Crema - January 29, 2011

A problem that has been ruminated, chewed over and cogitated in my mind – a real food for thought – is this: What is an haute cuisine in terms of Mexican food? Haute cuisine is as much a matter of the ingredients as well as the techniques. For French, it is obvious as the guideposts are clearly marked: Foie gras, truffle, Michelin stars (not that I agree with them, but) and the Le Cordon Bleu. But when it comes to Mexican food, I not only lack the knowledge, but also my Virgil, to navigate through a rather unfamiliar territory. Physically locked in a city devoid of good Mexican restaurants – low or high – with minor exceptions, my food for thought seems to have ample time to be thoroughly ruminated indeed. Nonetheless, if no haute cuisine, at least I can try nuevo Mexican fares to see what Mexican chefs can do in this island of bad avocados and dirty snow.

Toloache - December 26, 2010

I thought Mexican was dead; Mexican was dead as long as New York was concerned. I have long stopped trying to find a reasonable answer as to the dearth of authentic restaurants of certain cuisines – be it Italian, Peruvian or Mexican – despite the prominent immigrant population. Generally, there exists a correlation between influx of immigrants and the development of that particular type of cuisine in the receiving nation: For example, there was a flood of Italian immigrants to Argentina around the turn of the twentieth century; therefore, there are many good Italian restaurants in Argentina. However, this rule of thumb seems to have failed in New York. Where do Mexican people in New York eat? Admittedly, there are only less than a quarter million Mexican immigrants in the New York area, but they still have to eat, do they not? Finally finding a new Mexican restaurant worth trying, of all the 365 days in a year, I had to venture out on the day when New York stood still in the blizzard. My stomach really rules.

Hecho en Dumbo - December 19, 2010

On a cold night wandering around Lower East Side, this rather quaint place seemed like an interesting candidate to be my true and real Mexican restaurant. I took a picture of the menu for later careful perusal. Once snugly tucked in on my couch, the menu did not seem as promising, and thus, the venue did not present sufficient evidence for further pursuit. Another case closed. However, many months later, this restaurant resurfaced on the radar screen upon a strong recommendation. Hello again. Shall I give it a go this time? Missed-fish always seems bigger (Japanese proverb). Perhaps the timing was not right the first time around; but maybe, just maybe, there was a reason that we had met again. Although the restaurant was not “missed,” when you hear someone else describe it, sometimes it sounds better, doesn’t it?

Super Tacos Truck - November 6, 2010

"Sure, try it while I am away on a business trip" was the usual banter when my co-habitant and I used to pass by this truck; the underlying implication being "suffer the ignominious consequences in the bathroom gracefully in one's own solitude, in privacy and without undue and unwelcome obstruction."  Years later, prodded by favorable reviews and the emergence of food truck as the pre-eminent gastronomic destination, one night after dinner at Il Matto, with our stomachs three-fourths full - the pleasant dining experience leaving us in a semi-contented mood - rather than despondent one-quarter empty, we decided to give the truck its due examination.