we didn't make it to every mexican restaurant in the area, but we sure did try Fifteen years ago, you'd have been hard-pressed to find a decent tamale or an authentic mole sauce in greater Wilmington. Now, it seems like every other commercial street sports at least one sign declaring a restaurante or taqueria. Or maybe it just feels that way to me.
I'm a Mexican food fanatic. When I started writing for Currents, right away I pitched a story reviewing greater Wilmington's emergent south-of-the-border cuisine. Six restaurants in as many days!
I said. I'd enlist my good friend and fellow Mexican food fanatic, Carmelita. A hearty seven days, 10 ramekins of salsa and some unholy quantity of refried beans later, here's what we came up with.
- By Kate Sweeney, Star-News Correspondent La Costa, 3617 Market St., Wilmington - 772-9000 I hadn't yet mapped out a real plan for all the places to hit for what I had started to think of as MexFest '07, so my conversation with Carmelita started out like it always does when one of us is craving Mexican. "Yes.
Yes, ma'am." The ingredients and flavors at La Costa - which boasts two additional locations at 5622 Oleander Drive (392-6006) and 8024 Market St. (686-8091) - are as fresh and interesting as any family-style Mexican restaurant I've ever been.
After this visit, I'd still peg it for best salsa (is that a touch of oregano?) and best mole (complex and sweet). I ordered the Caldo de Camaron, a soup whose fresh, al dente vegetables, shrimp and sinus-clearing spicy kick make a rival to the pho at Viet Bistro down the road for the ideal cold combatant.
Tastiest Item: The mole, the mole, the mole. Restaurante La Fondita, 2115 Carolina Beach Road, Wilmington - 763-0440 Jarritos and Coke in a bottle. A jukebox with today's Latin American hits.
But the best thing about La Fondita is the fresh corn tortillas, which are thick and served warm off the grill. Think Wonderbread versus fresh-from-the-oven homemade rolls. The chips here are often a bit stale.
They're served with dark, peppery salsa, a small bowl of refried beans and two squeeze bottles of red and green salsa. However, my Enchiladas Oaxaquenas were rich and tasty: those tortillas filled with savory chicken and tomato, grilled and seasoned together. That subtle flavor was overpowered some by the dark mole sauce that topped the enchiladas.
Still, they were ridiculously delish. Carmelita's tacos de azada were simple and good: steak, onion and cilantro on corn tortillas. Tastiest Item: Fresh corn tortillas, though I hear they also serve up killer tamales.
La Tapatia Taqueria Mexican, 812 South College Road, Wilmington - (901) 397-7707 The man behind the counter said they'd been open "since last Thursday" and it looked it. There were no printed menus yet (though there are now), only a white board listing the tacos and other dishes. The utter lack of atmosphere reminded me of those stands on the streets of Ensenada and I felt a stab of excitement.
I ordered one Taco al Pastor and one Azada, to go. The tacos come on small, steaming homemade corn tortillas you can hold in one hand. Each is served open-faced, topped with a tidy mound of spicy meat, chopped onions and cilantro and a side of salsa verde, lime slices and cucumbers, the last a perfect cooling antidote to that spicy tang.
I got two, which proved to be a perfect meal; there would be no dreaded "Mexican food belly" that night. I ate them the way you should: outside, at a picnic pavilion at nearby Randall Park. (You don't eat a New York hotdog at a banquet table.
Same deal with real tacos.) I can't describe to you in simple words how good they tasted, eaten perched on a table, seagulls hopping around me, hoping I'd drop some. Verdict: The next-best thing to a Mexican taco stand, stateside.
Tastiest Item: I only tried to tacos. I may only ever try the tacos, they're so good. El Marinero Mexican Grill Seafood, 4102 Oleander Drive, Wilmington - 791-6540 was jonesing for fish tacos, so off we went to the place that claimed to specialize in Mexican seafood.
El Marinero's phonebook-like menu sported a couple of fish platters, a huge number of shrimp dishes and everything else, too, from fajitas to hamburgers. The overwhelming tome left both of us craving simplicity, so we both went for the fish tacos. I've found that the best fish tacos I've had rely on simple flavors like lime, onion and cilantro to bring out the tilapia's delicate flavor.
These, however, were massive, deep-fried (rather than pan-fried) slabs, served on cold, pancake-sized flour tortillas with a side of ranch dressing. I like a good Filet o' Fish every now and then, but these poor suckers had been fried so mercilessly you couldn't even taste the fish. Fried, as Carmelita said, tearing bits of her breading off hers, "like they've got something to hide.
" On the upside, the salsa served with the chips was de both of us poured liberal amounts on our tacos in order to introduce some flavor. The only truly disturbing aspect of the meal came with our checks. El Marinero printed our credit card numbers in their entirety on our receipts, which equates to more than just bad taste.
It's dangerous. Verdict: There are three or more other Mexican places in a five-mile radius. Be resourceful.
Tastiest Item: To be fair, we only had the fish tacos. We might not have found the gem lurking the rough of the giant menu. Plaza Garibaldi, 1671-1 N.
Howe St., Southport - 454-0000 In hopes of a change of pace, Carmelita and I had driven to Southport, where I had it on good advice that you could find great food at a place called Plaza Garibaldi. (There's also another location in nearby Oak Island.
) The interior was much more attractive than el Marinero's, looking like an actual restaurant rather than someone's basement rec room, complete with pretty artificial ivy draped over each table. But there's no guaranteed tie between a place's appearance and its quality of food. Which we were reminded of soon enough.
PG's menu is another bible of a thing, with all the typical Tex-Mex dishes and a number of American ones, too. (Jalapeno poppers, anyone?) I also noticed a profusion of sausage dishes, from the "chori-pollo" (chicken and sausage, $8.
99), to the huevos con chorizo ($6.49). I didn't want to miss out on their specialty, so I ordered this last dish.
And, honestly, the sausage itself was fine. I think. However, the dish's eggs, which were scrambled into the sausage, rather than cooked over easy, as is the usual case with huevos rancheros, were salted to high heaven.
The result was a dried-out dish that was difficult to finish. Carmelita's Lunch Special #1 came with a greasy, uninspiring taco and a chili relleno that was just a poblano filled with melted cheese and topped with burnt-tasting sauce. Her guacamole was also infused with a heaping helping of sodium, leading me to wonder whether the restaurant was out of limes and was trying to compensate with salt.
The best part of the dining day actually turned out to be the excellent hot dog she got at the Trolly Stop later, since she ate about five bites of this meal. Verdict: Salty, greasy but otherwise serviceable Mexican food. Best for: You live in Southport.
You have no car and want Mexican food really badly. Went jogging. Ate lots of roughage.
El Cerro Grande, 341 College Rd., Wilmington - 793-0035 For our last meal, I decided on El Cerro Grande, Wilmington's old standby for Mexican family-style dining. The College Road location is all you'd envision in a Mexican place, down to the sombrero'd cartoon character carved into each and every table.
("But, is he sleeping, or crying?" asked Carmelita, who, too, was getting a little punchy by this point.) It's easy to see why this place is so popular (along with its fellow location further down the street.
) The booths are comfy and intimate, the chips, salsa and beer arrive quickly, and you get a mountain of good food for your money. I ordered what our waiter said was the place's most unusual dish, the mixiote de Borrego ($11.25).
It was probably also one of the most generous: Two massive legs of lamb topped with a "Mexican barbeque sauce," a red sauce in which I tasted traces of cinnamon. The lamb itself was sliding-off-the-bone tender. In combination with the pico de gallo served with it, the flavor was surprising and delicious.
Carmelita said her chili relleno was "perfect," successfully vanquishing her memories of the greasy horror at Plaza Garibaldi. El Cerro Grande still doesn't top La Costa for flavorful freshness and innovation, but as Wilmington's Mexican food workhorse, it delivers tasty food in great quantities on the cheap. Just ask me: I woke up the next day still completely full.
Verdict: Cheap, good Mexican food by the shovelful. No, not the British royal, but a tall ship named after him. The square-rigged sailing vessel, which is scheduled to dock Monday .
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