Eating at the Expo: Mexico1

★★☆☆☆

For this Expo meal, I traveled to Mexico to get a taste of one of Shanghai’s newest and already most buzzed about eateries – Mi Tierra (they have an outlet in the Mexico Pavilion, in addition to their actual restaurant in the Former French Concession).

While the food here was not bad (not as good as reviews indicated for their flagship joint), it was vastly overpriced.

We enjoyed a basket of tortilla chips and freshly made guacamole (75元) to start.  Clean, simple, delicious.  Mildly spiced with cilantro, the avocados were creamy and tender and well complemented by diced tomatoes and a little spice.  Nicely done, but I’m not sure it was worth 75元 – which (in case you don’t know the exchange rate here) is nearly $11 USD for about ¾ a cup of the Mexican staple.

I had a perfectly grilled piece of beef atop spicy marinated tortilla strips, with a side of refried beans for my next dish.  Usually when beef is so thinly sliced, it is easily overcooked and dried out.  This steak was both tender and juicy and even pink in the middle.  Well done.  The tortilla strips, however soggy, were spicy and covered in a sour cream mixture – and although it had the appearance of a green mess, the strips were fine.  The beans tasted as if they had come straight out a can, and not even warmed first.

My friend Laurel grabbed a pork burrito, which was stuffed with tender roasted pork and rice.  Although there wasn’t a whole lot going on with her plate, the food was good.

I don’t remember exactly how much each individual entrée was, but the entire bill was 345元.  Considering the average Shanghai resident makes around $11,000 USD a year, a $50 USD lunch at a place that is supposed to be showcasing and teaching other people about its culture and food (not simply just making a profit), seems pretty inappropriate.  Especially since for $50 USD, we really just got a lot of chips (as you can see, chips came with everything we ordered).

The food here is fine, but absolutely not worth its value.  Come to this pavilion if you need to buy an intricately designed sombrero, not if you are curious to see what kind of food Mexico offers.