Mezquité spiced up Pas-de-Calais
The wind blows at 50 kilometers per hour on the grey-blue shore of Le Touquet-Paris-Plage. The sand rises in curls towards the rain-laden sky. Clusters of hooded families seek shelter. Who in a chip shop, who in a brasserie. The Mezquité is still empty. You don’t enter here by chance.
This restaurant, whose name is taken from that of a Mexican desert tree, is a welcome anomaly in the landscape of regional gastronomy. Julien Szyndler and his wife, Laura Flores Szyndler, give a taste of the fusion between the regions of Valenciennes and Puebla (southeast of Mexico City). They build the framework of their story around this tree whose wood is traditionally used to smoke meat and rely on their experiences in the great French houses.
He did his first internship at the age of 18 at La Grenouillère in La Madelaine-sous-Montreuil (Pas-de-Calais) while Roland Gauthier was still in the kitchen and his son Alexandre (future two Michelin stars) imagined himself at struggling to take the lead. Laura Flores arrived a little later. Julien will then be second from the opening of Anecdote in Montreuil-sur-Mer, the elegant brasserie of Alexandre Gauthier. Laura does not hesitate to speak of the latter as a godfather.
Fondant chair and concentrated juice
However, the lamb shank with barbacoa is not reminiscent of the flavors of Montreuillois starred. Fondant and grilled, it disintegrates at the first stroke of the fork and swims in a broth with intense juices. In order to reconnect with the Puebla cooking method, where the meat, wrapped in agave leaves, is cooked underground in ovens heated with volcanic stone, Julien Szyndler smokes the meat for five hours with mesquite wood. Cooking at low temperature gives a melting chair and a concentrated juice. A mixture of wheat, chanterelles and roasted squash accompanies the dish in its warm tendency.
The pibil beef chuck is inspired by more southern practices in Mexico, where the leaves of agave are restored by those of banana trees and the volcanic stones by the rock of the surrounding lakes. In Le Touquet, the translation is always done thanks to this smoking technique which lasts eight hours. The different peppers used in the marinade of the meat unfold a range of flavors ranging from fiery to grassy, including caramelized.
Laura pulls out Ojo de Tigre mezcal and above all two salts flavored with peppers and small dried worms that she grinds herself to balance her condiment. A sip of mezcal, a hint of the first salt and the “eye of the tiger” softens. With the second salt, he asserts himself, like Rocky, ready for battle. Nourished by an inextinguishable inner fire, anyone can now face the icy gusts.
The address The Mezquity, 70, rue de Paris, Le Touquet-Paris-Plage (Pas-de-Calais). Phone. : 03-21-05-89-27. Open from Thursday evening to Monday evening from noon to 2 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
The essential dish Lamb shank with barbacoa.
The detail that is not one The Szyndler couple spend several weeks a year in Mexico and find treasures, such as mezcal worms.
The bill Around 70 euros per person.