quesadilla – Michael Eats

Location: 1885 Drew Road, Mississauga
Website: https://www.instagram.com/palantoj0/

Pa’l Antojo is in the middle of an industrial wasteland near the airport, so it definitely qualifies as a hidden gem. I was mostly in the area to pick up nuts from Master Delight, which I think sells the best nuts in the city. But it’s worth the trek to check out Pa’l Antojo either way; the food is stellar.

I tried a couple of things. I’d heard the quesabirrias (“stewed beef seasoned on a crunchy corn tortilla with cheese, cilantro, onion and beef broth”) are the thing to order here, so that was a must.

It’s very, very good, with a great contrast between the slightly crispy tortilla, the gooey cheese, and the tender beef. Once you dip it into the very flavourful broth, you’re off to the races. I could eat a million of these.

I also tried a pastor taco, and it was just as good, with the very generous amount of pork being crispy and abundantly tasty, and with the double layer of fresh corn tortillas complementing it perfectly.

Location: 131 Roncesvalles Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.cinco.restaurant/

Cinco is an unassuming Mexican restaurant on Roncesvalles that’s been serving up tacos and rotisserie chicken for about a year. Nothing about it particularly stands out, but if you’re in the area, I’m sure you could do worse.

I tried a couple of things. The first was the cochinita pibil taco: “marinated braised pork in adobo, six hour slow-cooked pork belly, queso oaxaca, topped with habanero onions.”

It wasn’t bad, though I wish they had taken the same amount of meat and split it into two tacos, because it’s kind of absurd.

The bites where you get a bit of everything — the shredded pork, the cilantro, the pickled onions — are really good. But there’s such a heaping mound of meat that many (most?) of the mouthfuls are pork, pork, and nothing but pork.

This wouldn’t have necessarily been a bad thing, but the pork was quite dry despite being shockingly greasy (seriously, the amount of oil dripping out of the taco was insane. The entire plate was swimming in it by the time I finished).

Still, it was tasty enough — the adobo-braised pork was tasty, the two blue corn tortillas were nice and fresh (the thin layer of cheese between them was a nice touch, but it was a bit too subtle to add much to the overstuffed taco), and the mouthfuls with a bit of everything had a nice balance of richness from the meat and acidity from the pickles.

I also tried the the chicken quesadilla, a daily special. This was a bit of a head-scratcher; it was filled with pieces of plain chicken, and… that’s about it. No cheese, no other ingredients (that I could taste, at least), just a whole bunch of stale-tasting chicken chunks. But it was fine, I guess — especially once I started dipping it into the pool of porky grease from the taco.

Tag: quesadilla

Tasty Mexican Food at Pa’l Antojo

Average Mexican Food at Cinco Mexican Restaurant