British Mexican

I love Mexican food, both the fake Taco Bell variety and the more hard-core "Oh god I got food poisoning in rural Mexico" variety. This is one thing I thought I would basically need to live without for most of my time in Hereford.

Not so! Even though the one Mexican restaurant over in Worcestershire is open, seriously, 2 and a half hours a day, and probably not worth the trip, the local stores do their best to provide some Mexican flare. A trip to the downtown Tesco (yet another grocery here - we have TWO of these!) provided us with some decent fixings for a Tex-Mexy meal, including the store brand taco kit, Mexicana cheese (tasted like the powder on nacho cheese Doritoes - good enough), red and green chilies of reasonable heat, and good ground beef (aka "mince"). Add to that some iceberg lettuce, fresh tomato, homemade guacamole from some weird kind of avocado with tiny seeds, and a can of Ortega Refried Beans (meh) and we had quite a meal. I wouldn't call it "real" Mexican but it served an important purpose. Tesco also carried dried cascabel, habanero, and ancho chilies (wow) - but they were more pence and more ambitious then last night's meal needed.

I noticed by the way, the only North American beer I see on a regular basis in stores here is Corona. You see an occasionally Michelobe, maybe a Budweiser, and oddly enough, both Fat Tire and Anchor Steam.