I can do without the Tex in Tex-Mex. No cheese or cumin for me, please. I want plump little corn tacos with a choice of fillings that runs halfway down the page–not because I really want to order the brain or eyeball tacos, mind, but because I find their presence reassuring.

My favorite taco filling is cecina, and lately I’ve been eating entirely too much of the salty meat, crammed into a double thickness of corn tortillas. Cecina is thin sheets of beef, salted and left to dry in the sun, before being browned in a hot pan and used somewhat like a minute steak. Except you’ve never tasted a minute steak with such richness of flavor. (You can see a photo of cecina, as well as photos of a Mexican carnicería, here.)

I get my tacos from Tacos Nuevo Mexico down the road. Despite the restaurant’s lurid greenness–I’m not sure who decided that green fluorescent lighting over green plastic chairs would make for an inviting ambience–I come here maybe once a week for the best tacos I’ve ever found in New York City. (I feel reasonably well-equipped to identify good tacos, having spent part of my childhood near Baja California.)

To me, a good taco has a minimum of “fixin’s”. It’s not about the guacamole, pico de gallo, sour cream or grated cheese: these are distractions and make one taco taste very like another. I want to taste my taco filling upfront, spiked with a handful of chopped onion, a sprinkling of cilantro and very little else. I don’t expect everyone to share my minimalist taco fervor, but if you’d like to try a taco filling that can stand up to scrutiny, minus the usual avalanche of sauces, go to Tacos Nuevo Mexico. (Their carnitas are excellent, too. I would stay away from the goat tacos, though, unless you happen to like strangely hairy-tasting meat peppered with little splinters of bone.)

I wish people would stop eating at Bonita, with its mealy corn, watery sangria and utterly indifferent tacos/enchiladas/burritos. But Bonita has a prime location on Bedford Avenue, a decor that is not overwhelmingly green, and, let’s face it, an exceedingly attractive hipster clientele. Bonita worshippers, you don’t know what you’re missing.

Tacos Nuevo Mexico
489 5th Ave, Brooklyn
(Between 11th & 12th Sts)
718-832-0050

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