La Ola The most delicious combination of Mexican cuisine with seafood

The name alone is a promise: La Ola, that is the sea, that is water, but it is also the euphoria that sweeps through a stadium, a small moment full of enthusiasm. The surfboard above the counter captures this feeling and, at the same time, shows us that the sea is to be the overriding theme here.

Having already convinced us of his skills at the Fish Klub and especially at its Summer Residence, chef Francisco Hernández is now devoting himself to new - ahem - waters together with Taqueria El Oso in Markthalle Pfefferberg. Although the gifted chef comes from the giant city of Mexico City, where it is well known that there is no access to the sea, he spent many of his holidays with his grandmother in Baja, California and thus connects the taste of fish and seafood with his childhood and youth. 

And that's precisely what he deliciously brings to the plate. We try Francisco's "Mexican Nigiri": a tuna belly matured for 17 days, from which Francisco has carefully teased out the essence of its taste. "In Japan, it's served with rice and soy sauce, but in my Mexican version, I serve it with corn, pinto beans and hoja santa," Francisco explains. The homemade tostadas served with it act as the perfect stage on which the subtle differences in flavour of the different belly pieces can also be discerned.

Visually inconspicuous and tastefully all the more intense proves to be the wonderfully seasoned bean mousse, dusted with ground hoja santa - a spice that is indispensable in Mexico's cuisine and whose translation is not for nothing "holy leaf". Japanese-like subtlety meets Mexican intensity here in an ingenious combination. 

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We also react enthusiastically to the following dishes: pulpo with fried leeks and shrimp ceviche with corn. The octopus has just the right, tender consistency that is rarely found in Germany, even in top restaurants. Like the shrimp ceviche, it is boldly flavoured. The fierce use of chilli and acid in the salsa marisco tickles the mouth and immediately makes you want to take the next bite. The mezcal served with the ceviche does the rest to transform the buzz of voices in the Pfefferberg market hall into the sound of the sea for a few seconds with each sip. 

In addition to the excellent mezcal Francisco serves us, our (excellent!) wine accompaniment from the neighbouring (natural) wine shop Valla Vino should not go unmentioned. The fact that you can combine food and drinks from different shops and stalls in the Pfefferberg market hall is a huge plus. Also, the wines Elisa selected go wonderfully with Francisco's boldly flavoured dishes.

As a crowning finale, we are served a deep-fried soft-shell crab in a soft corn tortilla. Again, the play of consistencies and the inimitable sweet-buttery, rich taste of the crab combine with the fiery sauces to create a taste experience beyond compare. 

So after perhaps one or two more glasses of mezcal in your stomach, you leave this place with the certainty that this visit will not be the last - and with that nice dose of wanderlust that a taste of the cuisine of distant lands always leaves you with.

Ronja C. Kolls

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