Business & Tech

Vegetarian Options at Oaxaca Taqueria

A roasted corn taco is a great alternative to meatier varieties.

I’ll be first to admit it: thus far, I have certainly devoted a not-insignificant portion of this column to chronicling my favorite Mexican food.

But as any native Californian will tell you, once you’ve left home, life, or at least the edible portion, quickly becomes one big, long hunt for great tacos, burritos and tortas.

Ask any of your Californian friends where to find the best Mexican in New York and they will undoubtedly rattle of a list 25 places long, each with singular virtues but likely none of which will get it entirely right. We are a hard to please crowd.

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So I am ashamed to say, that until last Sunday, I had never been to Oaxaca Taqueria — not the original Smith Street locale, nor the newer ones on Fourth Avenue or Prospect Place.

Oaxaca Taqueria boasts more than just one single virtue, but if I were to extol one in particular, it would be the eatery's interesting vegetarian tacos.

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Growing up, it was understood that a taco is merely a tortilla wrapped around whatever else you felt like eating (with some limitations of course: I assure you I never once ate a spaghetti taco). Though we more commonly think of meat tacos as “traditional,” vegetarian ones play their part on the Mexican dinner table, too, and certainly did at our house.

Oaxaca Taqueria offers up a few interesting sounding varieties including a bean and cheese taco, potato and poblano, and on this day in particular, a roasted corn taco.

The taco was a sort of salad of roasted corn, cilantro, tomato salsa, pickled onion and cotija cheese stuffed inside two thick corn tortillas and served with a wedge of lime. It was refreshingly light compared to most Mexican I eat in New York, and on a particularly cold day the summery combination was especially welcome.

And even my carnivorous dining companion thought it was pretty darn tasty.

Editor's Note: "The Best Thing We Ate This Week" is now on Sundays.


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