Los Jarritos

The place: In the New Castle Farmer’s Market. If you find yourself in New Castle on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, and you fancy yourself a taco, then why not check out Los Jarritos? There’s no reason why not!

Esquites!

Well, I suppose one reason would be that you dislike visiting the New Castle Farmer’s Market. That’s understandable. It’s filthy. Still, if you can stand the crowd and the grime and make it over to Los Jarritos, you’re in for some nice, fresh, tasty eats.

Los Jarritos is nestled in the backish part of the market, across from a stand that specializes in leather belts. Its bright red and green trimmings will pull your eye and focus your gaze, alerting other shoppers that you have a goal, get out of your way, it’s time to eat some tacos.

Dining in is advisable only if you enjoy feeling like you’re putting someone out, or if enjoy you some serious tortilla chips. A stand at the corner of the restaurant sells elotes, a sort of Mexican corn on the cob, from my understanding, which appears to be covered in mayonnaise and, like, chili powder or something. I haven’t tried it yet, but it seems pretty popular. They also sell giant bags of fresh fruit and crispy wheel-shaped objects covered in said chili powder substance. I know nothing about these items. I’m sorry. I’m sorry!

Tacos paired with a nice gin & ting.

The restaurant is generally pretty packed, so be prepared for carryout orders to take between 10 and 20 minutes. Now, if you have managed to get yourself into the Newark Farmer’s Market for some Los Jarritos, and you’ve managed to get your order put in, you may as well make the best of your situation. I would recommend heading across the way to the Palateria Tocumbo around the corner for a fresh-made ice cream bar, or next door to the Latin grocery to pick up a bottle of Ting, a Jamaican grapefruit soda. Gin & Ting makes a great pairing with what you’re about to eat. If you want, you can call it “Gin & Tingic.” I don’t. But you can if you want.

In the bag: Styrofoam takeout box, foil-wrapped tacos, two lime slices, red & green salsas, several large napkins. No radishes.

Ah, tacos de pollo. It’s no secret that my lame American taste buds prefer shredded chicken over any other taco filling nine times out of ten. And when I order shredded chicken tacos, I expect them to be oozingly juicy, tender, and full of that old pollo goodness. Los Jarritos does it just right. Covered in their red salsa, which has a thin, mild tomato base and big pieces of chopped onion, these little babies will drip all over your fingers and hands and chin, and you will like it.

I have, of course, sampled a few other meats from their list, which is of a modest length and offers nothing too exotic for most lame American tastes. Their chorizo isn’t terribly greasy, but is a little on the salty side. Their al pastor is cooked with onions and has an almost fajita-like grilled flavor to it. It’s pretty different from the al pastor you get from other places, but I recommend it for sure. They will also pack green salsa for no extra charge, but you have to ask for it specifically. Like their red salsa, the green is thin, and it has a slow-burning, medium heat with a tomatillo-heavy sourness. It’s solid.

Los Jarritos is probably one of the closest taquerias to my home base, and the biggest bummer about it is that, like the Farmer’s Market which contains it, the restaurant is only open three days a week. As an easily confused person, I frequently misjudge what day it is and often end up thoroughly disappointed when I can’t stop for Los Jarritos on my way home.

New Castle Farmer’s Market

110 DuPont Hwy (Rt 13), New Castle, DE

Fri, Sat: 9 a.m. - 9 p.m.; Sun. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Two Small Updates

Hey, folks. Not back onto the reviews full-time, since it's still cold and I'm still hibernating, but I did want to make a couple of announcements, some sad, some glad:

1. Delaware's taquerias are briefly shining stars, and El Paso Cafe has recently gone 'nova. Yes, folks, Kirkwood Highway's own El Paso Cafe is now closed. I'm not gonna say I told you so.

2. From the ashes of Antojitos Mexicanos las Delicias, a stone's throw down the road from the old El Paso Cafe, has risen . . . El Pique II. Same bat time, same bat channel -- but this iteration of the local (read: "my") favorite does entree platters in addition to tacos a la carte, accepts credit cards with no minimum, and has upped the price per by $0.50. At $2.00 a pop, they're still well worth it. Right across from the BJs on Kirkwood. Viva El Pique II!

El Paso Cafe

The place: Located on Kirkwood Highway in Elsmere, across from the BJs (formerly Value City). If you search El Paso Cafe on Google Street View, you’ll find the building marked “Manos Latina Restaurant” with a sign in front reading “Open: Peruvian Cuisine.” Rest assured, this is no longer a Peruvian restaurant. It is, in fact, a den of tacos.

Season pork, chicken, al pastor, & chorizo.

That said, we shouldn’t feel all too assured about the El Paso Cafe. Certain locations are cursed, and I don’t think I’ve seen a single Mexican restaurant survive on that particular strip of Kirkwood Highway for more than 8 or 9 months. Despite its high Hispanic population, the town of Elsmere tends to be more than a little unwelcoming to these businesses. One in particular was shut down by the city for violating an historic building ordinance and painting their outer walls white, green, and red (the building has since been painted a drab, eggy yellow). Show me one building, Elsmere, in your town, that has any historic significance whatsoever and is worth maintaining in its present state.

... no? Then shut up about the Mexicans. Your drab little snippet of Kirkwood could use some color.

El Paso Cafe. Is it open? Not sure. Looks dark inside, but the neon signs in the windows are lit and the hours posted suggest it should be good to go. Inside, a woman, sitting across the table from whom I assume is her husband, jumps up and genially apologizes, “Sorry, I like the dark!” It takes a certain kind of bubbly person to make that statement, in this context, sound totally not terrifying. Nancy is that kind of bubbly person.

Red, green, brown.

El Paso Cafe is a sit-down restaurant, with more than enough space for a bustling clientele. Menu items and specials are listed in cheery colors on chalkboards hung on every wall. Nancy brings us some slick orange and green menus, a basket of tortilla chips, and three kinds of salsa: red, green, brown. 

The tacos: The El Paso Cafe serves two types of tacos: Antojitos Mexicanos and Tex-Mex Tacos. The former are $2.00 and served on corn tortillas with cilantro and onion, while the latter, at $2.25, have the option of hard or soft shells and come with lettuce, tomato, sour cream, and cheese. My eyes were bigger than my stomach and I ordered four antojitos mexicanos: chorizo, adobada (marinated pork), chicken, and al pastor.

She asked if we wanted single or double tortillas. Double, of course! But on these tacos, the second tortilla felt like an afterthought. None of the meats was so juicy or overflowing that the extra layer was necessary. The two layers flopped against each other stupidly and didn't want to become a cohesive whole. There was some overall oddness in the tacos’ proportions, too. The tortillas, their separateness emphasizing their girth, seemed to be filled with less than the ideal amount of tasty meat. Except, maybe it was exactly the right amount of tasty meat. It was hard to tell because the tortillas were so unwieldy! On top of the meat was a conservative sprinkling of cilantro and onion.

I started with the chorizo, which, to my surprise and delight, was not crumbled sausage as is typical in antojitos mexicanos, but hefty slices instead. The flavor was fantastic, and the casing gave it a great texture. I paired it with the green salsa, which is very mild and subtle in flavor, and chunky. The red salsa, with the consistency of Old El Paso, is also mild and has a smoky chipotle flavor. The brown salsa was something new: made from dried rather than fresh chilis, it starts off very bitter, almost burned, and its heat builds up slowly to a rather intense conclusion. It’s unusual and worth a try, but I didn’t end up using it on anything other than tortilla chips since I tend to be a wuss about bitter flavors.

Midway through the meal, we were brought another little dish of a white sauce. We dipped tentatively with tortilla chips and found a burst of garlicky goodness. Apparently this is a sour-cream based sauce called chimichurri, filled with garlic and other spices, which in some regions of Mexico is served with pizza. “Once you have pizza with this sauce,” Nancy insisted, “pizza will never be the same without it.” Having no pizza on which to try it, I instead poured some on my adobada. It’s an amazingly flavorful sauce, so much so that it overwhelmed the flavor of the seasoned pork. I suspect it would better complement steak or fish tacos. Or pizza ...?

The elusive chimichurri sauce.

El Paso Cafe’s al pastor is cooked with pineapple and is super tasty. Not much else to say about that. If you like al pastor, they do it right.

I didn’t get a chance to try my chicken taco. I ate too many chips. I had it packed up but left it in a friend’s fridge and it got et. By all accounts, it was “pretty good.”

I can’t wait to pick up a tub of chimichurri from El Paso Cafe the next time I order pizza. This is the main excitement I have about returning. Big sausagey slices of chorizo are a close second.

2304 Kirkwood Highway

10 a.m. - 9 p.m., open 7 days

Cash, major credit cards

Full menu including desserts, roomy seating

asada - steak

chorizo - mexican sausage

al pastor - roasted pork with pineapple

carnitas - pork

lengua - beef tongue

pollo asado - grilled chicken

adobada - marinated pork

carne molida - ground beef

arachera - steak with sauted (sic) onions & jalapenos ($2.50)

campechanos - chorizo & steak mixed ($2.50)

Edit: Just stumbled across El Paso Cafe's Facebook page here, complete with blurry photos of delicious things and frequently posted specials.