Mexico, Served With A SOCIAL Twist

At Mindspace SOCIAL Hyderabad, Mexico arrived on a plate with a little heat, a lot of colour and the kind of food that is best eaten with your hands. Recently, as part of Mela Mexicana, SOCIAL outlets across the country spent July bringing Mexican flavours, culture and a festive sense of community to the table. The popup is on till August 10. 

The menu at SOCIAL Hyderabad is all about finding the points where Mexican and Indian food naturally meet. Tacos, tostadas, quesadillas, empanadas, chimichangas and tortas were given a SOCIAL spin, with familiar Indian flavours finding their way into Mexican formats.

“The balance came from understanding the spirit of Mexican food first, and then seeing how it could sit naturally on a SOCIAL table,” says Chef Shamsul Wahid, Group Executive Chef, Impresario Entertainment & Hospitality Pvt. Ltd, adding, “Mexican food has heat, acid, smoke, freshness, crunch, slow-cooked comfort and a lot of hand-held eating. These are things Indian diners also understand instinctively.”

That understanding comes through particularly well in the Chicken Tikka Tinga Tostada. The smoky, chilli-led tinga meets the char and spice of tikka, while the crisp tostada keeps everything light enough to go back for another bite. “We are not forcing Indian flavour into a Mexican format,” says Wahid. “Both ideas already understand smoke, spice and comfort.”

Then there is the Mutton Seekh Taco, perhaps the most obvious example of SOCIAL’s irreverent approach. The seekh brings spice, fat and char, while the taco changes the way it is eaten. “It is bold, slightly messy, full of flavour and meant to be eaten immediately,” Wahid says. “It is a good example of what we wanted the menu to do: feel familiar and new at the same time.”

For Chef Ashish Sharma Diaz Del Castillo, the menu carries a more personal connection. Having spent his time between India and Mexico, he sees food as one of the strongest meeting points between the two cultures. His memories of his grandmother’s kitchen in Mexico shaped his understanding of food as something tied to family, generosity and comfort.

“What stayed with me from her food was the feeling of warmth, generosity and comfort,” he says. That sensibility finds its way into the Chicken Barbacoa Torta and Barbacoa Chicken Chimichanga, dishes that are hearty, saucy and satisfying without losing the playful spirit of SOCIAL.

For Diaz Del Castillo, making Mexican food accessible to Indian diners does not mean compromising on authenticity. “Authenticity is not about making something difficult to approach,” he says. “It is about understanding why a dish or format works and then presenting it in a way that guests can enjoy naturally.”

That is also why the menu looks beyond the familiar tacos, burritos and nachos. Mexican food, he points out, has slow-cooked meats, fresh salsas, corn-led dishes, breads, soups, stews, street snacks and home-style food, with strong regional identities. “It is not one format or one flavour profile. It is a cuisine with depth, regionality and a lot of emotion.”

If there is one word that ties the food together, it is perhaps generosity. Mexican cuisine, Diaz Del Castillo says, is “generous, layered and alive”. The same could describe the meal at SOCIAL: smoky meats, bright acidity, crunchy tostadas, soft breads, spice and sauces coming together in food designed to be passed around and eaten without too much ceremony.

And if Indian diners are ready to move beyond tacos, his recommendation is simple: try a torta. “It has the familiarity of a sandwich, but the flavours are very Mexican in spirit.” At SOCIAL, that means the Chicken Barbacoa Torta, a comforting introduction to a side of Mexican food that deserves more attention.