Friday, May 15, 2009

Beyond Tacos? Yes, ¡Sopes Deliciosos!

One of the first things Doodles was looking for after getting into town was some good Mexican food. Apparently Koreans are very good at providing good Korean food options (kim chi, kim chi soup, kim chi burgers, kim chi.. other things...), and their foreign food options don't expand much beyond McDonald's.

I was more than happy to oblige in helping her find some good Mexican food, and took her down to Waughtown St., where they have at least two excellent taquerias: La Perlita (which I wrote about previously) and El Paisano... which is a bit harder to get to (an extra couple minutes down Waughtown St.), but which I think has the better tacos.

My friend Pamphilia insisted that I give La Perlita another try, and so Doodles and I found our way there for her inaugural trip to Waughtown St. It was then that I was hit with a strange sensation to order not just tacos, but something else... (I know... I almost didn't recognize myself), and ordered a couple sopes to snack on after the tacos.

Sopes are sort of like open-faced sandwiches, starting with a puffy corn-flour tortilla which is topped with a lot of stuff. La Perlita's were topped with refried beans, lettuce, onions, carne asada (steak strips), sour cream, queso fresco (a mild cheese that might be described as something between mozarella and feta), and a nice piece of avocado.

I don't know... despite the fact that we had already devoured nearly half a dozen tacos between the two of us and were thus adequately satiated, those sopes were so delicious I almost cried. My eyes have been opened: should I be eating and writing more about Mexican food than simply tacos? Si, debo.

¡Viva la Sopes!

6 comments:

Pamphilia said...

Yay! Give me a call next time you guys go.

Lucy said...

DW, it's driving me nuts.

Here: ¡

-DW- said...

I did look for that for about two seconds before posting, just so you know that it did cross my mind...

Lucy said...

¡Super bueno!

Also super bueno.

Pamphilia said...

OMG, DW you have to adopt that puppy. Now! So I can come over and play with it and teach it Spanish. Well, French.

Unknown said...

I stumbled on your blog after a tiresome, and largely fruitless, search of information on taquerias in Winston-Salem. I am glad there is someone out there trying to spread the word of the beauty of well-made, authentic tacos.

Along these lines, I just discovered a taco stand parked in the strip mall at 321 Polo Road, a block east of Cherry Street. The taco stand is of the trailer variety, hitched behind a pick-up truck. It is located streetside in the parking lot for La Victoria Carniceria - and the strip is admittedly a little rough around the edges.

With the directions/descriptions out of the way, the extremely friendly Luciano is apparently making delicious tacos here most every day from 5 to 9 pm. I had two tacos de carnitas and two with chicharones. The salsa roja was also splendid and had a nice sting to it. Luciano was great to talk to and very entertaining, and he has a couple bar stools set up next to the window to hang out and shoot the breeze while he is preparing the goods. All in all, a highly recommended experience.