Sarah DiGregorio, over at the Village Voice, is quickly becoming one of our new favorite people. This week she recommends four taco trucks in Brooklyn's Sunset Park, two of which are open all night long—for those of you with late-night taco and chimichurri cravings.
Posted by Ed Levine, August 5, 2008 at 11:30 PM
Photographs by Robyn Lee
The bar for tacos in Manhattan is not set very high, and the fish taco bar here is set even lower. So when Pinche Taqueria owner and Soho Films partner Jeffrey Chartier announces to the world that he is opening a branch of his Tijuana taqueria in part to show other downtown taquerias like La Esquina how to make a proper fish taco, it sounds like a plenty plausible throwdown.
Pinche Taqueria
227 Mott Street, New York NY 10012 (between Prince and Spring streets; map); 212-625-0090; pinchetaqueria.com
Service: Friendly but surprisingly slow for what is basically a self-service operation
Setting: Your basic unairconditioned taco counter with a few seats inside and a bench and a two-person counter outside
Compare It To: La Esquina, Pampano Taqueria, Bonita
Must Haves: Fish tacos, shrimp tacos, carnitas mulita, huevos con chorizo, aguas
Grade: A for the fish tacos and the shrimp tacos, B+ for the carnitas burrito or tacos, and a B- for the rest of the food
I had fish tacos from Pinche and La Esquina within minutes of each other. One bite in at Pinche and I could tell that these folks knew exactly what they were doing. They make a killer fish taco. Chunks of crisp fried fish are tucked into a house-made tortilla and topped with cabbage, a spicy cilantro-spiked mayonnaise, and guacamole. These tacos are crunchy, flaky, spicy, and creamy. What more could you want from a taco? It really is the first good fish taco I've had outside Southern California or Mexico, though the one I had at Bonita in Williamsburg was damn good. And the shrimp taco (both the fish and the shrimp tacos are $3.75) may be even better, as the crisp, small-but-not-teeny shrimp have some actual shrimp flavor.
Meanwhile, over at La Esquina, just watching the guys in the kitchen make my fish taco, I knew it was going to be no contest. The cook took what appeared to be a pregrilled fish kebab out of a fridge and put it on the grill. It was a lame, half-hearted fish-taco-making effort.
So Chartier wins this hyperlocal fish-taco throwdown handily. But what about the rest of the food?
Continue reading »
Posted by Zach Brooks, June 13, 2008 at 2:30 PM
Tehuitzingo should be Lost Taco's first stop in Manhattan. Photograph by Don Lee
Thrillist just turned us on to Lost Taco, a brand new blog for anyone who has ever uttered the words "there are no good tacos in this city." Started by a transplanted Angeleno, the site only has seven entries to date, and they're all in Queens or Brooklyn, but Lost Taco promises to eventually hit up Manhattan. Only two of the seven places he writes about are recommended, including Taqueria El Paisa in Bushwick and Tacos Guicho's in Jackson Heights. Having moved here from Los Angeles myself, I must say I've had a lot more trouble finding a decent burrito than a taco; although admitedly I live around the corner from Tehuitzingo, a Hell's Kitchen taqueria that could easily hang with any of the places in L.A. You should check it out when you finally make it to the big island. Some of our other recommendations are down below. Good luck and godspeed, Lost Taco. We're all rooting for you.
Tehuitzingo
695 10th Ave, New York NY 10036 (b/n 47th and 48th Street; map)
212-397-5956
Related
Tacos and Tamales at Lupita Grocery in Astoria
Tongue is the Best Super Taco on the Upper West Side
Posted by Adam Kuban, June 5, 2008 at 10:15 AM
Whenever I visit friends near Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria, I make sure to take a side trip to Lupita Grocery, an otherwise nondescript little bodega on 21st Avenue. For less than $4, you can grab a small midday snack or a light lunch in the form of a taco or tamale and a bottle of Mexican Coke.
Lupita offers chicken or pork tacos and chicken, cheese, and pork tamales. The pork here is often a little too fatty for me, but I know that for many of you out there, there's no such thing as pork too fatty, so they might be right up your alley. I generally opt for a chicken taco, which comes loaded with hunks of moist white and (mostly) dark meat and a generous helping of pico de gallo. The taco may look small, but it's a filling snack. Double your order and you'd have a satisfying lunch.
Continue reading »
Posted by Robyn Lee, June 4, 2008 at 10:35 AM
Editor's note: Yesterday on Pork Chop Express Cesar Fuentes mentioned Super Taco as one of the 3 best non-Red Hook Ballfields tacos in the city. Our very own Robyn Lee couldn't agree more, and filed this report on her favorite taco from the truck on 96th and Broadway.
I rarely eat street food due to the lack of a comfortable eating area (because walking down the sidewalk while stuffing your face doesn't count), but Super Tacos on the corner of 96th Street and Broadway solves that problem by providing a small weather-proof enclosure in which you can stand while enjoying your meal. If you're of a below-average height, such as my paltry 5'1" stature, you may have to stand on your tip toes to meet the truck's shallow counter that acts as your table, but it's a small price to pay for a wallet-friendly taco feast.
Each of their eight kinds of tacos is only $2 each. Blinded by the variety and small investment, I ordered three tacos: spicy pork (carne enchlada), goat (chivo), and tongue (lengua). Each little meat pile came atop two soft corn tortillas topped with a slice of tomato, shredded lettuce, chopped onion, and cilantro. For extra flavor they provide lime wedges, pickled jalapeno pepper, and two kinds of sauce—tomato and tomatillo-based.
Continue reading »
Pork Chop Express gets the exclusive Barbara Walters-esque sit down with Executive Director of the Red Hook Ballfield Vendors, Cesar Fuentes, who not only gives us the latest huarache and pupusa update, but also dishes on where to find the vendors during the week, and his favorite tacos in the city (outside of the Ballfields of course).
Posted by Ed Levine, January 13, 2008 at 11:15 AM
A couple of weeks ago an Ed Levine Eats reader suggested I try a pork taco at Great Burrito, this unassuming taco place at 23rd and Sixth. Actually, "unassuming" doesn't begin to describe its hole-in-the-wall qualities. Besides the home-style Pueblan Mexican food, Great Burrito sells pizza and gyros on homemade pita bread 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
And you actually see people ordering all of those things.
But the thing to come for is the Mexican food. The aforementioned al pastor pork taco (all tacos are $2.50) was served with hot sauce, guacamole, onions, cilantro, and lime. Even better is the carnitas taco, here made with what is described as broiled pork. The single best thing I've tried on the menu is a huarache, a homemade corn tortilla that covers an almost festive, brightly colored plate (take that, Red Hook soccer fields, where only paper plates are used). Topping the tortilla is beans, lettuce, hot sauce, sour cream, grated cheese, tomato, and your choice of meat.
I stuck with the carnitas. The huarache is $7, but it is most assuredly an entire meal. There are all sorts of house-made Mexican gelatins and puddings to try here as well. I can't tell you that the food at Super Burrito is as good as what you'll find at the Red Hook soccer fields, but it's January and it's a long way until May, when the soccer fields will open again.
Great Burrito
Address: 100 West 23rd Street, New York NY 10001 (just west of Sixth Avenue)
Phone: 212-243-0022
Posted by Ed Levine, January 1, 2008 at 1:04 PM
Bonita, owned by the same folks that own Marlowe & Sons and Diner, had terrific fish tacos, a fine heritage pork burrito, and creamy, well-spiced guacamole. The chicken in the chicken taco was a little dry, and I wish the house-made tortillas were a little flakier, but all I can tell you is that I wish I had a taqueria in my neighborhood this good.
Bonita
Address: 338 Bedford Ave., Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
Phone: 718-384-9500
Website: bonitanyc.com
Also at:
Address: 243 DeKalb Ave., Fort Greene, Brooklyn, NY
Phone: 718-622-5300
Posted by Ed Levine, June 24, 2007 at 10:55 AM
The vendors at the Red Hook ball fields in Brooklyn have been granted at least a temporary reprieve in their battle to keep the concession license at the soccer fields that have brought them at least some measure of justified fame.
This means that the great Latino food we have talked about will now be served until October 28, the end of the soccer league season.
Previously the New York City Parks Department had threatened to yank the delicious food vendors' permit on September 7.
Our well-placed source, who spoke to us on condition of anonymity, says that this decision can only be seen as a show of good faith on the part of the Parks Department as the two sides work amicably toward a long-term solution.
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New York Senator Chuck Schumer Makes Goat Tacos Good Politics
savesoccertacos.blogspot.com
Posted by Ed Levine, November 2, 2005 at 1:48 PM
You'd think someone who'd just spent a year eating a thousand slices of pizza researching a pizza book would be sick of 'za. Then why do so many of my posts revolve around pizza.
I went to Lombardi's last night and was struck by how much the pizza has changed there in the last few months.
The crust is thinner and a little less pliable and yeasty than it has been in recent years, and it's a marked improvement over the thicker crust with clumps of unbaked dough that has all too often marred the pizza recently at Lombardi's.
The toppings are still superb: fresh mozzarella, great pepperoni, pancetta, sausage and house-roasted peppers.
It's actually a miracle I enjoyed the pizza at Lombardi's so much, because on my way there I stopped to try the new taco place around the corner from Lombardi's, La Esquina, 106 Kenmare St. Tel: 646-613-1333. I tried three tacos, the carne enchilada, made with grilled pork, cilantro, onions and a not incendiary pineapple-habanero salsa; a cochinita pibil, pulled pork, shredded cabbage, pickled onions, and japapeno; and a chorizo taco with potatoes, shredded cabbage, and salsa verde. The tacos were okay, nothing more((surprisingly bland), but they weren't a bad appetizer before pizza.
Or maybe I should just think of the pizza as a chaser for the tacos.
