I hear so many other bloggers- I’m not even going to start linking to their names, because it’s seriously way too many- talking about how Mexican food in NYC sucks and there’s no place for Mexican food but in California (or maybe Mexico, but that’s another story, I s’pose). So on my recent trip out west, when the day of the wedding rolled around and FeistyMom and I were wandering around Healdsburg, where the wedding took place, thinking of what to eat for lunch… well, I jumped at the opportunity to go to the Mexican restaurant a few doors down from the venue where the wedding took place (Barndiva), an unassuming place named Taqueria el Sombrero.
Unfortunately, I can’t really compare because though I’ve been to Mexico once (last year, for my birthday) and I’ve eaten at a few Mexican places around NYC, I don’t think Mexican rates that highly on my list of go-to cuisines. It’s not that I don’t like it, because I do, but I find myself always overeating at these places because the food is so yummy, and waddling out of places has got to stop. For me anyway, you guys go on and do what you do… I think it’s because I overorder because I like so much of it- the chips, salsa, guacamole, tacos, enchiladas, everything just sounds so yummy. Beans, cheese, sour cream… ergh… I just want to shovel it into my mouth as fast as I can. And I do. And then I feel sick. In any case…
I was good this time, too, because I knew the dress I was going to wear later wouldn’t forgive me if I gorged, so I had to eat sensibly.
When I walked in, I immediately noticed the almost kitsch, but it was genuine, old school feel to the place. Like an old cafeteria, except Mexican, I s’pose, you walked up to the counter, placed your order, and they handed you a tag with a number on it that you then placed on your table to wait for your food. There was a help-yourself water fountain with cups next to the counter as well, which was a nice touch, and they offered a wide selection of sodas, including Coke in a can or in a glass bottle.
As soon as we’d placed our orders and found a table, a server brought over a basket of fresh deep fried tortilla chips with pico de gallo or some kind of salsa (I’m sorry if I’m messing up all the names, because I wouldn’t know what the real name is, just what it tastes like), limes, and hot sauce. My mother said the red sauce was super spicy, so I didn’t mess with that; as it was, the pico de gallo was quite tangy and I could have added more lime to counter the heat, but I chose not to. Even though I’d have liked to very much finish off the whole bowl, I was good and only had a few before I settled in to wait for our food.
I avoided ordering something crazy or something that was so “I had this in NYC already”, so I chose a carnita tortas, basically a sandwich of carnitas, which I have never understood what it is exactly. Except tasty. On a bun with lettuce, tomato, sour cream, pickled jalapenos, guacamole, this was sooooo good. I was scarfing it down before I understood exactly that I was actually eating the jalapenos without picking them out, but they only added a slight heat without overwhelming me. The soft bread complemented the meat perfectly, I was pretty surprised since the meat seemed a bit dry but all the wet toppings solved that problem nicely. I was one happy girl.
My mother, on the other hand, chose a grilled chicken burrito. She mentioned that the last time we’d had Mexican in the SF area (about 5 years ago), she hadn’t been much impressed and much preferred the places she’d been to in NYC- among them Baja Fresh and -something Cactus recently. So she was already kind of down on the place. Once she began eating, though, she was even more down on it and finally I decided to tell her that she was just used to [crappy] Mexican food- not real Mexican but rather the kind that’s dumbed down for the non-Mexican people in the world- and that’s why she wasn’t too keen on the stuff we were having, since I was in heaven. Looking at the menu and her burrito, I think this is actually my fault, and I am only admitting it to you (and not her) because she will just yell at me; the woman at the counter asked me if I wanted the burrito with everything and I thought that meant like, with fries on the side or something silly (there were platters on the menu, so I thought for some reason that’s what she meant!) so I said hastily no, since my mom didn’t want to eat too much either. But my mother was mostly down on how much rice was in the thing, and how she had to slather it with pico de gallo before it tasted good (that was my fault apparently, now that I’m thinking about it)… oh well. I’ll explain it to her later and apologize even though I’m sure she barely remembers the meal anymore anyway. (She was looking forward to our coming meal the next day, at Crabhouse at Pier 39…)
Yvo says: While it’s not in an ideal location unless you’re IN Healdsburg (which is a lovely little town by the way, the people were so fantastic and friendly and just overall delightful to walk around in this gorgeous, picturesque town…), it is centrally located in town off the town square and the food was delicious. The bill came to less than $20 for both of us, a soda for my mom, and all the food pictured here. The people were super nice and the place is clean, well-kept and very cool to sit around to eat. One thing I wonder though: the Mexican food in California rocks because the places are owned, run, operated, cooked… all by Mexican people. Why don’t we have more realreal Mexican restaurants in NYC? Run/owned/operated by Mexican people? Wouldn’t that solve the problem? Just wondering.
recommended
Anonymous says
Cool blog. Carnitas = pork. 😀
Miche says
yvo~
i love love love carnitas! in va beach we have a restaurant called taqueria san jose and they have the best carnitas and mexican tacos with chopped beef and cilantro served with pico de gallo :o) i love this place so much that i really hate to order from other places because i know i’ll be disappointed.
when we went to nyc a couple of years ago, i stopped at burritoville and i thought their food was quite good. we used to live in san diego for a number of years and hopped the border often for the great food that was calling south of the border.
i definitely love the authentic taste of real mexican and can’t stomach the places that taste like it is ‘prepackaged mexican’. kind of like the italian places that have food that tastes like they removed the plastic wrapper on the food and warmed in the microwave. when you’re there… you’re not family :o)
anyway, have you tried burritoville? apparently there’s two locations and i’m not sure which one we went to but i thought it was pretty good and it looked like they did great business.
would love to know what you think.
yogigyrl says
Having been born and raised in NYC I can atest to the fact that NY has many places run by Mexicans that produce authentic meals. Problem is most people never want to trek out of manhattan to experience them. One of my favorite places to go is La Nortena in Jackson Heights, Queens. Completely run and staffed by Mexicans which has excellent and cheap food. A closer option is Sunset park in brooklyn. Give them a try.
Sarah says
OMG–my parents live in Windsor–just a few minutes from Healdsburg, and we LOVE El Sombrero. I try to go there every time I visit.
Sarah says
In fact, the woman in the picture whose back of the head you see looks uncannily like my mom–she even wears her sweatshirts around her shoulders like that. Hmmm . . .