Food Festivals - Hyatt Waterfront Restaurant - Mexican Night

As soon as I got the WhatsApp notification from a friend that this was happening, I knew I had to be there. It ran for three days (May 24-27) presented by Hyatt in conjunction with United Airlines and Copa Airlines. Naturally, we ended up getting there on the last day in true Trini fashion.

Now I'm no expert on Mexican food and culture (I putting my disclaimer up front, I shame but I still up in the people and dem event) but based on a quick Google search the menu looked tantalizing, incorporating various traditional and authentic dishes. According to a UNESCO article in 2010, Mexico's food is a huge part of its culture. The staples include corn, tomatoes, avocados, beans, chilis, cocoa in addition to European influences; mainly with meats, herbs and spices and some fruit.  Needless to say, my appetite was piqued.

As we got there, the ambience was warm and inviting with instrumental mariachi playing faintly on the speakers. The staff were putting the finishing touches on the decor as we made our way to the dining area with tables set with artificial cacti and desert flowers which made for a great welcome. We settled in, ordered some drinks to start then headed straight to the buffet.

 

I was pretty impressed with the live taco station, a friendly server warmed up the taco shells and shredded the meat right in front of me. There were many options for sauces and condiments; guacamole, pico de gallo etc. However, the only two meats available were beef and pork. Now, I get it, that's traditional and the pork carnitas were tender and delicious but there weren't options available to those who don't eat any of these meats. A work around though, was the option of getting the other meats (fish, chicken,shrimp) and or veggie dishes and whipping up your own taco.

 

Heading to the main course, there were plenty of options. The food was good, but nothing extraordinary, my friends said the fish was good but I had absolutely no room (I was actually just saving room for mountains of churros)

Next stop: dessert station! Things got crazy, messy... in short I acted a fool, hyped myself up and got too many things. The churros were the best; warm, crunchy, drizzled in chocolate sauce. 10/10 would eat again. The chili chocolate cake was a close second followed by the flan which is surprising since I dislike caramel covered anything. By this time the tres leches was too much sugar for me to handle I'll put that review off to bad timing. I didn't enjoy the rice pudding, perhaps it was a bit too bland for my taste. All in all, a good run.

 

But wait! There's more!

Mid dessert we were surprised by a live Mariachi band. What?! Yes! (see that happy guy in the sombrero, yeah that's the singer). They played 3 songs, of course there were only 2 people singing along until the very popular "Canta y no llores" engaged full audience participation. See below for a short snippet of the performance.