Scarlett Lindeman

It took full, active engagement of the servers' biceps to lower the cochinita pibil onto the table. The pibil, an entire pork shoulder slow-roasted and burnished with achiote, the caramelized crust glistening with its own juices, was a hefty platter.

The commanding centerpiece is now being offered at Roberto Santibañez's two locations of Fonda , his Mexican restaurants in Park Slope and the East Village, along with a parade of other dishes eaten family-style, a true feast ($35 a person).

More »

Brisket taco drenched with toppings

Many people have been comparing the Flatiron's new Tres Carnes to the fast-casual model of Chipotle, with its assembly-line and infinitely customizable tacos and burritos. But a more astute comparison lies eight blocks South, at Dos Toros, which has brought in Mexican flavors by way of San Francisco while Tres Carnes pulls its from Austin. Similar to Dos Toros, the young entrepreneurs behind Tres Carnes have built a dining space as streamlined as their menu, and offer carefully chosen meats, house-made salsas, and agua frescas that contain actual fruit. The Tres Carnes approach is to put a long-smoked, Texas-style BBQ spin on the Mexican basics.

They've got Mike Rodriguez, a pit master who spent years tending the smokehouse at Salt Lick in Driftwood, Texas, shepherding their proteins -- which is a little like bringing in Richard Serra to teach your kid's 5th-grade sculpting class.

More »

Scarlett Lindeman

Among the cans of Sprite and bottles of Jarritos at Mexican bodegas, restaurants, and grocery-with-a-taqueria-in-back hybrids throughout the city, there may be the occasional can of pulque ($2-$2.50) on the shelf, an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented sap of the maguey plant. Without fizz but with a bit of froth and a pleasantly sweet flavor, pulque's milky hue might be confused with coconut water. The ancient Mesoamerican technique of harvesting the maguey sap and turning it into various drinkable wonders (it's the same starting liquid that eventually becomes tequila and mezcal) has followed a winding trajectory over the years.

More »

Ericka Martins

Of the coterie of taco trucks that line Roosevelt Avenue from Woodside to Corona, El Gallo Giro is one of the most popular. It's a cart that only comes out at night to haunt the block with the aroma of searing meats and plumes of well-seasoned smoke. The cooks' dexterity on the flat-top griddle is well-known among those who dine frequently underneath the 7 train; their hand with heat, pressure, and a nimble spatula conjures the best from meat applied to hot metal. From dusk until dawn they feed the hungry, the drunk, and even some of the early morning commuters who know just how well a lengua quesadilla goes with drip coffee.

More »

Scarlett Lindeman

Sipping pechuga at Cariño

Recently, tequila has been sharing shelf space with more interesting agave-based alcohols. At bars around the city, artisanal mezcal, bacanora, and pulque are catching the eye of those serious drinkers on the lookout for a novel taste. But pechuga, a style of mezcal from Oaxaca, is by far the most idiosyncratic of the bunch.

Pechuga de pollo starts as small-batch mezcal. The hearts of the agave plant, the piñas, are pit-roasted, crushed to pulp by mule-drawn stone mills, open-fermented, then distilled multiple times. Here the path diverges. During the final distillation a raw chicken or turkey breast -- a "pechuga"-- is suspended above the rising distillation vapors, slowly cooking and infusing the atmosphere. And the poultry is just one addition. Local fruits like quince and plum are added to the pot, along with nuts and grains, a melange of flavors that some pechuga drinkers swear they can detect when sipping.

More »

Scarlett Lindeman

El Tenampa's tacos (left to right): panza negra, carne enchilada, panza blanca

Out on 21st Street in Brooklyn, in the neighborhood that real-estate agents like to call the South Slope but is really Greenwood Heights, is El Tenampa, a large Mexican grocery store with a restaurant in the back. It's a fluorescently lit boxy space where the tortillas are appropriately pliable with lard and the spicy shrimp-laden soup, caldo de camaron, is served in plastic pint containers.

More »

Scarlett Lindeman

While seasonal foodie rapture over ramps and fiddlehead ferns is starting up, there's another vegetable that's also having a moment--and is even harder to find. Huazontle, a sturdy edible weed from Mexico that you won't find in farmers markets, remains even more elusive. The leafy green branches hold out clumps of tiny buds, much like the tight beads of broccoli florets. Though huazontle has been popping up in Mexican markets all over the city recently, the plant is somewhat cumbersome to prepare and tricky to eat, so it is still rare to find it served in restaurants.

More »

Scarlett Lindeman

The press has been fawning over Salvation Taco, April Bloomfield and Ken Friedman's Mexican-inspired bar in Murray Hill, ever since it opened two months ago, and for good reason--the Bloomfield-ian touches, like lamb on naan, pineapple and pork belly salads, and deep fried pigs ears, a panoply of crunch and chew, are addictive.

But the overriding giddiness has coasted over the failings, most evident in the three tortas that anchor the lunch menu.

More »

Scarlett Lindeman

Those who have tasted a good bowl of birria, the Mexican soup from Jalisco made from toasted chiles and roasted goat, know it's a soup that inspires a rapture more consuming than what tweens feel for Justin Bieber.

In Los Angeles there are entire restaurants dedicated to birria -- the soft simmering of the broth, the cleavers to hack the goat into bowl-size portions on ancient wooden cutting boards, and handmade tortillas to form makeshift tacos to dunk into the ruddy, amplified broth.

More »