My Interview with MexGrocer UK

Since I began writing my blog I have received countless emails from fellow Expatriates and from Europeans asking me if I could tell them where they could purchase Mexican ingredients. Sadly for the longest time I have had to tell them no and have suggested they look at my blog for my alternative ways of cooking Mexican food as authentic as possible. I had just given up on finding an authentic Mexican ingredients in Europe or trying to get merchants to ship to Europe. Mostly we have relied on a very expensive way of burdening my family by sending us some care packages. Well about two weeks ago just for fun I did another Google search and I have found not one but two sources of authentic Mexican food products and one was right here in CZ, woohoo happy dance time! Today I'm going to tell you about one of them, MexGrocer.co.uk.

Today's post is a post dedicated for all my fellow expats and for those Europeans looking to find a great authentic Mexican product selection. MexGrocer is owned and run by a Mexican/English family. One of MexGrocer's owners is Katya, and I have invited Katya to answer a few questions about the store so that we can get to know them a bit better.

1. Your site says that MexGrocer.co.uk is run by a family, I'm assuming that it is by Mexican expatriates living in the UK? Can you tell us why you decide to open the store?
"Mexgrocer.co.uk was originally created and operated by a couple, my friends Monica and Sol Flamberg. Monica is Mexican and Sol is English. They opened the online store in 2006 because Monica missed her (Mexican) food badly. When they (Monica and Sol) decided to move to the USA in 2009 I bought them over, because my experience and business contacts were food orientated due to Mestizo Restaurant (which we will talk about shortly). "

2. Does MexGrocer.co.uk have any relationship to MexGrocer.com?
"No, Mexgrocer.com and MexGrocer.co.uk just share the name and we each have a different ownership. We do recommend each other to our customers from different regions of the world, the one that best suits the customer's location. We recommend them to people living in North America, and they recommend us to expatriates living in the UK and Europe."

3. Do you have a recipe section or recipe ideas to use the products purchased from your store?
" Yes, we have a recipe section ( follow this link), you will find many authentic recipes. For example there are many types of enchilada recipes. I think it's one of those dishes that represents a lot the day to day Mexican food. It can be for breakfast, lunch or dinner, it can be spice or not, vegetarian and/or any color, it's also a favorite dish. This year we had a very successful Enchilada Festival with 12 recipes from different states of Mexico and it was very successful even among the British!"

4. What are your favorite Mexican and English dishes?
"My favorite Mexican dish is "Chiles en Nogada" or as my grandmother said "Chiles enojada (upset)". She said that because it takes too many hours and effort to prepare it but at the end is worth it!, My favorite English dish is Beef Wellington, I am very lucky because I married an Englishman that loves cooking, and to me he makes the most delicious one :o) The best of two worlds!"

5. Where does MexGrocer.co.uk ship to? Is it just The UK or will you also ship to mainland Europe?
"We ship within the UK and to all of Europe. "

6. MexGrocer.co.uk offers a wide range of authentic Mexican products from dried chiles, masa harina, candy, canned goods and some tools. I see that you also offer cooking classes in Nottingham, can you tell us who teaches the courses?
"The cooking classes are taught by a chef. Her name is Sara and she specializes in spicy food! Anyone interested can sign up and contact us through our website for more information."

7. I see that you also have a link called "Our Restaurant", can you tell us a little about the restaurant?

"The restaurant is called Mestizo, and with my two partners (Mexican as well) we opened up in London in 2004. The main goal was to bring proper authentic Mexican food to this part of the world. It has been a long journey but it has paid off, we opened Mestizo Madrid in 2007. It has been a pleasure to see how open Europeans are to our food. We have many events like "Jueves de tacos or Taco Thursdays" with a Mexican DJ, playing Mexican music. On Sundays we offer Sunday Brunch, with many handmade authentic dishes. We also have many festivals and parties, like "Gastronomic week" samples of food from 7 states in Mexico, "Independence day party" with all the traditional "grito" mariachi and flags, "Day of the dead Festival" with an altar and teaching classes how to make sugar skulls and "papel picado", "Mole Festival" with a menu with 10 different moles from all over Mexico, "Enchiladas Festival", "Mexican posada", "Frida's Menu" from Frida Khalo recipe book, next year we will hold our first "Tamales Festival" well... the list just go on and on because Mexican food is so big that is nearly impossible to cook every single traditional dish."

8. Mestizo sounds like a great restaurant offering very authentic dishes and a great taste of Mexican culture. Tell me what does the Mexican community in London think of Mestizo?
"Mestizo in London is now considered the home for Mexican expatriates (including me). But of course everyone from any country is welcome to visit us :)"

Muchas Gracias ( Thank you very much) Katya for spending some time with me and my readers. I know all of us expatriates both Mexican and Americans as well as curious Europeans will really appreciate your store. It has been so great finding you guys and I'm so excited to have one great place to find all of those authentic ingredients. Please stop by MexGrocer.co.uk to pay Katya a visit and place your orders for anything you may need. Buen Provecho! (Bon Appetit! )

**All images are the sole property of MexGrocer.co.uk **