Tacos are great, but there’s more to Mexican food than carne asada and beans.
Later this month, school yourself in traditional south-of-the-border gastronomy at the third annual New York Authentic Mexican Restaurant Week, Sept. 16-30.
“The idea is to really encourage the authentic flavor of Mexican food,” said Claudia Norman, director of Celebrate Mexico Now, a citywide cultural festival that will have its seventh run.
“There are certain ingredients that you don’t see here a lot, like huitlacoche [a corn fungus] or pasilla [a pepper paste], that really make the final result is of a meal authentic,” she explained.
This year 24 restaurants are participating, including five from Brooklyn: Cariño, Piramide, Fonda, Mesa Coyoacan and Chavella.
Most of the restaurants will be offering $25 pre-fixes with special, traditional menu items like Piramide’s Morlcajete Norteno — steak, shrimp, queso fresco and poblano peppers in a heated lava rock — or Chiles en Nogada at Mesa Coyoacan, a popular Puebla dish of roasted poblano pepper stuffed with shredded pork and chicken, peaches, pears, apples and almonds, covered in a walnut sauce and topped with pomegranate seeds.
Of course, there will be tacos, too.
Cariño [2 S. Fourth St. between Wythe Avenue and Berry Street in Williamsburg, (718) 384-8282]; Piramide [499 Fifth Ave. between 12th and 13th streets in South Slope, (718) 499-0002]; Fonda [434 Seventh Ave. between 14th and 15th streets in Park Slope, (718) 369-3144]; Mesa Coyoacan [372 Graham Ave. between Skillman Avenue and Conselyea Street in Williamsburg, (718) 782-8171]; and Chavella [732 Classon Ave. between Prospect and Park places in Crown Heights, (718) 622-3100]. For information, visit mexiconowfestival.org.
