically for this sit-down dinner atmosphere, and so it didn’t have some of the bestsellers from their regular food stalls, like their jackfruit burrito. No one eats a burrito in a restaurant! We had a hard time choosing off the superb-sounding menu so we ordered a shittonne as usual. 

     Next we tried one of the most surprisingly impressive things on the menu, possibly my #1 pick of the night, the Mexican street corn. Husband wanted it and I was like, yeah sure whatever, but not too excited for it and I probably would not have ordered it on my own because it’s just corn right and corn is in literally all of our food and in our water I’m pretty sure. Well this was the most interesting and amazing corn, so good that I will go and order it again and again despite getting all the kernel wrappings stuck in my teeth as you do with corn on the cob. It was covered in chipotle mayo, ancho chili, and lime zest. But what really stuck out and grabbed me by the face screaming ‘oh my goodness’ was the impression of fermentation. Immediately I thought of natto, that gross fermented tofu that I know I know is not gross but it sort of is, with that strong smell of edible feet. This corn’s smotherings had that same pungency, that same proffering of gym feet but in a DELICIOUS way. It really stood out as being something special. I know right now my husband is like ‘weirdo I didn’t know you liked it so much it was literally just corn’ but it was truly  impressive and truly scrumptious like the flying train boat*. 

Another great dish was the annato glazed aubergine, with sour cream and coriander. (Aubergine=eggplant.) (Coriander=cilantro.) Annatto is different from the natto mentioned above. It’s like a musky/spicy/sweet powder? and also a food coloring? I don’t really know but it made for really good eggplant. It was warm and heavy in its strong flavor, and kind of sweet and sour, reminiscent of a heavy American Chinese food dish. I would have liked more cilantro with it or maybe an additional sharp and bright something thrown in with it, as it was quite a lot to eat on its own, but it was really good. I would love something like this on top of a baked tofu steak or something, or maybe thrown inside a taco. That would be amazing. 

To balance out all the heavy and heavily flavored food, the waitress suggested we get a kale salad, which I’m never one to turn down. It was marinated kale (partly with soy; I only took a half-menu picture oops it was so dark) with pico de gallo and pumpkin seeds, or, as the menu read, “pumkpin seeds”, which is ADORABLE. It was decent, for a basic kale salad, and considering it was offered as merely a palate cleanser, it did its job well.  But if they want to elevate it from the salad equivalent of lemon sorbet at a French restaurant to something awesome, I would love some more elements added to it, like tofu croutons or even chunks of other vegetable. It was just really a plate of kale, which I adore, but like not everyone is me. 

Next we were on to our mains, the tacos. We ordered one of every taco and figured we would share each as they are pretty sizable. First, we got the to-fish ceviche tostada. It was on a super crispy crackery base – tostada! – oozing with tomato salsa and topped with really generous slices of avocado that didn’t make me nauseous as most avocados in England do just at the sight of them and all their mealy stripey horribleness. Club Mexicana finds decent avocados. The fish was delicious. No idea how they make it. I would have asked but again, bar, so loud. I would have loved another big piece of the fish on the shell to balance against the other components and sauces, but everything worked well together as it is. Overall a wonderful dish, bright and citrus-y and spicy without being heavy.

On the opposite side of things – spicy but heavy and dark – we had the jackfruit tinga masa pancake, which was really wonderful. Masa refers to the thick corn base and tinga means it’s made with red or green tomatoes and hot chilis and onions. It costs more than the other tacos but it’s like twice the size (perfect for sharing!) and really substantial. The base is a giant masa pancake that is beyond delicious. They make all the tortillas and bases from scratch, like from shucking their own corn I think, and it really shone through with this one, all fat and awesome. It was smothered with pumpkin (spelled right) seed puree, avocado, salsa verde, coriander and radish. The super heavy spiciness was delicious and reminded me of Indian curry, actually. It needed a little more of the fresheners like cilantro and salsa verde to brighten it up but it was really great.

    Next came the baja to-fish tacos, and I was positively kvelling that they saw we were sharing everything and so sent out two small ones instead of making us be all awkward sharing single tacos. Or so I assumed. We eat grabbed one and ate and enjoyed tremendously. The tortillas on these bad boys were insanely perfect, kind of chunky with coarse cornmeal instead of fine, making a much more interesting shell. The to-fish was great, and the accompaniments were perfect, with pickled red cabbage, avocado, salsa verde, and chipotle chili oil. I could have eaten 10 of them, they were so good. I said “wow the fish is so good! It’s like fishy but not in a gross way,” and my husband said, “um what, this is the carne asada taco clearly!” Then we realized that this was still England, customer service would never be that attuned or generous in any industry, and they just put both the baja to-fish and the carne asada tacos on one plate and failed to tell us or distinguish the two for us. Eye roll eye roll! And by this time it was too late, we had eaten our entire respective tacos. They really looked the same, as anything covered with cilantro does. So mad!! I was incredibly unbelievably full at this point, so I didn’t order a(nother) carne asada after we realized this. Boo urns. Husband said it was really good. 

  As you know, being food-full is not the same as being done eating because there is always room for dessert! The one dessert on the menu was margarita key lime pie with whipped coconut cream.  Yum!! The pie part was pretty good, with a mellow lime flavor and a buttery cookie-like crust. The coconut cream was weirdly not smooth at all, kind of chunky and weird; they should work on that. Honestly I adore coconut cream but this would have been better with ice cream. Or lime sorbet! Or both! But it was still yummy.
      So, overall this was a fantastic meal. There are some aspects I would rework and some issues to hammer out, but I definitely want to return, even though I got shorted half a taco due to a lack of communication all around. It’s for sure the most interesting Mexican food for vegans in London, and it’s wonderful if you are on the taco cleanse in the near future, as we all are at some point. 

CLUB  MEXICANA AT PAMELA BAR, DALSTON (Haggerston?), LONDON
Water speed: This is where sitting at the bar pays off! We had a carafe and when it was empty (every five minutes) we put it on top of the bar and a new one came like magick. Wheee! I would sit at the bar again for this reason even though I had drinking yoots hanging in my personal space.
Service: Fine, considering how busy they were. Then just the failure to communicate about the two different tacos on the one plate wahhhh sadface.
Bathrooms: It is still a bar, with a bar toilet. Not the worst I’ve seen in bars by far but still.
Food: ​Overall, great! 
Bonus: If you drink, the cocktail menu was maybe even more interesting than the food menu, and I’m sure much harder to decide on as everything sounded awesome.