Eat the World NYC: Latin America

Showing posts with label Latin America. Show all posts

27 June 2022

Los Cuñados Mexican Prada

MÉXICO 🇲🇽

📍 195 Monroe Street, Passaic, New Jersey

EDITOR'S NOTE: I was originally working on a piece about this market and weekend barbacoa purveyor at the end of 2019 and as the pandemic began in 2020. It was going to be a bigger project to pitch to a local outlet because of the special nature of the place and people. As things ground to a halt and I eventually moved to Los Angeles in summer of that year, it obviously fell through the cracks. The restaurant is still operating and expanding, and should be part of your plans if it has not been already.

The first and most important thing you should know about eating barbacoa in the back room of this otherwise sleepy Passaic market is that like in the most popular spots in México, you need to plan on being here by mid-morning at the latest. Any later than that and the most coveted cuts of lamb have already been purchased by families who came closer to 06:00, just after the restaurant opens on Saturdays and Sundays.

Since barbacoa made right requires cooking overnight, it is a weekend morning tradition, and groups start filling tables here as soon as the sun is up (and before in winter). Lamb and goat barbacoa makes their way onto some menus in New York City and New Jersey, but more likely than not these preparations do not involve the proper rubs, high quality meats, and long slow cooking that make for the best. And that is of course why people are not lining up at those places like they are here.

The restaurant sells both lamb barbacoa and carnitas by the pound on weekends, orders of which are served with freshly made tortillas, salsas both red and green, limes, pickled peppers and onions, and cilantro. Many people take their booty home to share with family, but you can eat here just as easily if you are coming from far away.

It would be wise to include at least one bowl of consomé to an order, made from the overnight lamb fat drippings and fortified with chickpeas and many hearty bits of meat. Dunk your extra tortillas in this oily extravagance, going back and forth between self-prepared tacos de barbacoa and the consomé seems like the business of heaven.

You can also come for prepared tacos if you desire (below), without the commitment of pounds of meat. They make big tacos on their large fluffy homemade tortillas sold individually, perfect for anyone coming alone. These are available for both barbacoa and carnitas, and again if you come early enough you can select your preferred cuts of each.

The only negative comments that seem to be spoken about the restaurant are the relatively high prices, but the quality and care seem to brush these aside almost immediately for those that know the difference. The old phrase "you get what you pay for" is quite appropriate for a good meal here.

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Eat the World NYC is and always has been free. No advertisements block the content or pop over what you read. If this website has helped you explore your city and its wonderful cultures a little better and you have the means to contribute, please consider doing so. Eat the World NYC is a labor of love, but also takes a lot of money and time everyday to keep running.

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02 May 2021

Super Taco Deli & Restaurant

MÉXICO 🇲🇽

COVID-19 UPDATE: The restaurant has built a covered patio for outside dining, and has a more spacious indoor dining area than most Mexican restaurants in south Brooklyn.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Written by Joseph Gessert, photographed by Liv Dillon.

Like pizza, nachos are a dish found more often on menus stateside than in the country of their supposed origin. If legend (and Wikipedia) is correct, they were invented by a bordertown Mexican chef in 1940 and popularized in Texas and then the American Southwest.

But much like pizza and the Mission burrito, regardless of authenticity or lack thereof, nachos are really good, and have been part of the Mexican-American culinary lexicon for long enough they are also part of immigrant Mexican cooking in restaurants catering mostly to the Mexican community. While 7-11 has adapted nachos into a processed food horror of push-button EZ cheese, many taquerias have made their own improvements on the dish using Mexican meats and fresh ingredients.

Gravesend family business Super Taco makes a very nice nachos al pastor ($12, above). The cheese didn’t come out of a bag, and the composition is airy enough that the beans and pico de gallo do not leave the chips soggy. The pastor seasoning has, unusually, cloves, as well as chunks of fresh pineapple, and both are pleasantly surprising to find in a familiar dish. More than everything else, though, the freshly-fried chips make the dish, with the tortillas thick and holding up well amidst the onslaught of toppings. And yes, you can order a beer with your nachos here, and there is plenty of space to sit back and drink it.

A weekend pozole con puerco ($10, below) comes with two tostadas, with the tortillas again freshly-fried. The soup is mild, and the meat tender. The hominy has absorbed the soup’s flavor, and cooked into a very pleasing potato-like texture. The soup’s gentle flavor profiles are a good contrast to the fireworks of the nachos. This restraint of seasoning is true of many Mexican dishes with indigenous roots, and it is a beautiful thing to eat these two dishes together—one thousands of years old, the other barely eighty, both telling stories of immigration and adaptation and the many cultures that have influenced this continent.

📍 261 Kings Highway, Gravesend, Brooklyn

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Eat the World NYC is and always has been free. It is a hobby born of passion and never solicits money or free food from restaurants. No advertisements block the content or pop over what you read. If this website has helped you explore your city and its wonderful cultures a little better and you have the means to contribute, please consider doing so. Eat the World NYC is a labor of love, but also takes a lot of money and time everyday to keep running.

You can Venmo me @JAREDCOHEE, Cash App $JaredCohee, or click here to send PayPal donation, where no account is necessary. Thank you!

06 April 2021

Sin Dulce Bakery

MÉXICO 🇲🇽

COVID-19 UPDATE: The restaurant provides indoor dining and a brisk takeout business.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Written by Joseph Gessert, photographed by Liv Dillon.

Port Chester, the last town in West Chester before I-95 crosses over into Connecticut, is the most diverse town in the county. Its downtown has gone through a familiar pattern of abandonment, revitalization by immigrants, and modest gentrification.

Despite some fancier restaurants and a renovated warehouse building advertising luxury loft living, restaurants serving the immigrant community still proliferate. Mexican stalwart Sin Dulce sits within two blocks of restaurants serving food from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, El Salvador, Guatemala, and much more.

Tacos árabes ($4 each, above) are not from the trompo here, but worth a try regardless. Pork is cooked in a lemon juice marinade and served with chipotle salsa and sauteed onions in a flour tortilla. The citrus cuts very nicely through the salsa and onions, and the tortillas appear to be handmade.

A burrito de cabeza ($8.50, below) presents rich head meat that is well-balanced with the other components. Yes there is lettuce, but the protein dominates, and flavors are excellent. Other meat options include brain and ear, meats generally neglected at US Mexican restaurants but here doing a steady business.

After your meal you would be well-served to follow up on those protein options across the street at the La Placita supermarket. The meat counter offers a beautiful array of sausages, including multiple chorizos (all $5.99 a pound). The Mexican and Colombian varieties are more familar, and about what you would expect (spicy and fatty, respectively).

More unusual in US markets are the chorizo parrillero and chorizo uruguayo. Both are lighter-colored and more mildly-flavored than their northern counterparts. The parrillero is heavy on the herbs, while the uruguayo is more subtle, with garlic and maybe a little wine in the mix. Also on offer is an Argentinian morcilla (also $5.99 a pound), a blood and rice sausage that provides a very nice contrast of texture and flavor compared to its meat counter neighbors.

For both restaurants and market, Port Chester is well worth a stop the next time you’re driving north. Amidst the bland gentility of many of the surrounding communities, this one is a gem.

📍 146 North Main Street, Port Chester, Westchester County

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18 February 2021

El Divino Rostro

MÉXICO 🇲🇽
(BAJA CALIFORNIA)

COVID-19 UPDATE: Food trucks are perfect pandemic eating, with minimal human contact and no indoor dining.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Written by Joseph Gessert, photographed by Liv Dillon.

A handful of new taco trucks are springing up in south Brooklyn, and El Divino Rostro is the most exciting of them... so far. While their competitors share more or less the same menu, El Divino Rostro has taken note of the success of Jackson Heights/Williamsburg truck Birria-Landia and Bushwick’s Nene’s Deli Taqueria, and are specializing in stewed beef birria. This is a meat that has long been common in Los Angeles, popularized by the mini-empires Teddy’s Red Tacos and Birrieria Gonzalez, but is now (finally) becoming more readily available in New York City.

Tacos de birria de res ($2.50 each) are the classic preparation, with the stewed beef sitting atop tortillas that have been dunked in broth as well. Not only does this leave the tortilla red, but plates, hands, and napkins by the end of any meal. El Divino Rostro’s birria is fatty, rich, and nicely balanced, with none of the spices dominating any of the others. The "plain" taco is a good chance to try it on its own. The quesotaco ($3.50) takes this preparation a step further, melting cheese on the red tortilla before adding the meat. Both are best eaten with a side of cilantro-and-onion-specked consomé ($6) for dunking, leaving everything even more red and delicious. The consomé is ambitiously priced, but during a recent visit was offered for free in the context of a full dinner order. Drowned in the liquid was enough extra meat for two more tacos.

Also on the menu is the rarely-seen-in-NYC mulita, as well as more standard fare like tortas and tostadas. The burrito de birria de res ($9) is almost all meat, barely glazed with beans and rice, and cut with fresh onion and avocado. El Divino Rostro’s salsa roja packs a solid punch, and you definitely won’t go wrong giving the burrito a dip in the consome before adding the salsa. There are other meat options as well: chicken, steak, and chorizo. All are presumably worth a try during future visits.

As with so many NYC taquerias and Mexican food trucks, El Divino Rostro’s proprietors are from Puebla, but they have been quick studies in this traditionally Tijuanense dish. You will wonder, eating their birria, if the New York food scene could soon be home to more, for instance, Oaxaqueño restaurants. Or Yucateco. Regardless, this truck is a fantastic addition to local Mexican food offerings, and promises great things to come as the city opens up more vendor permits and reduces police involvement in ticketing street vendors.

After some issues with parking, El Divino Rostro has established a (hopefully) permanent location on 86th Street at the corner of 21st Avenue. They plan to be open every evening, with hours somewhat variable. You can call ahead before visiting (or to make an order for pickup or delivery) at (347) 866-7479.

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BENSONHURST Brooklyn

86th Street and 21st Avenue

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13 February 2021

Nueva Puerta del Sol

EL SALVADOR 🇸🇻

COVID-19 UPDATE: Puerta del Sol’s Bay Ridge Avenue location has tented outdoor dining, while Nueva Puerta del Sol on 18th Avenue is open for takeout and delivery only. You can order online directly from their website.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Written by Joseph Gessert, photographed by Liv Dillon.

The Salvadoran pupusa is one of those perfect foods like burritos or a Trinidadian roti wrap that combine a little bit of everything into one nutritious bundle. Some carbohydrates, a little protein, some vegetable, crafted to add up to more than the sum of their parts. These super foods are what hamburgers aspire to be, without the part afterwards where you go straight to bed in a cholesterol haze.

Nueva Puerta del Sol’s pupusa loca ($12, below) is an unusual dinner-plate-size version of the classic pupusa, and combines a little bit of all the normal fillings, and then some: refried beans, cheese, zucchini, spinach, carrot, chicharrón, and loroco, the Central American bud and flower that is common in Salvadoran cooking. The toppings are sandwiched in a thin masa pancake, and the pupusa is then grilled until brown. The cheese as usual melts nicely into a solid crust as it oozes out of the masa.

Though Puerta del Sol’s pupusa itself is novel primarily for its size and variety of its fillings, you might also find yourself with a higher-than-usual ratio of curtido-to-pupusa, with the crunch and tang of the pickled cabbage cutting nicely through the rich base. Top that with your dash of tomato salsa, and this is a pupusa to remember.

Besides pupusas, Puerta del Sol also offers a scattering of Mexican and Italian dishes, as well as a full menu of Salvadoran dishes. A tamal de elote con crema ($3, below) is a simple sweet corn tamal served with a side of rich crema. The sweet and savory contrast beautifully, and the straight-forwardness of the corn flavor stands out nicely next to the complex flavors of the pupusa.

Nueva Puerta del Sol is in a particularly vibrant section of diversifying 18th Avenue. On one corner handpulled noodles, on the other a great old Bensonhurst Italian bakery, Villabate Alba. Within blocks are hotpot restaurants, Malaysian, Thai, Guatemalan, Albanian, and much more.

This is one of the most interesting sections of Brooklyn, and Salvadoran cuisine is a welcome addition to the mix.

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BENSONHURST Brooklyn

7116 18th Avenue

Puerta del Sol:

1550 Bay Ridge Avenue

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31 December 2020

Juquilita Laundromat & Deli

🇲🇽 MÉXICO

Google Street View

COVID-19 UPDATE: Juquilita is takeout only, unless you are doing your laundry and wolf down a taco on the side. The tiny store can get crowded and the kitchen is often backlogged, so it is best to call in orders ahead of time, or go for a walk while your food is prepared.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Written by Joseph Gessert, photographed by Liv Dillon.

Mexican food in New York City did not hit its stride until the past decade or so, following an influx of immigrants from Puebla and other states driven by NAFTA’s destabilization of the Mexican economy. Being new immigrants to a high-rent city, would-be restaurateurs have been resourceful—much of the best Mexican food in New York is cooked behind the deli counters of bodegas-cum-taquerias.

Staten Island’s Juquilita Laundromat & Deli goes a step deeper into the pool of resourcefulness. It started life as a simple coin laundry, which spawned a grocery store, and now hosts a taco counter making some of the best burritos on the island.

New York burritos suffer in comparison to their West Coast counterparts in part because most locally-manufactured flour tortillas are not big enough to make a proper Mission-style burrito, and most taquerias are not doing enough burrito business to justify making their own flour tortillas. Juquilita sidesteps this handicap by overlapping two Banderita-brand tortillas in a Venn diagram of deliciousness.

It does not hurt that their carnitas are top-notch, or that they generally hit the sweet spot of bean/rice/meat proportion. In a busy kitchen the preparation can be uneven, but on a good day their carnitas burrito ($9, below) sings. Burrito puritans might raise their eyebrows at the lettuce, or the pickled jalapeños, but the sum effect is hefty and delicious. Please note that Juquilita does not have a salsa bar, and your green and red sauce will set you back an extra 50 cents a cup.

Beyond the burritos, Juquilita's menu is ever-expanding with hand-written addendums. A torta Hawaiana ($9, not shown) is sloppy in the best way, ham and melted Oaxacan quesillo anchoring a mess of chipotle, avocado, beans, and canned pineapple. If you do not like pizza with pineapple, this might still do the trick.

Tacos Aztecas ($10 for three) combine bistec with quesillo and grilled nopal. Other recent menu additions include a selection of Pueblan tacos placeros, and a few nods to the increasing number of non-Mexican customers from the neighborhood. A bacon egg and quesillo sandwich ($3.75, below) is served with avocado, grilled jalapenos, and a dash of mayonnaise. Another variant substitutes chorizo for the bacon. It’s great to see the Mexican ingredients dressing up a classic New York sandwich.

A New York City-Oaxaca mashup.

If you’re in a hurry there are often ready-made guisados simmering in pots back in the kitchen. A recent Saturday lunch yielded an exemplary red pipian with rice and beans ($7.50, below). Pipian in New York is often mild and liquid-y, but Juquilita’s iteration is thick with ground pumpkin seeds and very rich. Well worth a second order the next time it is available.

Besides laundry and tacos, Juquilita offers a full meat counter, fresh produce, and a remarkable selection of Mexican groceries jammed into a multi-pupose space. This could be the start of an epic North Shore Mexican food crawl: starting at Juquilita for pipian and a burrito, walking up Castleton to the excellent Oaxaca Pizzeria Deli & Taqueria for tacos de alambre and nachos con pico de gallo, and then staggering on to Port Richmond Avenue, the heart of Staten Island’s thriving Mexican community.

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WEST BRIGHTON Staten Island

343 Broadway

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04 August 2020

Cha Cha Cha Cuban Café

CUBA 🇨🇺

[COVID-19 UPDATE: As seen in the photo above, there are a few seats in front if you would like to enjoy your food, but Cha Cha Cha is doing primarily pickup and delivery service at the moment.]

Having never been here before restrictions were put into place for dine-in services, the joy and hospitality this room is most certainly full of cannot be independently confirmed. But even in these days opening the door is much more like stepping into the kitchen of a friend rather than a restaurant.

The staff is busy cooking and sorting lunch orders coming in on the phone and various apps, but never stops being friendly and accommodating, even apologizing that the indoor tables are unavailable when a takeout order is ready.

The cute interior can hopefully be enjoyed soon.

When the dining room is back open, it will be with great pleasure that a return visit will need to take place. Besides these good moods, the restaurant is full of cute reminders of Cuba (including bar stools made from real drums), great music, and artwork with scenes of home.

On this particular visit, food was being picked up for a trip down to the beach, but a few appetizers were necessary to take care of growling stomachs. This was a good opportunity to sit at a table in the front.

The plate above includes an empanada de pollo ($2.50, left) and an order of croquetas de hamon ($1.50, right, their spelling), along with two different types of mayo-based dipping sauces. The croquetas are fried to order and tasty, bites are rich with ham and pepper, and maybe a dash of nutmeg?

The empanadas are also fried in their Cuba renditions, but retain their moist meaty filling. You can also select them with picadillo, but this was full of shredded chicken. To be honest, neither of the snacks requires the sauces, each one full of its own spices that outshine the condiments.

After Florida, New Jersey saw the most migration from Cubans over the years and is no stranger to some of the best Cuban food around, including some very impressive cubanos. The cubano ($9.95, above, lunch price) at Cha Cha Cha checks all the right boxes: toasted right with the cheese oozing out, while the savory, sweet, and sourness of the ingredients all play off of each other perfectly.

When the pickle is allowed to dance and showcase itself like it is in this sandwich, happiness is usually quick to follow.

Amongst other dishes that are also available for lunch specials (Monday through Friday, 11:00-14:30) is the lovely ropa vieja ($10.95, above). This shredded and spiced flank steak is cooked in a savory creole sauce and also takes hints of sour from its olives.

For those that are fascinated by Latin American rices and how each country can create its own taste within them, you will not be disappointed by the ample portion here. Scoops of it with the black beans (both come with the ropa vieja) are enough to conjure up memories of sitting down at a restaurant right on the malecón. For now, the Jersey shore or some proximity to it, will have to suffice.

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KENILWORTH New Jersey
292 South Michigan Avenue

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22 June 2020

Cosina de Chencha

MÉXICO 🇲🇽
(OAXACA)

[COVID-19 UPDATE: The chairs are still on top of the tables as seen below, but Cosina de Chencha is still cranking out orders for delivery and pickup daily, which has always been their main source of business.]

As reported from New Brunswick last summer: "New Brunswick, New Jersey, a growing town of about 57,000 people is most known for Rutgers University and surrounding area that firmly place it in the image of a "college town." But not far outside of the university section and the city's downtown, roads stretching south and west reveal where the growth in population is coming from, and an almost magical area containing one of the densest concentrations of Oaxacans on the east coast."

The interior is in much better shape.

During warm months, and when there is not a pandemic, you will see pastries being sold on the sidewalk. Many of these are familiar to folks who frequent panaderias, but some have names that reveal them as Oaxacan specialties and are much more rare outside of New Brunswick.

Step inside the small dining room to take a look at the menu and see more Oaxacan favorites like the gigantic tlayuda (below), which is available with or without meat. The massive wrappers, imported from Oaxaca, are folded over all the ingredients, and at least for takeout, the whole thing is chopped in half. As always, it takes a bit of skill and luck to get everything into your mouth without losing some to your jeans.

Also of note are the rare masa triangles from Oaxaca called tetelas ($2 each, above and below), antojitos that are filled with beans and cheese. These are satisfying snacks and always available.

The sad lonely tetela pictured here was a mistake, as he definitely deserves to have many friends. Purchase these by the dozen!

One of those baked goods you may find on the sidewalk when passing during better days is the empanada de lechesilla ($2.75, above and below), dusted with sugar and filled with a vanilla cream.

A set amount of these are made each day, and if lucky they will still be warm when you find them. On those days, place them directly into your mouth and enjoy.

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NEW BRUNSWICK New Jersey
333 Suydam Street

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05 March 2020

El Buen Chapin Deli

GUATEMALA 🇬🇹

The Guatemalan offerings at this address have went through quite a transformation over the past year. After the old flower shop went out of business in early 2018, the shop eventually became somewhat of a corner store for Central Americans despite its mid-block location. It had some trinkets and a few groceries, but seemed to be mostly used for people to send remittances and otherwise back home.

Eventually a sign showed up outside with the simple offer of chuchitos, the wrapped-and-steamed masa delights very similar to Mexican-style tamales. With a crisp new Guatemalan flag in the window and no other outward facing signage, it was hard to resist coming in to check it out.

El Buen Chapin Deli is continuing the story of the Central Americanization of Sunset Park, and surpasses Karen Deli in the southern reaches of the neighborhood as the strongest presence for the country.

Even back before the new steam table opened, the shop was selling some packaged baked goods, national team jerseys, colorful tradition dresses and pants and a hodgepodge of other pantry products.

Before this year, the woman running the shop would have to leave her envios booth and open up the big Coleman cooler that had the foil-wrapped chuchitos (above, one unwrapped) sold individually. On the first attempt it was noticed that they would be gone not much after noon.

Chuchitos are still made almost daily, but now a rotating steam table is on offer and has taken command of the interior. Two tables offer four seats each and depending on when you arrive finding a seat could be difficult. Plan to make some friends at any rate, as you will probably share a table once you do sit down.

Most dishes besides soups will come with a hearty portion of rice and beans and two fluffy homemade Guatemalan-style corn tortillas for $10. On the first time coming to the steam table, the woman smiled and asked "Conoces la comida guatemalteca?" very confidently. It was nice to hear a specificity of cuisine, a sort of pride that references back to the name of the place.

On some days you might find chiles rellenos (above and below), very thin peppers stuffed with ground beef and vegetables. Each one is dipped in a flour and egg batter before frying. The dish is quite mild but they have a good green salsa available if you need it.

As mentioned, like most dishes this comes served over their very good rice and black beans. It is an enjoyable and filling dish, exactly the type of meal many other customers are looking for before or after their day of work.

The restaurant is everything you might expect and want from a workaday place. A dry erase board is out front daily with the selections available inside, but you will see everyone take a look at the offerings before deciding. The kitchen staff are happy to remove lids and offer views of each dish.

On one recent visit, a simple sopa de pollo ($10, above) was enjoyed. Filled with potatoes and chayote, the extremely large chunks of on-the-bone chicken are actually difficult to handle with the plastic silverware. By the end the tortillas came in handy to hold meats and keep juices from splashing.

A bit of a surprise in execution was the pepián de gallina ($10, below), a hen stew that is served with a really rich sauce that almost has the thickness and likeness of a mole. One of the most famous Mayan dishes still loved today is done really well here, although the bony bits of hen are almost an afterthought. Bites of the rice and pepián were the real winners.

Tablecloth.

The store still seems to do the tasks it used to, and some come in for medicines or other reasons, but now someone will have to leave the kitchen to attend to these needs in the front. The back of the shop and its daily prepared foods are clearly the focus nowadays.

The shelves seem to get more stocked with each visit, including many universal products and some Guatemalan things like Pollo Campero-branded ketchup, something every fridge needs. You will also find packaged bakery items from a famous place in Philadelphia as well as fresh baked goods in a case from a local baker. A true one stop shop.

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SUNSET PARK Brooklyn

3915 5th Avenue

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25 February 2020

Café con Pan Bakery II

MÉXICO 🇲🇽

In the world of chain operations, Café con Pan is the type the city needs. This location is the second of three, a company that originated in Sunset Park, Brooklyn about ten years ago but has spread to two spots in Staten Island since. Currently in its sixth year of business, this panaderia and pasteleria makes a lot more than baked goods and sweets.

Café con Pan exists at a really exciting time on Port Richmond Avenue in Elm Park, a stretch that gets more and more interesting with every visit. Its many tables might not seem busy at most times, but in just a few minutes you realize it is a very active place. People are in and out quickly, grabbing sweet breads or tamales and tortas mostly for takeout.

In the dining area, those chairs and tables are all so colorful, each painted differently with scenes from rural life mixed in with cathedrals, horses, and men playing music around a fire. The barstools each have a scene from a movie. The bar is loaded up with alcohol, but early in the day at least it does not see much action.

While deciding what to get, the large family that had come in just before went straight for the tongs to grab pan dulce. To make a lunch decision easier, a danish and coffee was ordered to follow suit and give a bit more time. The shop has a logo that looks a lot like this order, so it confirmed it was a proper first move.

Café con pan.

If you grab a menu, you get a sense of the massive amount of cooking the place does in addition to their many racks of breads, cakes, and cookies. A full range of antojitos as well as soups and weekend special exist alongside the torta section, which is 30 deep!

Two tamales ($2 each, below) started this meal, of which the rajas con queso was the winner. Plenty of cheese worked well to smooth the masa and keep it moist, something the verde was lacking.

Tamal verde de pollo/tamal de rajas con queso

Conchas

A few of many cookies

As other families had come in to request custom cakes for future parties, the next course of this meal was decided to be the pozole con 2 tostadas ($12, below). This pork and hominy soup was deeper and richer than usual with ample amounts of oregano and rosemary. The tender meat was delicious. The only thing missing was some ground red pepper, which does not appear to be available to spice up the soup.

The two tostadas come completely plain except for a squirt of crema on top. This is a bit different than most restaurants around town, which serve a more "complete" tostada with beans, lettuce, and cheese as well alongside the soup. This allows you to combine bites easier and eat them with the pozole rather than simply as a side.

When it was finally time to attack that list of tortas, the torta mixta ($11, below) won the lottery, a sandwich packed with three meats (chicken tinga, bacon, and ham) as well as two types of cheese, beans, lettuce, avocado, and jalapeño. All of these ingredients were excellent.

What held it back, somewhat surprisingly for the setting, was the bread. It appeared as if the bread was once good, but was it old now and reheated, possibly in a microwave? While this was disappointing, surely a next time would have fresh bread?

The torta should not be written off just by one attempt. If you have had an experience good or bad, please let everyone know in the comments, and of course the article will be updated when another torta is eaten soon.

Or will it be that chipotle torta burger full of quesillo they advertise?

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ELM PARK Staten Island

137 Port Richmond Avenue

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