La Chinesca's at Balmori Suites, Rockwell With Can't-Be-Missed Exclusives
Catch Chef Bruce Ricketts' tacos (plus other new plates!) at this limited-time location.
(SPOT.ph) Chef Bruce Ricketts has dropped flavor bomb after flavor bomb in between scratch-made corn tortillas since taco spot La Chinesca was birthed as a pop-up in 2013, and officially opened in 2017. But they're far from being done; the taqueria's holding a month-long pop-up at Rockwell's Balmori Suites, with fan faves plus exclusive items you'll want to bookmark on your eat list.
Also read:
Bruce Ricketts & Jae Pickrell: How a Magazine Editor Upped an Already Formidable Chef’s Game
The SPOT.ph Guide to Mexican Food
La Chinesca at Balmori Suites, Rockwell
Fast facts: The Bruce Ricketts-helmed taqueria is taking over the Chef's Table at Balmori Suites, Rockwell, starting tomorrow, June 22 until July 21. Open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day within those dates, the pop-up is meant to be a preview of their soon-to-open outpost in BGC, slated to open later this year. (In the meantime, their more permanent stall at Power Plant Mall's The Grid will be closed for renovations.)
Not only will the pop-up house the La Chinesca faves you've come to know and love—from their tacos filled with the likes of carnitas and carne asada, to their textural-triumph tostadas, and more—it'll also be home to exclusive new dishes that alone are worth the trip. As he's long done, Ricketts pays ode to tradition while keeping his creative hat on, and emphasizes the use of the "right methods and good ingredients"—but he's also taking things up a notch and exploring new possibilities at the pop-up.
La Chinesca's famous Tuna Tostada gets an upscale glowup in the Toro Tostada, which gets a triple wham of tuna thanks to chutoro zuke (soy-cured medium-fatty tuna), otoro aburi (torched fatty tuna), akami (lean tuna), tomato pico de gallo, and chipotle aioli. The Jaiba Tostada, on the other hand, delivers a zingified taste of the sea with soft-shell crab, local mud crab, mango, tapatío mayo, lime, and
togarashi. More one-of-a-kind is the Pato Tetelas—beet tortillas filled with duck carnitas, truffle cream, sampinit jam, pickled red onion, and chicharrón. Also to be made available are platos fuertes—essentially protein-led main dishes—like Prawn
Zarandeado (zarandeado being a traditional method for grilling seafood) and Hamachi Asada. Who's drooling? We know we are.
"Mexican food goes so deep and this is our way of exploring the cuisine
a little more, while paying tribute to traditional techniques and the bold
flavors we enjoy so much," says Ricketts in a statement. "It’s always been a source of pride for us to cook everything with the right methods and good ingredients—for example, since we started as a pop-up concept in 2013, we have made every single corn tortilla by hand and cooked it to order—and we will only [raise things] higher at La Chinesca at Balmori."
The La Chinesca pop-up will be at Balmori Suites, Hidalgo Drive, Rockwell Center, Makati City. For more information, check out La Chinesca's Instagram page.
UPDATED (June 24, 2024, 7:16 p.m.): Photos in the article have been updated with the author's own.
Hey, Spotters! Check us out on Viber to join our Community and subscribe to our Chatbot.
this strange new world.