I'm from Texas and will be interning in Manhattan this summer--I don't know if I can go a whole 3 months without good barbecue or Tex-Mex. Can anyone recommend places where I can get my fix, preferably on the UES?

Thanks!

I'm from Texas too. People will tell you Rosa Mexicano/Mama Mexico/Mexican Radio, etc. Don't listen to them. I'm afraid you will have to have enchiladas/tamales etc flown in from Chuy's; the Mexican food up here is a sad sad joke. (eg, If you try to order tortilla soup or sopapillas at a Mexican restaurant in New York, you will get a blank stare.)

As for BBQ, I hear Virgils Real BBQ is pretty good.

There's plenty of good tacos and tamales out here in Queens, especially in Astoria and Corona. I'd suggest stopping by the place marked "Real Mexican Food" on 29th Street in Astoria, just south of 30th Avenue - it's just a counter in a grocery store, but terrific tacos.

There's also a marvelous taco place, a real sit-down restaurant, around ... damn, I think it's 104th Street and Lexington Avenue. Wish I could remember the exact address - I was last there about a year ago. The area of 116th Street between 2nd and Lex is all solid Mexican now.

I'd also suggest going to www.chowhound.com for more recommendations.

Blue, sopapillas are a regional food of northern Mexico. A lot of the Mexicans in NYC are from the southwest - Puebla, Hidalgo, around Oaxaca, places like that. So you're not going to see so much of the Sonoran food you may be used to from the American Southwest, but there's plenty of good Mexican.

Oh, I'm rereading the original message. Sorry, knee-jerk reaction. Yes, we have good Mexican in NYC, but you're right - the TEX-mex, the northern Mexican stuff that people from Texas and Arizona are used to, is lousy.

Well Red, if you'll retract part of your statement, I'll retract part of mine:
I WILL say that that the nouveau/fru-fru Mexican like Hell's Kitchen on 9th Avenue/47 is very good--in a chipotle-rubbed pork chops w mango reduction sauce kind of way.

And yes, there is certainly a sizable Mexican community in New York (esp in Queens as Red says), with each region's food represented in a tasty way.

But Kat, you will not hear Jerry Jeff Walker playing in the background in any Mexican restaurant here, let's put it that way.

Damn straight, Blue. I think we're in agreement. I love my taco joint, but I've never had truly great chili in NYC, for instance. And certainly nothing ABQ or Sante Fe-style New Mexican. What is the geographic range of Texas meat chili, anyway? Where does it come from?

The best Texas meat chili I have had has been at chili cook-offs I went to as a child--usually in the south central region of Texas, alongside reenactments of old cattle drives, etc. I have also not found anything that compares to it in NM or elsewhere in Southwest--they make it differently outside of TX (beans, served on white rice [!!]).

Now on to BBQ--a topic about which I know nothing. Any suggestions?

I would suggest bringing a few jars of 505 Green Chile to make your own burritos and such at home. That is the nearest to the real thing that my eastern friends get, and I have to mail it to them. Another friend has Stokely's send her cans (I hate to say what that stuff looks like) regularly by the case.

They are too lazy to make Chile Verde with Ortega canned chiles like I taught them. Since I don't think you can buy a bushel of Hatch Dynamite anywhere east of Kansas. You can on the internet though. My cousin sends it and Chile Colorado to my Uncle in CA each year during the peak.

I am from California, but grew up with New Mexico style Mexican (I am half, as in Mexerican) which is where my family is originally from. Colorado where I live now is the same as NM, and so I am in heaven here.

The only CA style Mexican I love is Fish Tacos. Soooo good!

Good luck to you! Red, do I need to bring you a batch of Chile Verde when I show up?!

Thanks guys! But Blue, really no Jerry Jeff? Sadly, I expected this--I'll just have to bring my CD collection. Is there even a country station up there?

Not that I know of. (You will find in New York good hip-hop and salsa stations.)

Other items you may be interested in packing in your carry-on:

Rotele tomatoes (for mixing w Velveeta to make queso while watching UT/OU game)
Ranch Style beans
La Madeleine Tomato Basil soup (jars of it)
Hell on the Red salsa or Joe T Garcia's salsa

Good luck. Hook Em Horns.

For BBQ I would have to say Dinosaur BBQ on 12th and 131st. Just opened in December and it is phenomenal. Bring your sharpie to write on the bathroom stall as is the tradition . I would have to agree that I have yet to find decent Mexican anywhere not near Mexico. I lived in SD for 8 years with my dad working in TJ (Tijuana) so nothing beats a good carne asada taco in a corn tortilla. Oh just thinking about that makes my mouth water. Gotta be at a stand too not a restaurant it is just so much better that way.

[www.brotherjimmys.com]
this is a great bbq place.