Tehuitzingo Deli and Grocery (Manhattan, New York)

I've been craving Mexican for weeks now, and hadn't had the opportunity to satisfy the craving until today. Living in New York, its tough to find good Mexican food. Even simple taquerias are hard to come by, let alone places that specialize in the food of a particular region, or dish.

New Yorkers and their sympathizers will quickly point out that great Mexican exists in the south Bronx, central Queens, and certain neighborhoods of Brooklyn. I simply haven't had the time to make out to any of these neighborhoods yet.

The food blog Midtown Lunch alerted me to a grocery/taqueria on Tenth Ave. not far from where I work in Midtown. Heeding the call, I took a walk over on a beautiful afternoon and found a small, somewhat cramped place with a small kitchen in the back and a decent amount of seating. I ordered a chicken torta and barbacoa de chivo taco. Both were better than serviceable, and truly a godsend in Midtown, and even all of Manhattan. The best part of the torta was a well griddled, and not overly bready, bollilo. The tortillas on the taco were similarly well griddled, though the the chivo did not hit the fatty, juicy, unctuous notes that I expect from proper steamed goat. Table salsas could have been spicier, but I was quite happy with the large jar of picked jalapenos and habanero yucateco available to the patrons.

Washed everything down with two beers - Bohemia and Dos Equis. I grabbed a frosty Victoria from the fridge first, and one of the store-hands quickly warned me that a single bottle costs $7. The friendly counter-guy informed me that the stuff was "imported illegally", presumably from Chicago or somewhere similar, where entire 6-packs of Victoria cost a mere $12.99 or so. (Anyone want to start running Victoria from Chicago to NYC with me?)

Worth noting - the menu is fairly expansive, and included things like lengua, cecina and chicharon, as well as a few oddities that I will have to try sometime like goat tripe. A "tacos de dia" board advertised cachete de res, which I wish I had noticed before ordering. Maybe I'll go back for dinner. Afterwards, I took a quick nap on a park bench in the sun. For an hour or so today, I felt like I was back in Chicago.

Tehuitzingo Deli and Grocery
695 10th Ave(between 47th St & 48th St)
212-397-5956

*edited numerous times for grammar, etc.

If last week I felt like I was in Chicago, today's trip to Tehuitzingo made me feel squarely in midtown Manhattan. Cramped space filled with goons in suits, lifeless tacos, stale, gummy tortillas. Especially egregious were the "day's special" cachete tacos (the specials board looks like it hasnt changed since last week). Stringy beef devoid of all flavor except for a distinct, rancid offal tang. Chicken tacos were marginally better, the goya sazon saved them. Goat barbacoa resembled chipotle at its worst. Goat tripe nowhere to be found.

Perhaps this place has on and off days. Today was definitely off, but even last week, it was only adequate at best. Proprietors remain friendly, beer is ice cold. I'll give it one more go but it doesnt look good.

For me, a depressing thing about NYC tacos is the expectation-meeting and nearly uniform presence of chicken, fish, lettuce, tomato, and sour cream. I recognize that plenty of places in Chicago offer much of this stuff (and lettuce/crema has its place, not on tacos), but the chicken option seems especially standard in NY while its really not part of the baseline in most "real" taquerias here, LA, much of Mexico, etc. Like many, I'd like to see more good fish tacos here. But that's a specialty item and needs to be done right. I can't yet shake the impression that, no matter how authentic the people running Mexican joints in NYC, they feel the need to address the local apartment-dwellers' nostalgia for their spring break trip to Cabo.

I've done a complete 180 on Tehuitzingo. Outside of Sunset Park and the S. Bronx, this is some of the best taqueria fare in NYC, if you know what to order.

Tortas de cecina were perfectly prepared - griddled, well-charred preserved beef, fresh avocado, squishy oaxaca cheese, a smear of beans, pickled jalapenos and restrained use of mayonesa, all on a fresh bolillo. Cheap beers are available in the deli section and the house green and red salsas are brilliant.

Avoid most other meat offerings, with the exception of the chorizo/papas and maybe the tripa. Quesadilla with canned huitlacoche wasn't bad either.

But that cecina torta, man. Good stuff.