By DANIEL WOOLFOLK
Walk down a street in any given Mexican city and you will find many taco stands, the good ones before the bad ones. The aroma of spicy meat and vegetables will guide your feet to the perfect stand. Most have meat or pork tacos, but every once in a while you might run into one that serves lengua, Spanish for tongue.
While Manhattan doesn’t have the stands on every corner, you can find tongue in Harlem at the brick and mortar hotel, Cinco De Mayo Restaurant at 1028 Amsterdam Ave. has them. No such aroma on the sidewalk, but you’ll know to go in by it’s big Red, Green and white canopy on the west side of the street.
They charge $2.95 a taco, which isn’t too bad. In Northern Mexico they go for about a dollar each. The tongue isn’t made directly from the meat. It’s boiled, peeled then sautéed, normally with tomatoes and onions. Then it’s topped off with cilantro in true Mexican fashion. And to make it even more authentic, you have to squeeze a little lime on it, preferably from your cold Corona.
It’s most common to eat them with corn tortillas. You might need two, because the tongue tends to be somewhat watery. A normal person will probably be satisfied with about six tacos. The beauty in that is to vary them. If you’re not feeling bold, have a couple steak tacos, maybe some head-meat tacos. Once you have tongue, you can graduate to tacos made from head muscles. And that’s the gateway drug for entering the adventurously delicious world of brain and tripe tacos.
