The place: El Pique is located off Rt. 100, between Kirkwood Highway and Maryland Avenue, in a terrifying little shopping center on a traffic island with scant parking and two brutal speed bumps. The only adjacent shop is an overpriced and damp liquor store. Expect to be solicited by all manner of strung out folk and men in vans offering you their newly recorded hip hop single for $5 a disc.
Despite being greeted by metal bars on the windows and doors, the inside of El Pique is rather friendly. Its tiny interior has seating for about 8-10 people, and its walls are lined with Mexican spices, candies, refrigerators full of soda, sour cream, and heads of lettuce, as well as a big, low cooler by the counter full of homemade ice cream and fruit bars from Palateria Tocumbo. One of two young men will greet you through a window at the counter, like a receptionist at the dentist’s office, with a big smile and a laminated 8.5” x 11” sheet of paper which is their menu.
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| Chicken, spicy pork, seasoned lamb. |
In the bag: Takeout orders come bound by plastic wrap to a foam plate. The tacos are wrapped in paper and served with lime and radish slices. Depending on who packs your order, you may be asked whether you prefer red or green salsa, or you may just get both. If you order with friends, your plates will be stacked on top of one another in a plastic bag, along with a few small, thin, square napkins and sometimes some salt packets.
The tacos: Good God are these things marvelous. El Pique packs their little tacos with meat cooked so perfectly I never want to stop eating them, no matter how many I’ve had, and long after I’ve pinched the last crumb of chorizo off my plate I’m still debating whether I should go back and get a few more before the place closes. The aforementioned chorizo is perfectly seasoned, and neither too greasy nor too salty. I tend to go heavy with the green salsa on these guys to cut down on what little greasy flavor remains. I’ve tried the regular, seasoned, and spicy varieties of pork. I always recommend seasoned over regular with any taco meats, and it’s no different here. The spicy pork is as advertised, and you may not even want to use any salsa on these guys if you’re not into severe pain. This taco makes you glad El Pique packed some refreshing radishes for you. Their chicken is cooked in chunks rather than shredded and as such has a firmer bite and is slightly less juicy than that from some other places.
If you try anything at El Pique, though, it’s got to be the seasoned lamb. A big, hand-painted sign in front of the dive advertises “LAMB CONSOMME” -- lamb soup. I haven’t gotten around to trying it yet, because I, as we well know, am a sucker for tacos. But if it’s half as good as the lamb tacos, this stuff is surely a treat. I really do mean to try it sometime. Additional menu items include burritos (my dad stumbled upon this place independently and says the burritos are fantastic), quesadillas, and some other stuff I wasn’t able to find reliable translations of on Google. Some of the burrito fillings are a bit odd, like egg and head cheese and pineapple, but are probably awesome. I did find a piece of pineapple in one of my chicken tacos once. I didn’t hate it.
El Pique is cash only, but since the tacos are only $1.50 each, you can easily satisfy a craving with the change from under the passenger seat.
805 N. DuPont St
Wilmington, DE 19805
Open until 9
Cash only
barbacoa - lamb
birria - season lamb
carnitas - pork
trompa - pork snout
buche - pork stomach
al pastor - season pork
enchilada - spicy pork
chorizo - mex sausage
campechano - mex sausage & steak
azada-bisteck - beef steak
suadero - beef angus
lengua - beef tongue
cabeza - beef head
tripa (1.75) - beef tripe
pollo - chicken
surtida - variety meat mix
alambre - fajita
This blog is awesome....and this blog makes me want tacos more than usual.
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