What was on my Clean Plate this week: Tex/New Mex/Mex Brunch

Let me start off by saying I love Mexican food. Let me follow that up by saying that it is hard to find good, authentic Mexican around here that doesn't contain lard or other such nonsense. I normally quell my cravings with Qdoba or Chipotle, but sometimes that just isn't enough. Lucky for me, Elle of Clean Plate caught my psychic cravings for good, vegan Mexican and responded with a Tex/New Mex/Mex brunch.

As always, it was an impressive spread and this week it consisted of tamales with mole, spicy beans, hard and soft tortillas, two types of flatbreads (both awesome, obviously), turnip and beet salad, lots of salsas, Mexican chocolate truffles and waffles. For me, the standouts were the tamales and the various types of salsas. The tamales had definite cheese flavor to them and were easily the best tamales I'd ever had. Take that, Whole Foods deli case! I was also in love with the salsas: a tomatillo salsa and a mango jicama salsa. Both were light and flavorful and managed to acheive spice without all that pesky heat. If they would have been for sale in jars, I definitely would have bought a bunch, and I'm willing to bet others would as well (hint hint).

It was so great to spend my Sunday morning in Elle's backyard with my friends, and it was set off by being able to enjoy a delicious, vegan Tex/New Mex/Mex brunch. I will be dreaming of those tamales and salsas for a long time to come.