Solid, consistent, almost West Coast Mexican food. That's all I ask for. Boston is considered a world class city, but solid Mexican food is wicked hard to find. Truly. Few and far between are decent taco joints (or for that matter, any Mexican-related joints). Thankfully, we have a healthy population of Guatemalans and El Salvadorans, many with a pretty good feel for Mexican street food. Most of these mainly faux Mexican restaurants are north of Boston, in Somerville, Everett, East Boston (yes, East Boston is the most northern section of Boston), Chelsea, and Revere. My go to "I'm hungry and don't want to wait long for some seriously good, cheap tacos" is, and has been for quite some time now, Taco El Paso in Everett, MA.
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| 3 Tacos: Chicken, Steak, Tongue |
The pictures here are the pictures of what I get 90% of the time I go to T El P: Chicken (Pollo), Steak (Res), and Lengua (Tongue). In that order. Shoot me if you don't like lengua. I love it and only order the other two for those wonderful readers that would only consider eating the two former meats and not the latter. These beautiful tacos cost $2 or less (the lengua being the most expensive because, of course, it is the best) and can be garnished with onion, cilantro, pico de gallo, cheese, guacamole, sour cream, etc..... I like to keep it simple: onions and cilantro with hot sauce. In good Guatemalsalvadoran fashion, there is a lot more to choose from like burritos, huevos rancheros, rice and beans, fried banana, pupusas, fried yucca, chicharron, it all depends on the day. I just prefer the tacos to anything else. The chicharron is pretty good, although I prefer Dominican, Puerto Rican, or Columbian chicharron. Central American chicharron tends to be less fatty and more salty in my humble opinion. The pupusas are good, the rice just OK. The tacos are the most economical, all things considered.
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| Fried Banana w/rice flour and cinnamon |
I had dessert, which was good but not great. Well-fried banana with rice flour and cinnamon inside. Pretty good, it just had been sitting around for a while. In the summer T El P usually has Hibiscus, Horchata, and some other form of refreshing drink. Solid Mexican. Good prices. Nice people. Certainly worth the trip to Everett.
