Life lesson: Don’t stand between a Texas expat and their chance at Mexican or TexMex cuisine. Just don’t – it’ll be best for all parties that way.

While living in Paris, I missed Mexican food mucho mucho. Its absence in fact led to a lot of dreamy descriptions of tacos to my new Yankee friends who placated me with nods and smiles. Paris does have a growing number of Mexican cuisine restaurants, but they’re just not the same. For months, news about the soon-to-be-opening Chipotle on Blvd. Montmartre was as hot as gossip. I’d overhear classmates trade updates like gold: A saw the sign outside is finally up. It has to be soon! Or, I read on Facebook that it opened this week. Let’s go check. After many false alarms, fate would have it that Chipotle opened the week after I left Paris. However, if I was ever completely and utterly desperate, I knew a place I could go…it only meant crossing the English Channel.

The Texas Embassy Cantina sits just off of Trafalgar Square in central London. The first time I visited the city, I had spent the late morning wandering the touristy neighborhood for a rumored Chipotle (apparently they like to be incredibly mysterious in Europe?). After an hour of searching, I was starving and ready to give up. Then, heaven sent a sight my way: the Texas flag. Fluttering like a mirage in the desert, I shook my head to distill my senses. It was still there. Shocked, I stumbled towards it, thrusting open the door and suddenly, I knew I had come home.

Texas license plates covered the walls, signs for Dallas, Houston, San Antonio pointed off in odd directions and old school country music blared above – my developing European senses received a jolt. And when they placed a small bowl of tortilla chips and salsa in front of me, I wanted to shake their hand and kiss their feet. Wandering upstairs to wash my hands, I passed a wall of signatures. Decades of traveling Texas had signed and dated the wall and after finding several Baylor classmates’ writing, home suddenly felt close. As I signed my own name next to theirs, I looked over my shoulder to see Texas university flags hanging nearby.  Eyeing the green and gold of my dear Baylor,  I felt like dancing. By the time I sat down to the first tacos I’d had in six months, I was in reverential awe. Whoever was back in that kitchen knew what they were doing; their momma had taught them right.

A year later when I returned to London with my parents, I hinted that we should maybe definitely go by and see if they happened to be open…

 

 

I’ve talked before about how London holds a sweet significance for me:  the first place I traveled to and explored solo, it typifies my entire expat experience. After my lunch at the Texas Embassy Cantina, the significance became that much heartier. It was proof that I wasn’t really alone in my giant journey and that home will always find you, no matter how far you go.

 

Texas Embassy Cantina
1 Cockspur Street  Trafalgar Square, London SW1Y 5DL
020 7925 0077