Are these the best tacos in New York, or maybe just Manhattan? With such a large and diverse Mexican population, the city has no shortage of authentic and fantastic taquerias, many of them in Jackson Heights, Queens and Sunset Park, Brooklyn– some of these are so good that friends of ours rave about them as being the ‘best tacos in the entire universe,’ and when people unleash such superlatives, it’s best to nod your head and smile. Regardless of how good those taquerias might be, they don’t do you much good when you’re in Manhattan and craving the comfort of two cool corn tortillas wrapped around something warm and spicy. So if you find yourself in such a position, I’d like to suggest that you could do far worse than a trip to Tehuitzingo, on 10th Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen. I’m not going to levy the ‘best in the galaxy’ artillery here, but both Nosher and I believe pretty firmly that Tehuitzingo might just be the best on our tiny island– and that’s no small feat.

Tehuitzingo is named after a small village in central Mexico where we suspect the owners of the shop hail from, although we could not confirm this because all our conversations seemed to revolve entirely around the televised World Cup match with Angola. Our friend Chilena, recruited to help us because of her native Spanish-speaking skills, was no help either– she was as mesmerized by the football match as the proprietors were. No matter, as long as the food didn’t suffer– and it didn’t.

Tehuitzingo specalizes in homey, meaty tacos, offering more than a dozen varieties of carnivorous options, as well as two vegetarian choices (i.e. already more than most Mexican taquerias offer). We ordered the pork (carnitas), goat meat (barbacoa), and potato with jalepeno (papas con rajas, lined up from left to right in the first picture). The pork taco came with a hefty quantity of sauteed onions and tasted just a little like what I imagine a delicious Mexican take on the cheesesteak might. The goat taco had an appropriately gamey goat flavor, with tender, steaming strips of meat that had a tendency to slip out from the far end of the taco– take precautions messy eaters! The potato/jalapeno taco was likewise excellent, with potatoes reminiscent of hash browns that you might find in a roadside diner, but with much less caramelization– and that’s a good thing here, as it allowed the vegetal tastes and the heat from the jalepenos a chance to peek through. On the other hand, like everything we ate from Tehuitzingo’s menu, it was spiced with a cautious hand. While we certainly admire any Mexican restaurant that doesn’t try to cover up culinary sins with excess peppery fire, just a touch more chile would have been perfect. We haven’t tried it, but we’re pretty sure that Tehuitzingo will up the spicy heat for you if you ask: “Mas piquante, por favor” should do the trick.

We also sampled some of Tehuitzingo’s more unusual tacos (top and then left to right in the second picture). The beef (bisteck) tacos we found good, if fairly standard and not quite as satisfying as the other options, especially with the absence of any serious heat. The spicy pork on the other hand (enchilada), was more spicy than anything else we found on the menu, and crispier too; the crunch of the meat and the soft corn tortillas were perfect counterpoints in one of the most successful tacos we have eaten in a very long time. A sausage with potato taco (chorizo con papas) had similar spice and crunch, but Nosher suspected, as did I, that the chorizo suffered more than any of the other meats from being cooked earlier and then reheated for our order. The last of our tacos was a very fine chicken (pollo) taco. Tehuitzingo has even more tacos for the very adventurous, including a beef tongue taco (lengua), beef belly (suadero), pork ear (oreja), pork tripe (tripa), and even beef head (cabeza). Yes, beef head– don’t judge. All tacos are stunningly cheap at either $2 or $2.50 apiece; the more unusual meat tacos tend to cost a bit more, but they’re worth the extra fifty cents. A person with a decent appetite can easily eat three tacos, four for the very hungriest eaters.

Tehuitzingo also makes three varieties of quesadilla, including the unusual pumpkin flower quesadilla (flor de calabaza, pictured) and one made from ‘corn mushrooms’ (a.k.a. huitlacoche), this last being made of corn fungus, a delicacy in Mexico that grows naturally on the ears of corn in the field. Huitlacoche may not sound particularly appetizing– its nickname is ‘corn smut’ after all– but then neither does a truffle, if described as ‘Italian ground fungus nodule,’ which it inescapably is. Moreover, some huitlacoche devotees have taken to calling it ‘Mexican corn truffle,’ just to further the similarities. Disappointingly, Tehuitzingo’s kitchen was out of huitlacoche when we went, but we did try the roasted pumpkin flower, which Nosher raved about, describing it tangy, smoky, and a little musky.

Tehuitzingo also has a number of unadvertised, off-menu daily specials which you have to ask about (they’re nowhere to be found on the bilingual menus), as well as a selection of tortas and soups that are available only on the weekend. We ordered a shrimp and tomatillo salsa verde special ($6) with rice and beans that compared favorably with similar dishes costing multiples of the price elsewhere. All three of us were fascinated by the texture of the shrimp: these were slow-cooked, quite meaty, and tender, but not in a flash-fried sense. That is to say, Tehuitzingo seems to understand a cardinal rule of preparing seafood like shrimp: you cook it for either 2-3 minutes or 30, but nowhere in between. This dish featured the longer-cooked variety, and pulled it off like a charm: the shrimp were not the slightest bit rubbery.

Seating is scarce inside Tehuitzingo–there are several barstools that line the walls toward the back of the store, but if they’re taken, customers are on their own in terms of seating. On the other hand, if the weather is pleasant, the newly renovated Hell’s Kitchen Park is directly opposite the store, with lots of benches and even a few chess tables that could be comandeered as picnic tables in a pinch. Best of all, because Tehuitzingo’s food operations all take place in the back of a well-stocked Mexican deli/market, there are imported drink choices galore: Penafiel, Boing!, and at least six or seven flavors of Jarritos, including Jamaica (hibiscus flower) and my new favorite, the darkly sweet Tamarindo (Tamarind). There are other goodies throughout the store, including Mexican desserts, fresh tortillas, and in fact, all the ingredients you need to make your own tacos at home. But unless you’re a real expert, you’re better off heading straight for the back of the shop, sliding onto a stool, and checking the soccer scores on the screen. Just remember, there’s only one team it’s OK to root for at Tehuitzingo, and it’s not Angola.

Tehuitzingo Mexican Deli, 695 10th Avenue, between 47th and 48th Streets, (212) 397-5956