East Harlem Taco Tour

Mother's Day is such an arbitrary holiday. I really despise it. Along with Father's Day, Valentine's Day, Grandparents' Day, and any other day that forces you to appreciate family members or loved ones. Truly, one should appreciate them all the time. Restaurants, flower shops, candy stores and retail in general reap the benefits of these ridiculous commemorations. Maybe people look at me with particular curiosity when I tell them that I'm not doing anything for Valentine's Day. In fact, two years ago, I spent Valentine's Day with Rohit and my parents, enjoying a wonderful meal of duck breast at home in Chelsea. It was damn good.

But this Mother's Day, I did do something with mummy dearest. She biked up to Harlem and I took her on an East Harlem Taco Tour. Spanish Harlem, is really more Mexican Harlem. There is an abundance of taquerias, food trucks and grocery stores that cater to the homesick Mexican or simply anyone who craves a real, honest to goodness taco or gordita. (And no, it's nothing like Taco Bell).

We started at the El Paso Taco Truck. Our food blog guides had told us about the lengua, which, yes, means tongue. I wasn't intrigued, but we tried it nonetheless. Mom said I was doing "kanna ruchi" but truly, I didn't like the smoky texture of the meat. I made her eat most of it. She claimed she wanted to save herself for the rest of the samples, but I know she didn't like it either, since when something is good, we eat all of it without complaint or excuse. Then we headed to a few of the little supermarkets along 116th street. The pork taco tasted strangely like the lengua, so I was rather put-off, but we journeyed onward. At Taco Mix, we tried the famous al pastor and when we saw that they had huaraches, we couldn't help ourselves. Into the bottomless pits they tumbled. The Taco Mix al pastor was certainly the best of the lot and I will certainly be back there at some point soon. Huarache, however, is best left to the ball-fields folk. Mom introduced me to some Mexican-style FrozFruits, in a chickoo-like flavor and one with mango and chillies! The latter was exceptional. We decided to leave East Harlem and all its Little Mexican glory and head to W 116th street to share a red velvet cupcake from Make My Cake. Finishing up the afternoon with a visit to the Studio Museum of Harlem made this the perfect Day with my Mother.