Writing With My Mouth Full

Searching for a Good Taco: Roosevelt Avenue, Queens

The constant rumbling coming from the #7 train above us was a sure sign that we were on Roosevelt Avenue in Queens. From 69th Street, we saw people who looked and sounded like us, but only a few blocks away was a completely different enclave of Queens. The Tagalog signs changed to Spanish and the music coming from cars and storefronts was turned up a notch. Colombian and Ecuadorian flags were waving with Mexico’s. There were arepas and ceviches to eat, but today, Miss Geolouxy and I were there to search for a good taco.

Queens is the most ethnically diverse county in the nation, where an estimated 44 percent of the more than two million residents are foreign born. The neighborhoods of Jackson Heights and Corona had served as a magnet for a lot of newcomers from Colombia, but the 2000 census revealed a demographic shift in the number of Mexicans.

As our basis of comparison, we first stopped by Taqueria Coatzingo on 76th Street because it’s the one restaurant that kept coming up whenever I did a Google search for Mexican restaurants in the area. We noted the taqueria stands we passed by, plus the other Mexican stores across the street. Our plan was to start on 76th Street, walk up to 80th, and then walk back down to 69th.

1. Taqueria Coatzingo, 76-05 Roosevelt Avenue, 718/424.1977

You can see from the photo above what I mean by avocado mush–I’m just not a big fan. We ordered one chorizo and one tripe taco, but they sent over two chorizos to our table. We didn’t mind because it was our first meal of the day and we were hungry. The chorizo was cut into cubes and was salty enough to whet our appetites, but I prefer my chorizo crumbly. A big plus was the blistered green pepper on our plates. (Note to self: return for the tripe taco.)

2. Tacolandia, between 77th and 78th Streets on Roosevelt Avenue

We walked up to the Tacolandia counter and ordered the al pastor and the lengua, or tongue, taco. The tongue looked and tasted like tongue, but now I’m officially confused with what al pastor really is. In Staten Island, al pastor was the meat carved from a vertical rotisserie. What we got was a slab of fat and gelatinous pork skin.

3. El Poblano, 75-13 Roosevelt Avenue, 718/205.2996

We only ordered one cecina taco to go from El Poblanos. The guy at the counter must have thought it weird that we were only ordering one, so he took extra care and put it in a Styrofoam container made for hotdogs. One of the ladies looked at us skeptically when I asked for it to be spicy, but complied. We shared our one taco on a stoop across the street and it tasted like a cecina all right: chewy and dry.

4. Taco stand on the corner of 75th Street and Roosevelt Avenue

The two ladies serving up the tacos were tickled when we asked for their permission to take their photographs. They even had an official translator who sat in the van parked right next to the stand. The beef taco, as Miss Geolouxy said, looked better than it tasted. We couldn’t negotiate the hot sauce to come out of the squeezy bottle, so we doused our taco with the green pepper sauce instead to give it some sort of taste. They had the pickles, too, but they looked pretty gnarly, even for me.

5. Sabor Mexicana stand, directly outside the subway exit on 75th Street and Roosevelt Avenue

For our last taste, we ordered two tacos: a suadero, or stewed beef, and for the safe bet of having something tasty before going home, a chorizo kind. The chorizo was crumbly, which I’ve already mentioned I like, and the tips were toasty and crunchy. The beef was just tasteless and dry, almost inedible even with hot sauce.

After only a couple of tacos, I wondered if we should have gone to Corona for Mexican food. There were a couple of Mexican restaurants and a few stands selling tacos, but it wasn’t like my experience in Staten Island where there was a Mexican-something every other door. There wasn’t an outstanding taco, and the frequency of adding avocado mush surprised me. The avocado wasn’t chunky, but thin; it reminded me of Calexico’s “avocado sauce” in SoHo. After our first taste, I had to remind myself to say, Todo, pero no aguacate.

Preserved Spiced Pears

My mother doesn’t like the smell of cloves nor anise. When I use them, she never fails to tell me that they remind her of the dentist office. I’m not exactly sure what smell she’s referring to, but to me, the combination of cloves, anise and cinnamon, smell like the forest after a good amount of rainfall. Plus, I really like my dentist.

It had been raining the entire morning–so much for peak autumn season–so all I wanted was to stay home and cook something that would cheer up the kitchen. When I saw Seckel pears at the farmers’ market in Cold Spring, I bought a couple of pounds thinking of that smell.

Of all commercially-grown pears, Seckel pears are the smallest. I love them for their size and they look good preserved in a glass jar. I think preserved spiced pears are good with heartier dishes like goose, lamb and rabbit; the pears’ syrupy juice a nice complement to gamey meat and crusty bread.

Ingredients:
1 pound Seckel pears, peeled, stems intact
2 sticks of cinnamon
2 whole star anise
4 cloves
1 cup white sugar
3 cups of water, or enough to cover

1. Place pears in a saucepan and cover with water. Add the spices, uncovered, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer covered until they’re tender when pierced with a fork.
2. Allow them to cool in the syrup and then transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate.

Fall Foliage in Cold Spring

My greatest discovery the past couple of years is taking the Metro-North train to get out of the city from the 125th Street Harlem station. I’ve already picked cherries in Dutchess County this past summer and I just came back from a weekend hike in Beacon. During that hike, the leaves were already turning up in the mountains. I wanted to take my parents to see the same view, but on a much less grueling excursion.

The Metro-North’s 4th annual fall foliage trip was touted on subway billboards. I bought tickets for the three of us just in time for the season’s peak. Unfortunately, it rained the entire day, although a lot of people still showed up from three stops: Grand Central, 125th Street and Tarrytown. We all boarded a special train with a tour guide telling us about the towns and sights we were passing by. It was wet and gray outside, but the orange and red leaves were still showing through the haze.

Despite carrying our umbrellas to protect us from the rain, my parents were still good sports. We spent a few hours in the town of Cold Spring going in and out of antique stores and buying produce from the farmers’ market, with only a break to eat pizza for lunch on Chestnut Street. We took photos in the river front’s gazebo, at the park and on the church grounds. My mom was tickled by the 10-cent trolley ride up Main Street.

The rain let up an hour before we had to meet at the train station for our ride back to the city, but we were able to stop by the pumpkin carving event set up by Scenic Hudson, an environmental group focused on the Hudson River Valley. We didn’t carve any of the pumpkins, but it didn’t stop the organizers from giving my dad the discarded seeds and our own giant pumpkin to take home.

Fragrant Rice-Stuffed Cornish Hens

I could barely cut the carrots after my bootcamp workout, but I was determined to eat after preparing and cooking this dish for an hour.

I was looking through my archives and remembered how robust the rice mixture was in the Greek gemista, or stuffed tomatoes, recipe. I wanted that smell of herbs and raisins together, but I also wanted to eat, believe it or not, chicken. Cornish hens were on sale in my supermarket, so I ended up picking them instead. They’re smaller and takes less time to cook anyway. I called my mother to make sure there were still raisins in the cupboard. She also had walnuts handy, so I used them in lieu of almonds or pine nuts.

The great thing about stuffing is that you can use almost anything. If I found leftover bacon in the fridge–yeah, right–I would use them; same for chopped Chinese sausages or sautÃ©ed ground meat. I threw in arugula and baby carrots for more festive coloring. The result? Fragrant rice-stuffed Cornish hens a month before Thanksgiving.

Ingredients:
2 Cornish hens, washed thoroughly and dried with paper towels
2 cups cooked rice
1 small carrot, roughly chopped
1 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup walnuts, crushed
2 handfuls of arugula
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 shallots, finely chopped
2 tbsps pomegranate molasses
2 tbsps chili powder
salt, pepper, oil

1. Preheat oven to 350Âº. In a small bowl, mix some oil and chili powder with salt and pepper until pasty. Spread paste all over hens using a spatula. Let marinate while you prepare the rice mixture.
2. To prepare the rice mixture, sautÃ© garlic and shallots in some hot oil. Add carrots and cook until tender. Add arugula and mix until wilted. Add the rice, raisins and walnuts. Mix well. Season with some salt, pepper and molasses. Toss for a few more minutes until all the flavors have penetrated the rice. Remove from heat.
3. Spoon some rice mixture a little at a time and stuff the inside of the hens. Use a spatula to make sure you get as much rice in the hens as possible, but without over-stuffing. Transfer stuffed hens to a baking dish and bake for 45 minutes, turning after 20, or until clear juice comes out of the thighs when pierced with a fork. Switch the oven to broil and brown the hens for 8 extra minutes.

Pork Chops with Honey and Anise

The day after I came back from Tunisia, I had bacon for breakfast, pork barbecue for lunch and was craving pork chops for dinner. We didn’t participate in Ramadan while we were there, but not having pork for two weeks was difficult enough. You simply can’t take the pork away from the Filipino.

When pork chops look firm and fresh at the butcher’s, I can’t help but pick them up. Add some honey for a little bit of sweet, sticky taste, and a little oyster sauce to make them salty, and they evoke autumn–in that Chinese sort of way. I scraped the leftover bits of marinade from the pan and tossed a bunch of boiled baby bok choy with it to make a vegetable side dish.

Ingredients:
4 pork chops
about 8 tbsps honey
4 whole star anise
3 tbsps oyster sauce
4 cloves garlic, minced
dried chili flakes
black peppercorns
salt

1. Make marinade. Whisk together the honey and the oyster sauce in a small bowl. Add anise, garlic, peppercorns and chili flakes. Season with some salt. Using a spatula, rub the marinade onto the pork chops on both sides. Set aside for at least an hour or refrigerate overnight.
2. When ready to cook, preheat the oven 350Âº. Bake for about twelve minutes per side. The marinade burns easily, so check on the chops often to make sure that you do not overcook the meat.