Meeting Porcelain Alice

A restaurant in Kings Cross called Casa Merida officially launched a pop-up called Hacienda Patrón last night, a month-long celebration of tequila tastings, Mayan cuisine and Mexican entertainment.

And guess who was there to guzzle the free margaritas …

Meeeeeeeeee!

The restaurant draws its inspiration from the Mexican city of Mérida, famed for its palatial elegance and Mayan ancestry.

The takeover sees Patrón margaritas and palomas teamed with limited edition Yucatan-inspired dishes.

The food was freaking delicious, as was the coincidence that I have actually been to Merida. Merida rocks.

I was surrounded by snow in New York with two children under the age of five when I went to a travel agent on the Upper West Side to explore holiday options that involved temperatures above zero.

I told him we preferred to hire a car and do our own thing, as opposed to most American tourists, who just flew into all-inclusive resorts and lazed by the pool. We wanted to land in the Yucatan and explore.

The idea of a young family hiring a car and trekking around Mexico made the travel agent go slightly pale with fear about the dangers involved. But it worked out just fine. We had an absolute ball.

And Merida was one of the awesome highlights.

O-M-G the sprogs were so little and adorable!

Anyways, I also had a great time with my friend Nathan at Casa Merida. I’ve known Nathan since I was an itty bitty cadet journalist at the Newcastle Herald. We’ve been great mates ever since.

As we are now in our mid 50s we were very happy to arrive early and also skedaddle early.

We were delighted by our encounter with international showgirl Porcelain Alice, who won Miss Burlesque NSW in 2019.

She’s also a fire performer, fan dancer and dab hand with a sewing machine, making her own dazzling costumes.

Porcelain Alice was quite the character, though it was a bit sobering to hear that she is regarded as too old to be a Moulin Rouge dancer at age 33.

The arts are a cruel industry. I felt sorry for a fellow redhead. Although she seemed to be doing very well for herself sans Moulin Rouge and was just back from performing in Singapore.

Porcelain Alice chatted to us for ages, which was a bit weird as we were the least glamorous people at the event, which was crammed with influencers and that Qantas pilot from The Bachelor.

The menu at Casa Merida has been created by Chef Luis Águilar from Safari Tulum. Águilar has worked around the world, from New York to Spain, the Bahamas to New Zealand.

His soft tacos and grilled prawns were particularly nom nom.