2008 December « WeCouldEat @ the GrubHub

Not the Old El Paso

December 16, 2008 — wecouldeat

El Paso Taqueria
1642 Lexington Avenue (104)
(Also on 97th and 116th Streets)

El Paso Taqueria is a great mini-chain of Mexican cafes in East Harlem. We visited the one on 104th street and found a nicely decorated, cozy place that exceeded our expectations. The food is authentic (at least as far as we know), the service is fine and the menu has two pages of deliciousness. It has the standard tacos and burritos, as well as sandwiches and more sophisticated entrees. We had the regular nachos which were pretty tasty – although not as good as Noche Mexicano’s – according to El Spud. For entrees I had two soft tacos AND a chicken cemita, which was new to me. According to their site, it’s a “Puebla style Sesame seed bread, with Oaxaca cheese, avocado, papalo, onions and adobo chipotle chile”. It was a solid sandwich with some really spicy chiles mixed in. The wifester had Carne Al Pastor: marinated pork with onions and pineapple. Everything was very good and very reasonable. It was one step up from the dive-y Mexican places that only speak Spanish or Spanglish. This place really tries to be a full service restaurant and is succeeding quite well. We would love an El Paso Taqueria in our neighborhood. We would be regulars after about a week.

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Nothing Mal About It

December 1, 2008 — wecouldeat

Malecon
746 Amsterdam Ave (97/98)
(and several other locations)

I used to live 6 blocks from Malecon and passed it every single day for years, but never tried it. I heard many good things about it, but for some reason never got there. Now, almost 4 years later, I finally got there, thanks to Mr. Headphones, and was not at all disappointed.

Malecon reeks of authenticity. It has all the tell-tale signs: minimal decor, staff with broken English, and a no frills menu with loosely-translated English. The portions are enormous. We had the sensational soupy rice with chicken that arrives in a large bubbling cauldron of goodness. It was a cold day, so the bowl after bowl of soothing chicken and rice soup warmed our bellies. The large mound of mofongo was equally tasty as the mild mashed plantains bonded with chicken and garlic. Of course we had to have yuca and tostones (both good) to round out the experience.

I usually do not eat desserts at this type of ethnic eatery, as they are usually flan or basic ice creams, but the two we tried were great. The chocolate cake was good, standard cake that was not dry and had a good ratio of cake to icing. The tres leches cake was outstanding however. It was super moist with the creaminess almost overpowering the cake, yet still retaining its form. It was fantastic, and I was already plenty stuffed from our other dishes.

The moral here is not to overlook those neighborhood places that you pass by daily. You might find a mofongo in the rough. After a week I am already longing for a return visit to Malecon and all its deliciousness, so I know it deserves a big fat golden bonzone.