Azteca Foods Valentine Specials
The best Mexican Valentine’s Day special offers:
- 2 of their chicken plates and a bottle of wine @4,800KES only
- 2 of their signature meat plates and a bottle of wine @5,000KES only
Introducing The Best Mexican Organic Food Spot In Nairobi
Since the rise of diseases and viruses, people have become conscious of what they consume. Taking care of one’s body’s health is always a consideration when it comes to food and drinks. Azteca Foods Ltd is a Mexican restaurant that carefully prepares authentic organic Mexican foods. From the garden to your plate.
There are a few restaurants in Kenya that you can really say have truly built their reputation on the taste of their food, and if you’re an ardent foodie (or not) you’re in for an absolute treat.
They say nothing can set a man apart from his vision, but only the brave make their visions a reality, and the pure grit and determination of owner Catherine Waithera who is supported by her husband, Juan Carlos Escobar – one of the most inspiring individuals’ turned restaurateurs’ in the city – is indeed making a name for herself amongst Nairobi’s avid dining community. Catherine was inspired by her mother-in-law’s tomatillo salsa recipes and other Mexican dishes, learned from her husband’s home country. Since most Mexican foods are organic, Catherine gained an interest in preparing organic foods and brought them back to her home country, Kenya.
She learned enough foods to start up a food business in Kenya and prepared them from her farm. Azteca Foods started back in 2018, after 2 years of selling foods from the house, she moved to the Kilimo Hai Organic Farmers for 2 years and later got a space in Rosslyn Riviera mall and has been selling for 2 years.
WHAT’S ON THE MENU
Whatever you choose to have at Azteca, you will surely want more. However, appetizers, breakfast dishes, vegetable dishes, and main course meals are available at insanely affordable prices.
Most of her popular sauces are red salsa sauce and green salsa sauce whose ingredients are tomatoes, onions, garlic, chili peppers, coriander, salt, and black peppers. Her signature dishes are Birria de rez(a type of Mexican prepared beef meat) and Soup Azteca. Among other dishes are Tortilla (a flat cornbread), chorizo(Mexican sausage), chistorra(Spanish sausage)
Azteca has not left out children in this amazing dining experience. The kids’ corner in her menu is to die for.
The legendary Birria de Res
APPETIZERS
Coctel de Camaron
VEGETABLE DISHES
Taquitos Dorados de Queso Y Papa
Azteca tamales
TACOS
Mexican tacos
BREAKFAST
Enchiladas
Huevos Rancheros
Tlacoyo
SAUCES
Regular red salsa and tomatillo salsa
Azteca has amazing Mexican pastries such as flat cornbread and other finger-licking loaves of bread.
In spite of her Mexican dishes, she also has the best Mexican tequilas, beers, cocktails, and hot drinks for her sit-down customers.
For starters, considering how good they are, we recommend literally anything on the list that piques your interest.
We would recommend: Tacos, Cocktails, Homemade Mexican style gourmet Pizzas, and Burgers
Mexican Style Gourmet Burgers & Pizzas
Check out their Menu: AZTECA FOODS LTD MENU
Azteca Team
Catherine has a team of amazing assistant chefs, bartenders, and waiters that help her to accomplish her daily goals.
Catherine Waithera, Founder and Head Chef Azteca Foods Limited
Catherine’s journey of Mexican food started in Mexico City in a place called Satellite. She met her husband, Juan Carlos Escobar, in 1995 at Hardrock café, Backleys plaza, through a friend. The moment Juan set his eyes on her; they became inseparable. The first time he took her to Mexico in 1996, she met his family at a dinner in a local tacos place called TACO de SERAFIN in Satellite and the moment she tasted Al-pastor tacos, she told her husband that it would sell in Nairobi.
At the time, he did not consider it since not many Kenyans are used to Mexican food. But as for Catherine, she believed tacos and Mexican cuisine would make it big and people would definitely love it since she loved Tacos after tasting them. She would eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. While she traveled to different places in Mexico, she realized that street food tasted better than fine food in restaurants. Henceforth, she gained interest to sell Tacos in Nairobi, Kenya, her home country. She kept her dream alive.
They traveled back to Mexico in 2005 and this time, they lived there till 2007. While living in Mexico Catherine started to learn how to cook Mexican food, with her mother-in-law being her greatest inspiration. They spent most of their time in the kitchen. Her mother-in-law would make her signature tomatillos salsa in her own special way. Catherine thought they were delicious and she would have them in all her meals and to date, she has most of her mother-in-law’s recipes in her kitchen. Catherine got interested in Mexican cuisine, she would visit a nearby market, VISTA HERMOSA. Out of all the vendors that cooked and sold in the market she fell in love with tamales from an old lady in the market. Despite, their language barriers, once in a while she would visit her and help her in order to learn how to make tamales until she became an expert.
Furthermore, Manuel, a friend of her brother-in-law who visited the house often, taught her to make Barbacoa. He made it to sell to his neighbors and called it BARBACOA DE LA CASA VIEJA (barbacoa in the old house). Catherine would go at least 3 times a week. He had a pit and while they prepared the lamb meat, he would fill the pit with firewood and light it. When ready, they would wrap the meat in cactus leaves and bury the meat overnight. The first night, Catherine could not understand why they had to bury the meat overnight or if it would even cook, she kept wondering if the fire would go off during the night. Early in the morning, they went to Casa Vieja, to unbury the meat. She was surprised to find that the meat was cooked. She realized that in Mexico, people had Barbacoa for breakfast during Sunday brunches.
Her father-in-law got concerned and advised her to be careful on the streets of Mexico since he was scared that she could get kidnapped. However, Catherine had made friends with almost every vendor on the streets. He taught her how to make MOLE NEGRO, the Oxahaca way.
A few weeks later Catherine and her family went for a trip to Oxahaca, and she was fascinated by the rich organic foods that had similarities to the African culture and she was able to blend with them. Oxahaca is on the southeast coast of Mexico. A vibrant city that was full of life good food, and good music, and its people were warm. She later learned to prepare other dishes such as Cochinitta pibil, birria de rez, A- pastor among others.
From her experiences in Mexico, she was ready to bring it to her people in Kenya. While it was tough to settle in Kenya, because of her kids, Catherine was happy to be home. She brought with her tomatillos seeds to make her favorite tomatillos Salsa. She had made up her mind to plant them and they performed so well that she harvested more than 50kgs of tomatillos. She decided to take them to the market to sell them, but nobody knew about them in Kenya and so they did not sell. She sold A half kg for 120KES and spent more on fuel than on the sale. She watched her tomatillos in her backyard, rotting every day. She became frustrated and disappointed. However, she did not give up on them. She took out the seeds from the rotten tomatillos and replanted them. She noticed that tomatillos needed a pollinator so she bought a beehive from Ngong Road Kenya Bees Farmers. In three months, the honey and tomatillos had matured.
Planting tomatillos
Azteca home-grown chilies
She made tomatillo salsa with her mother-in-law’s recipe. She sourced other ingredients to make tomatillos and came up with a giveaway for her honey customers. She sold the honey and gave tomatillo salsa as a free package. She later posted on her WhatsApp pages and within 2 hours there were positive results. People began to respond to the tomatillo salsa and there the brand was born. She made regular red salsa, pineapple habanero salsa, and Chipotle salsa just like in Mexico, though she was not sure of the response.
Despite trying other dishes and getting negative feedback, Catherine has learned not to give up. After getting her research right, she sourced all the equipment needed and decided to join Kilimo Hai Organic farmers. She made salsas, tortillas, concha(a traditional Mexican sweet bread), barbacoa meat, and many other dishes. She prepared them from Wednesday to Friday and rented a table at 1000KES at the farmers market and sell the products on Saturdays. With her knowledge of farming, she grew chilies, tomatoes, garlic onions, and all other ingredients in her backyard. She then started to grow corn, beans, and potatoes from her Nakuru farm. She later got a space at Rosslyn Riviera mall where Azteca Foods Ltd was born. She gradually added more dishes to her menu.
Catherine’s Backyard
Catherine’s dream is to take her knowledge to the hospitality courses in Nairobi, and lecture on the methods and recipes for preparing organic Mexican foods. Catherine’s story of purpose is an inspiration to many people in Kenya.
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