Tacos Frontera on Highway 6.
Texas Monthly wrote about a "Tijuana Style" taqueria here in Houston.
Showing posts with label Tacos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tacos. Show all posts
May 25, 2024
January 1, 2024
South of the Border (But North of Houston)
Porter, Texas.
Friend Allen had given me a heads up about a wonderful food truck court up in Porter off of FM 1314, Check out the variety of offerings. Pictures worth a thousand words, right?
October 1, 2023
Comalito HTX in the Airline Farmer's Market Complex
I came away thinking, “I don’t want to eat Mexican food anywhere else from now on in Houston.” I would normally wait several months before trying out or commenting on a restaurant that had just opened. To allow them time for new restaurant growing pains.
But everything about today’s meal was very good. Perfectly CDMX to be specific. Because of family, I have been traveling in Mexico for over 50 years. Our family friends live in Mexico City, a.k.a..CDMX. And you can imagine just how many meals I have enjoyed in that wonderful city.
My tacos were bistec. This is a good taco to gauge a place by. Because in Mexico where there is such intense competition between the different Taquerias and price cutting is common you can go the full range of very tough and gristle-y ones to very tender ones. My taco today was as tender and perfect as it gets. And the sauces that came with it were excellent. in addition, I ordered some thing that is typical of CDMX But not as common up here. And that is the.”costra”, or, chicharrón de queso. A thin slice of cheese is grilled and then rolled into a crunchy deliciousness. And theirs was about as good as it gets.
The mushroom soup was excellent. In style of the La Marquesa area on the way to Toluca. Mushrooms, stock, onion, garlic, and strips of guajillo chiles. Perfect.
I’d skip the tortilla soup as it was more like a thick chile puree gravy than a soup. Not recommended.
But definitely try the flan. I saw, but did not sample, their churros, which looked perfectly made.
Tortillas. They use several special types of corn to nixtamalize. It's one of the things that they feature. The tortillas are good, but dry. They could be softer and more flexible. But the tortillera making them does have the technique down to make them puff up. You typically need two-three different heat zones so you can move the tortillas from a lower temperature area to a higher temperature area. I've had tortillas in Oaxaca and Puebla that were so soft and pliable that you'd swear they were flour tortillas. But here at Comalito, that is not the case. These are harder and drier tortillas, still within the tortilla spectrum but not to my liking.The sign that a tortillera knows her stuff is when you watch the tortilla release its interior steam and puff up. You have to properly sear it, flip several times, do some heat transfers, and then know precisely when to give it a press to cause it to inflate. .
February 7, 2023
Tacos - Tacos in Houston - An Ann Nava Discovery
Houston Chowhound member, Ann Nava, put together a list with links, recommendations from various sources for tacos in Houston. A pretty exhaustive list actually, and a job very well done. Thanks, Ann!
Links to Top Taco Lists in Houston (2022-2023)
25 top taco spots in Houston area
Foursquare - 15 Best Fish Tacos
Foursquare-15 Best Places -Tacos on Washington Avenue
Foursquare - 15 Best Fish Tacos
Foursquare-15 Best Places -Tacos on Washington Avenue
February 6, 2023
Carnitas - A John Nechman Discovery
Carnitas. Where one cooks down chunks of pork with their fat. The fat comes out, just like you’ve probably observed when frying bacon, and meat continues to fry in its own fat.
John found a place on Airline for carnitas, in that complex of flea markets just before West Mount Houston and writes:
“. The best carnitas I’ve ever eaten were prepared by Mama Ninfa herself for my family and me when we were kids. I’ve been on the search for any that can compare ever since. On rare occasions, I found some fairly close—San Antonio’s Carnitas Lonja and Don Raul’s, Carnitas Qerétaro in El Paso, and in Laredo, Carnitas Uruapán comes to mind. But I haven’t found any others at that level in Houston, including at Ninfa’s (the secret must’ve died with Mama!). Diego’s Famous Carnitas on Veterans Memorial and Gerardo’s in the North End are pretty reliable.
“And then Saturday, we continued our trek to try the only taco spots on the Chronicle’s recent Top 25 Tacos in Houston list ( https://www.houstonchronicle.com/projects/2023/best-taco-spots-in-houston-area/ ), which let us to the busy Sunny Flea Market on Airline. I’ve often stopped here for the spectacular tacos at Taquería 4 Hermanos, but this time, we went in search of a place called Que Tacote (8705 Airline). And at this sweet little family-run stand, we found the best carnitas tacos I’ve had in Houston. Not as good as Mama Ninfa's carnitas, but for flavor and flair, these come the closest in this area.
“Look for the stand in about the midpoint of the market. It consists of one section that makes fresh churros, which are also excellent, and then the main attraction, which is all about the pork! The massive chunks of succulent pig are braised in lard and finally chopped, with huge portions stuffed into fresh tortillas. You can go pura carne, or add-in any of the skin and organ meats that you find to your liking. Whatever you do, make sure to ask for a hearty sprinkle of the fresh crackling chicharrón, and don’t forget the all important cebolla y cilantro, as well as some caramelized cebollas, too. And try all of the five amazing sauces, but beware—a few of them should come with a fire extinguisher!
“The only problem with this stand is that it’s only open on Saturday and Sunday when the market is open. It will be painful trying to overcome mid-week cravings for these amazing tacos, waiting for the weekend to arrive.“
January 25, 2023
Puffy Crispy Tacos at Doña María on Navigation
This Houston institution slipped by me. I’d never been. I knew that it was historically significant to the max. On previous attempts, it was always too crowded. “Next time”, I would say. But recently, having seen a photo of their puffy taco, I knew that it was a “must”.
Damn, that puffy taco plate was good. The rice and beans that accompanied it were great. As were the tacos. Crunchy. Not those softer, chewier, thick masa ones that SA is known for. A tad thicker than the ones at the (now closed) beloved Fiesta Loma Linda.
And, I saw that caldo de menudo is a daily feature. Not just on weekends.
This is a breakfast and lunch place. It closes at 2:00 pm.
Adán Medrano, culinary historian and author of two superb books on the cuisine of Mexicano cuisine in Texas, wrote the following for The Houston Press, part of articles he did as he explored Mexican restaurants on Navigation. Here is a link to the Houston Press article:
The Houston Press - Adán Medrano
Both of Adán's books are available at the River Oaks Bookstore and also online from Amazon (support local businesses as your first priority though)
He wrote:
"Doña María Mexican Café serves the type of breakfast tacos that are at the heart of traditional Mexican American home cooking. The cafe is one in a six-cluster of restaurants on Navigation that reveal the original, indigenous culinary traditions of Houston.
Taco choices include scrambled eggs with either chorizo, potato, chicharrón (bits of pork skin), or with country sausage, all of them cooked to order, à la minute. A delicious option for any of the tacos is to add pinto beans cooked in the traditional way, mashed and pan-roasted with very little oil, if any. As for me, I’m hopelessly in love with the straightforward combination of scrambled eggs and pinto beans, just a little salt. Why gild the lily?
The menu offers full breakfast plates like the familiar and well-executed huevos rancheros and eggs a la Mexicana with diced fresh jalapeño, but also the lesser known machacado con huevo, this last one truly a core tradition. Machacado is made with meat that has been salted and air-dried, a technique employed for centuries in Texas, salt being central to Native American cooking. It was first employed because it was necessary for food preservation, but today it’s the flavor appeal that keeps the technique a constant one.
My dad and most of his generation dried venison and also beef. He sliced it as thin as paper, cut it into large sheets (sábanas) then salted and air-dried it. To make machacado from these sheets, they are pounded on a mortar, crushed into strands, like thin threads. “Machacar” means to crush. Then the strands are scrambled with eggs, sometimes adding a trio of diced green chile, onions and tomato. The breakfast machado plate is served with traditional mashed pinto beans, cubed potatoes, and a side of tortillas. It’s a favorite of the regulars at Doña María and if you’ve never tried it, go ahead and step into the welcoming world of Texas Mexican cooking. “It’s a corner of culture,” says Anna Hernandez, who owns the restaurant with her husband, Juan. To Anna and Juan, culture means hospitality, the welcoming context that all home cooking has in common, in every part of the world. Dr. Alston Thoms, Professor of Anthropology at Texas A&M, explains that the Karankawa and Atakapa people who flourished in Houston for 2,000 years until the conquest were all groups of families. “The sense of family and community is decidedly indigenous,” he adds. At Doña María there’s a non-clubby family feeling to the small frame house that seats 50.
Doña María was founded in 1988 by María Piñeda (hence the restaurant name) and in 2005, Anna and Juan took over the business, keeping some of the recipes but replacing many with those of Anna’s family. Anna is from Houston and Juan is from Mercedes in the Rio Grande Valley, so their menu is 100 percent comida casera, home-cooking, of Texas Mexican American families.
Picadillo and fideo are prime examples of this unique cuisine. Picadillo is ground beef stewed with onions, carrots, bell pepper, potatoes, and seasoned with a trinity of spices unique to Texas Mexican cooking, the combination of garlic, black pepper and cumin. Order that, and I’m back home, with mom and impish siblings.The production secret for delivering such good-tasting picadillo without fail is the expert kitchen staff that Anna hires. The sous-chef is Ever Ochoa. She is skilled in making mole and other sauces, and she heads the cooking line. “Es puro sabor casero,” Ever says, the flavor is pure home-cooking.
Fideo is another dish that is iconic in the Mexican food of Texas. Vermicelli pasta is first pan-roasted to acquire color, then boiled with tomato, onion and seasonings. Chef Ochoa adds a large slice of chicken breast, and it’s a full, scrumptious meal. Like the picadillo, fideo is so traditional that it’s an indelible taste memory of the East End community.
No truly Texas Mexican dish is complete without flour tortillas, the wheat culinary creation born in the Texas and Mexico region that extends along a band 150 miles north and 150 miles south of the Rio Grande, once just a river to the indigenous peoples, now a geopolitical border. You know it’s an expert tortilla when it balloons magnificently on the comal, griddle.
Griselda Delgado Lamas makes them daily at Doña María, mixing and kneading the dough before shaping small balls that she rolls out and cooks. She’ll make about 300 each day, and sometimes 500 for a big catering job. Griselda has been making the Doña María tortillas already for 10 years. She’s fast, making them in the San Antonio and Rio Grande Valley style, laying them on the griddle for a few seconds, then turning them over and watching them puff up, soft and lithesome. Simply delicious.
Hours are from 7 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on weekdays and 7:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on weekends. The restaurant is closed on Mondays. On weekends, diners leisurely congregate in conversation outside the door, their names on a waiting list. The combination of hospitality and traditional Texas Mexican home-cooking is the formula for success.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)