Taco Tasting in NYC
Fast and Fresh at 84 Hoyt St. gets toooooooons of praise around town – real ass kissing occurs. I was excited to go there. It’s a side-street, hole-in-the-wall deli where local Mexicans chow down and it’s acclaimed by Californians. Californians always know what’s up! (debatable) When we arrived, we ordered up chicken, salted beef, carnitas and, last but not least, goat tacos! (goat is pictured above)
I’ve been going to Los Pollitos II in Park Slope for many years now. Not because it’s great but because there isn’t any real competition close by (Mezcals is slop, in my opinion). Well, it was time to try their tacos as it’s been a while since I had them. I ordered 1 shrimp ($3), 1 pork ($2.25), and 1 chicken ($2.25)
The food at Coney Island fucking sucks. The indigenous cuisine sounds like everything you love; french fries, chicken fingers, hotdogs, hamburgers. However, I don’t think any of the grills or deep fryers have been cleaned since the prohibition. All in all, a pretty pathetic offering (sorry, Nathan’s sucks). It took us many trips there before we realized there were tacos to be had! Sadly, the great taco truck we found on Stillwell Ave has now gone missing so we ate tacos on the boardwalk. Continue reading →
We stumbled across the street fair on Smith Street last week so I decided to try a taco at El Pitayo . We’ve eaten there before with little success (I can’t remember what I ate) but $3 is worth trying something twice. First off, this thing is huge! The tortilla is almost the size of the plate. It was the end of the day so maybe they were trying to get rid of food; I don’t know. For $3, it’s a pretty frugal purchase. The tortilla is flour (as expected at a Tex-Mex place) but I liked it. The chicken was not hot – blame that on the street-based kitchen. It was also wet and dripping, which I always find obnoxious in tacos or burritos. It was also stewed which can usually yield a pretty flavorful chicken, yet flavorful this was not. The salt was there but other basic seasonings were lacking. Overall, I wouldn’t eat it again but I appreciate the value so I’m giving it 2 sombreros
The Burrito Bar may look like a bad franchise but it’s not. However, the food quality and prices definitely meet suburban-franchise standards. The place just looks too fun for the food to be good. it’s also too big. I think in NYC, the smaller the place, the better the food. Like Snack Dragon Taco Shack in the East Village – there isn’t even an inside!
It’s been a few years since we ate at Mexicana Mama Centro on 12th St. I remember it was overpriced for Mexican but I didn’t remember how the food was (that should have been the first clue). Since the place is usually pretty full and it’s a little expensive, I figured it had to be decent.
I ordered the Taco De Puerco: “three corn tortillas filled with chile roasted pork, chihuahua cheese and black beans, served with mexican style rice and avocado” for a recession-neglecting $14.25.