You'll find fewer taquerias at the North end of Sunset Park, or where ambitious real estate agents call South Slope. Up here there are more funeral halls, delis, and pizzerias than taquerias, but there is El Tenampa, a 4th Avenue grocery doing it all right. More
There are at least a dozen tacos trucks that line 5th Avenue in Sunset Park. But none are as fixed as Tacos El Bronco. At night, crowds swarm to the fluorescent light. More
Most of their business is take-out but sitting at one of the four folding tables is best, as to minimize the seconds in which the food moves from the griddle to your mouth. More
It's hard to miss taqueria Piaxtla es Mexico once you turn onto 51st Street off of 5th Avenue in Sunset Park. There's the vertical sign attached to the facade, glowing "Ricos Tacos" in fluorescent pink; there's a painted mural with a fat pig in a steel cauldron, proclaiming "Ricas Carnitas" across the wall. There's also a man marching the block, advertising both sentiments into a bullhorn. More
This hefty sandwich is packed with chunks of tongue—meltingly tender with crispy bits around the edges—layered with ripe avocado slices, crema, crisp red onion, chopped iceberg lettuce, black bean mash, and white cheese. More
Good cemitas have to be masterfully stacked sandwiches; with so many ingredients piled into a seeded roll, they have to be neatly constructed in order to avoid being a sloppy, incoherent mess. At Tacos Matamoros, a carne asada cemita ($7) was done just right. More
We've been on a taco kick at Serious Eats, and while Kenji checked out the scene in East Harlem, I've been eating my way through Sunset Park. So far, I've found three more-than-recommenadable places—but none that does everything right. More
There's a trio of cartoon skeletons dancing on the window of a bakery on Brooklyn's 4th Avenue. Just inside the door, you find an elaborate altar decorated with sugar skulls, comic skeleton figures, bottles of tequila, photographs of deceased relatives, candles, crosses, and round loaves of sweet bread decorated with bone designs. This is how the family that owns Don Paco Lopez, maybe the city's oldest and certainly its best known Mexican bakery, celebrates the lives of its ancestors. More
Eating a sandwich, in most cases, goes like this: pick up sandwich with hands; bite into sandwich with mouth. If you tackle the Pambazo ($6) at Tacos Xochimilco in this way, however, you'll end up with bright red fingers and a sauce-smeared nose. More
It's not often that I find Vietnamese restaurants as accommodating to vegetarians as Gia Lam was. There aren't a lot of vegetarian options on their menu beyond what I sampled, but I'd be willing to bet that they would make changes for you if you ask. My quest for truly great vegetarian pho may continue, but Gia Lam will do for now. More
