MADRID.— Owner of 33 restaurants and ambassador of Mexican cuisine in the world, Yucatecan Pedro Evia Puerto chose Madrid for his first European project with Q78, “the first Mexican in Spain without tacos” that will smell of “smoke, earth and tradition ”.
Before opening the consumer center, he investigated the Mexican cuisine market in Spain to “do something different” and decided to focus it on his homeland, Yucatan, although “like Mexico there are 32 countries in one” there are also kitchen proposals on the menu from Oaxaca, Jalisco, Puebla and Michoacan.
Q78 refers to the quiote, the tender stem of the maguey flower, the plant from which tequila and mezcal are born, and to the date (1978) on which tequila is registered in Switzerland in the International Register of Denominations of Origin of the World Intellectual Property Organization.
And it is that both distillates are protagonists of the restaurant, through small producers with whom Evia wants to transport its “magic, symbolism and tradition” to Spain in tastings and cocktails by Mario Parra, who is inspired by the Mayan deities to create combinations such as “Ixchel” (goddess of fertility), with mezcal, lemon and spiced piloncillo sugar.
Cocktails that can be tasted at the bar, where you can also eat, or at tables to which the Yucatecan chef promises to bring “the best pibil cochinita that will be eaten in Spain” thanks to the smoker that his partner Eduardo Rukos Dogre devised to replicate the pre-Hispanic technique of cooking underground for the restaurant they have in Mérida.
universe of errands
It seeks to surprise with recados, typical sauces of the State, “an infinite universe that can include up to 26 spices” that are “very unknown in Europe”, and without tacos. “We are the first Mexican restaurant in Spain without tacos, because the cuisine of my country is ten million more than a taco.”
“I’m going to give you the tortilla and you eat it in a pinch or however you want,” he says.
Lentil stew, longaniza papadzules, suckling pig cake, yucatecan poc chuc barbecue, tikin xic shrimp, Oaxacan tetela, drowned cake from Jalisco, mixiote from Puebla, carnitas from Michoacán and ceviches from the Pacific are some of the dishes that Evia wants make known in Q78, where there will also be proposals for vegetarians and vegans, as well as beers and wines of Mexican labels.
The dishes will be made with Spanish ingredients, with the exception of the errands, in charge of “Yucatecan teachers”, clarifies Evia, who is already planning to open another “two or three stores” in Madrid, a city that “give for more” in the field of Mexican cuisine “if you don’t try to do what already exists”.
Before that, he plans to land in Berlin because he believes that Mexican gastronomy is becoming more and more appreciated in the world.
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