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  • From: grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>
  • To: RTP-area local music and culture <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: Gourmet mag - local Latino restaurants
  • Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2007 10:43:13 -0400

You need to spend more time on chowhound.com, Todd . . .

When Chowhound founder Jim Leff made a trip through the Triangle last year on his big chow tour, he also went nuts for El Paraiso (the bunkerlike one): http://www.chow.com/tour/156 (scroll down past his trip to Allen & Son with Bob Garner)

I'm partial to Taqueria Lopez in particular for their cabeza and their campechano tacos. I haven't tried any of their seafood, which is actually apparently their best stuff, because I can't stop ordering the meats. Here's one of several chowhound threads: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/373513 . . . they're my favorite Durham taqueria, but I'll confess I still haven't made it to Paraiso.

Super Taqueria is fun because of the big fixin's bar. Just a little further up Roxboro from Super Taq is a hispanic grocery store with a taqueria/tortilleria in one side of it. If you go on a Saturday you may be subjected to spanish-language karaoke, but it's a good place to chase down some goat.

Fiesta Grill, as the article makes clear, is a whole different animal. I think we've probably discussed it here enough already (or if not, then there's no need, because too many of y'all keep driving over here from elsewhere & making the lines too damn long) but yeah, the mole and the carnitas are my faves. It's torture that the closest restaurant to my house -- practically my neighborhood joint -- is so damn good but also so popular that you gotta go either at 11:30 Sunday morning, or like 5:00 p.m. on weeknights if you want to get a seat without a 20-minute wait.

La Vaquita (formerly known as Miranda's, and before that it was a dairy-bar drive-up joint which I vaguely remember from the 90s, I think) is fun when the weather is nice, and of the Durham taquerias I've tried, they had the best tamales. I liked their pastor a lot as well. You gotta sit on the curb (or in the car) to eat. It's right across the street from Four Square, which is one of the top-10 restos in the Triangle, probably, which juxtaposition is another reason to love Durham.

As for the magazine piece itself, it's well-written and well-researched; I think they hit the highlights pretty well. I'm going to be cautiously optimistic that it's going to increase traffic to my fave joints enough to ensure they stay in business, without causing a Fiesta Grill-like flood of gringos who'll make it impossible to actually get fed. Fingers crossed, anyway.

xo

Ross

Todd Morman wrote:
I'm curious to hear what folks think of the new Gourmet mag piece, "Carolina
Cocina," that recommended 6 local Latino restaurants. A friend of mine has gone to
two on the list already, and reports that the one on Alston Avenue that looks like a
concrete bunker (I forget the name) was amazing. The folks who own it weren't even
aware they'd been written up in Gourmet, so my pal left his copy of the mag with them
so they could figure out why all these white folks would be coming by soon.

They went to Taqueria Lopez next, and while it was good, they said it wasn't
as good as the first place. SpiceLines wrote that there weren't any Anglos
there when they went, but my friend said there was an Anglo couple and when
he asked, they said yeah, it was the Gourmet article that did it.

I haven't seen the article yet (it's on pp. 31-36 of September's "Latino
Food" issue), but I wonder what folks here have to say about it.

Spicelines:
http://www.spicelines.com/2007/08/local_flavors_at_taqueria_lope.htm
Chow.com: http://www.chow.com/grinder/3565
HispanicTips:
http://www.hispanictips.com/2007/08/16/gourmet-september-2007-special-issue-latino-food-newsstands-august-2007/

todd nice to see "Triangle = Durham" for a change morman
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