La Verdad Taqueria/ 1 Lansdowne Street/ Boston, MA 02215

Looks can be deceiving

The only day worth trying La V

There is no doubt that Ken Oringer is a bright man.  And word on the street is that he is a very nice guy.  That is a bit hard to believe, given the fact that he is a chef, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt, especially since I have never met him nor knowingly set eyes on him.  La Verdad is a great idea.  Put a taco place on the corner across the street from Fenway Park and next to Jillian's, and the drunks will come.  Not only will business be slammin' at least 81 days out of the summer, but add in the fact that the House of Blues just set up shop next door, and the proverbial recipe for success is yours.  For that I applaud him.  What is not as applaudable is the food at La Verdad.  Luckily, I happened upon La V. on a Tuesday.  I say "luckily" only in the sense that Tuesday is $1 taco day.  If that were not the case, the $2.50 tacos, $8.00 burritos, and $9 tortas would have probably sent me foraging for cornmeal and pigs somewhere else.  Some may call a $9 sandwich cheap, but if my lunch consists of 3 tacos for $7.50 sin tax, I'm gonna be expecting a Jarritos for free.  Although I never planned to find myself at La Verdad, its pretty pink sign called out to me after a breakfastless morning and I gave in.  With Tapatio and pickled vegetables on the tables, it seemed pretty promising.  I decided on one of each of the three $1.00 offerings-Chicken, Carnitas, and Pork.   I usually have faith in a place that serves its tacos with only onion and cilantro and no yellow cheese.  They looked and smelled good but it all went downhill from there.  The chicken tasted like old rotisserie chicken with some chilli powder on it.  The pork was dry as can be with little flavor.  The carnitas was the best of the bunch, and had some kick to it, but it was far from good.  I did like the teenie tiny handmade corn tortillas that the meat came in, but everything between the Tapatio and the tortilla was pretty sad, and I'm being generous when I say sad.  The Oringer Empire will not suffer because of La Truth, because drunk basbeball fans will pay for tacos and burritos that taste almost Mexican at slightly inflated prices.  People who like Mexican food, on the other hand, will have yet another Mexican restaurant in Boston that they wish were better.

Alex's Chimis/ 358 Centre Street/ Jamaica Plain, MA 02130

I think it is only fair of me here to make an admission:  Yucca is a very important part of my life.  That's not to say that I could not survive without it, but I would certainly be quite sad to exist in a world where yucca was unattainable.  That being said, the (boiled, not fried) cassava at Alex's Chimis is the best I have had to date in the Boston area.  For that reason, A's C will hold a special place in my heart for the foreseeable future.  The rotisserie chicken, on the other hand, was only OK.  I suppose I went in with inflated hopes, since it is the chicken that they are famous for, and the mandioca did help to sooth my disappointment, but the meat was pretty dry, not succulent, overly spiced.  Not spicy hot, just too many spices all mixed together without a ton of balance.  I would try this place again, but mainly to see if the manioc is consistently good, and to check once more if the chicken is juicier at, say 5 or 6 at night when they make a new batch.  The price is right.  A 1/2 Chicken with Yucca was $8.00.  I haven't given up on these guys yet, but I can't see them changing their secret spice recipe anytime soon, so I won't keep my hopes up.

I went to Alex's a second time for no good reason.  The chicken was much more dry than I remember from my first trip months ago.  The yucca is still scrumptious, but both myself and those who I sadly brought with me agreed that it was not worth a third trip for chicken.  The chicharrón isn't bad, but then, when is chicharrón actually bad?