Taco Tuesdays. Taco Happy Hours. Stand’n’stuff taco kits, Margaritas by the gallon, oversized sombreros (and not infrequently, culturally insensitive and clunky stereotypes). Sydney’s love affair with Mexican cuisine is a tumultuous, sometimes volatile one. Tacos are commonplace across the city and for the most part, they ain’t great. The moment the word “authentic” gets dropped, alarm bells may start ringing. Thankfully, the team behind Bondi’s Carbón talk the talk and walk the walk. Opened late last year but the Milpa Collective, a boutique hospitality group founded by Mexican and Chilean born and raised chefs Liber Osorio and Pablo Galindo Vargas, each of Milpa Collective’s venues showcase a different region of Mexico.
Carbón, which translates to ‘charcoal’ in Spanish, focuses on wood-fired dishes made using traditional South American ‘parrilla’ techniques to create inventive dishes using fresh produce. While most of us would be hard-pressed recreating the intensity of smokey wood-fires in our apartment kitchen, we needn’t fret about how we can emulate a proper night out down Mexico way. The good folks at Carbón have done all the hard work of setting you up with a DIY taco kit that’s almost as good as the real deal.
The kits contain enough fillings for a whopping 18 tacos and you can pick and choose how you want to chow down, whether that be through chicken tinga (shredded chicken slow-cooked in tomatoes, chipotle chilli and onions), smoked beef cheek, or spiced roasted cauliflower. Customise your taco with some corn esquites (grilled corn salad with crumbled cotija cheese), pickled cabbage, Pico de gallo, guacamole, beans and salsa. Mix and match your favourite ingredients to create the ultimate taco combinations in the comfort of your own home. Head to the Carbón website to get your DIY taco kit.
