He’s Back!

The Greenpoint Taco Man reappeared yesterday (parked on the triangle of concrete between Bedford and Nassau), and I was finally able to try the lengua. The verdict: two greasy thumbs up. The meat was very tender from a combo of boiling and griddling; slightly smoky and slightly sweet with a hint of gaminess. Definitely better than the cecina. I had the avocado sauce this time, which seemed like a mildly spicy guacamole thinned with crema. I hope that GTM sticks around, because a summer spent lazing around McCarren Park while feasting on tacos would be a nice thing indeed.

Not that the neighborhood is entirely bereft without him, though… Another treat that I finally got around to sampling comes from El Encanto, a Mexican grocery with a small menu for take-away. Al and I split a carne enchilda torta, and I can’t remember the last time that half of a sandwich left me so full. The roll failed to hold all of the ingredients, which included several thick planks of cheese, pickled jalapeno strips, a generous number of avocado slices, a few handfuls of iceberg lettuce, and about three-quarters of a pound of spicy, reddish-orange pork. I had to use a fork to eat the thing, and while a stickler would no doubt deduct points for the fact that the bread was rendered unusable by a combination of grease and overstuffing, I still give the sandwich pretty high marks.

El Encanto, 1005 Manhattan Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11222