Mexican Food in Paris with Tatiana and Reynaldo

After hearing from a classmate of mine that there "isn't any good Mexcian food in Paris," I wasn't sure what to think when another classmate of mine (from Venezuela via the Haas School of Business in Berkeley) called up and asked if we were up to meeting for dinner last Sunday for Mexican food. "Ummm, Tatiana, I heard that there isn't any good Mexican food in Paris." She assured me that this place was so crowded on Saturday that she and her boyfriend Reynaldo couldn't be seated. Plus, it had gotten a good rating in our dog-eared, marked up, constantly-referenced guide the 2005/06 Paris Zagat Guide, a gift from our friends Vicki and Stew. So, we packed up Emmett and headed to the 5th arrondissement to Anahuacalli.

Much to our surprise, the restaurant was pretty empty. We were warmly greeted by the staff in both French and Spanish. We were pleasantly surprised by the menu and Tatiana assured us that everything on the menu looked fantastic. Lynna and I shared the tortilla soup and ceviche as our starters.

For our main course, I had the flautas and Lynna had this fabulous beef dish with zucchini blossoms and cuitlacoche (a mushroom-like fungus from Mexico). After Emmett finished the food we brought for him, he tried his first tortilla chip and absolutely loved it!

For dessert, we shared bananas flambé with cajeta (a Mexican caramel made with goat's milk), poached pears with ice cream and a polenta cake with ice cream. They were all delicious.

It was a lot of fun to get to know Tatiana and Reynaldo better. They are living here in Paris not very far from our apartment. Reynaldo recently started a new job with L'Oreal and Tatiana is getting a dual-degree MBA from HEC and Haas. We hope to see them again before we leave. Emmett especially loved Reynaldo, as you can see here.

Anahuacalli
32, rue des Bernardins
Metro: Maubert-Mutualité