But I poke fun because I love you, Toronto, not just because I harbour spiteful jealousy of your publicly subsidised healthcare system.<\/p>\n
We had heard about Antojitos Carmen both from the LA Times<\/a> and Jonathan Gold in the LA Weekly<\/a>, where the portrait was painted of a street-food operation coerced from their location in a parking lot who then took up residence in a real storefront on Cesar Chavez earlier this year, with street cred still intact. The joy of eating in parking lots notwithstanding, the bricks-and-mortar Antojitos Carmen we visited is pretty much the perfect restaurant for any occasion. They feature table service, but maintained the low prices you would expect to find eating in a parking lot. The interior is cozy and the service friendly, the menu long and full of surprises. The salsa bar is the best I have encountered, and the manager brought us a bowl of something special he described as an old family recipe \u2013 an addictive mixture of roasted sesame seeds, spices and dried chile bits, more reminiscent to me of Southeast Asian flavors than of any Mexican food I have encountered.<\/p>\n I ordered one each of the carne asada, carnitas, chorizo, and al pastor tacos, for $1.25 each. They are somewhat above average in size. The tortillas are handmade, doubled, and lightly oiled and grilled \u2013 fantastic. \u201cWith everything\u201d means with onion and cilantro \u2013 eaters apply their own salsa from the salsa bar. The salsa bar includes an avocado salsa; a pretty spicy, smoky red; an herby green and a peppery green; and a wicked-hot habanero, probably the hottest salsa ounce-for-ounce I have found at any taco shop.<\/p>\n I started with the carne asada taco, adding some rojo and squeezing some lime juice. The taco here is a splendid rendition of the carne asada taco, not showy but so good. The steak was tender, sparely seasoned with salt and pepper, and had that buttery flavor you find in the best carne asada. It was JUST RIGHT.<\/p>\n Next I ate the chorizo taco. The crumbled chorizo is so potent and pungent without being offensively oversalty. It\u2019s the best chorizo I\u2019ve ever had.<\/p>\n Then I ate the carnitas taco, with the herby green salsa. It\u2019s a fine carnitas with a slow-cooked porky depth to it, but was my least favorite among its standout brother tacos.<\/p>\n I ate the al pastor last, with a healthy helping of the fiery habanero salsa. My smiling mouth burned with habanero and joy as I savored this last treasure from flavor country. It\u2019s tender and flavorful without being saucy or dryrubby.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/tacos.architectureburger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/42tacoA.jpg\" "\\"42")
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