WHAT'S REALLY FOOD?

Yelena

Wong Kar Wai presents In The Mood for Tacos.  After a night of awkwardly drinking a lot a lot a lot too much at a bougie office party, Tamara and I ended up  on 51st and 5th Ave in Sunset Park, at Rico’s Tacos at 2 AM. Jamie claimed that these were the best tacos on the planet and I didn’t believe him until I had one a few months ago. This is not some white people shit.  Each came with quesillo, a hefty lime, a ton of cilantro, radishes and complimentary avocado hot sauce. I don’t really know what to say, there’s kind of no food in the world that compares to this. I’d bottle and sell the scent of a singular taco if I could. Also, I ate a really hot pepper and cried a lot.

tamara

every time we have to pick a place to eat, i’m always the jerk that’s like, ugh - can we not get burritos or tacos or any of that shit?  i’m also the one who complains about thai food, anything spicy, and all fruits & veggies, so i’m obviously a real great dinner companion.  leave me alone about it - i grew up hating the stuff my parents called “mexican” food (no excuse, dad, all your friends are from mexico) from these places.  i was also force-fed rice and beans, so grain-filled burritos are a thing of nightmares.

recently intrigued by the tacos served at this 24-hour joint, yelena and i stumbled to rico’s instead of going to another bar (responsible choice).  oh, don’t you live somewhere with pork skin, tongue, and carnitas tacos available at 2am?  haha, we do!  and i totally got to have a revelation that mexican food isn’t based in rice and sour cream (amazing!).  the tacos come in big (tacos) and small (taquitos).  the pork skin is chewy, salty - a surprise, because we definitely pictured cracklings.  also tongue?  have you had tongue before?  i hadn’t and i’m down to eat this all day, every day.  the carnitas were killer - moist, smokey, and soft.  by the way - order the tripe and tell us how it was because they were out when i ordered it!  the waitress looked really sorry about it (she’s the best, tip her well).  if you eat your food outside, you can hang out with some guys who spit on the floor a lot and are trying to figure out how to fix their motorbike.

ps - the pepper made yelena do this and she couldn’t talk for like twenty minutes.  don’t do it.