Mexican at Heart

A strawberry daquiri for my anniversary. I love tequila.

M'darlin enjoying a snifter of Mescal.

Three Enchiladas: one pollo, one carnes one queso with three different sauces.

Pork with Mango sauce (I didn't get the chance to try this one!)

 

And, of course, rice and beans.

La Margarita is probably the closest thing to authentic Mexican food that Nick and I have been able to find in New York (outside of Spanish Harlem). Since moving to the city years ago, there has been nothing I missed more than the food in California, so you can imagine how happy we were to find this place just down the street from our apartment in Astoria, Queens.

I just couldn't stop...

I ordered the restaurant's special enchiladas; one pollo, carnes and queso. The sauces were a unique variation of traditional Mexican sauces, and added a surprising kick to the otherwise very familiar flavors. The green was a more muted salsa verde, the red was a general (and again muted) red sauce, but the brown sauce was sweet and barbeque-like, a little on the gritty side. I wish I knew what it was so I can try to replicate it myself.

The food was, of course, delicious--Mexican food always is. But, for whatever reason, Mexican food in New York is never quite right. Wonderful, definitely, but one can always tell that it has been made thousands of miles away from its home country. The immaculately plated meals are arranged just so--it almost seems staged--an imitation of the original and, while it is as close to perfection as possible, it is still an imitation. Even the smell is slightly different, perhaps it is the soil.

I miss the messy, over incumbered plates of food, the recipe perfected by someone's grandma over many, many years and the scent of beans and hot sauce like a cloud when I walk into the room.