Taco Time: El Harinazo Pays Homage to the North
ESPAÑOL
Great tacos norteños are a rarity in this city. For 80 years or so, La Tonina has reigned supreme in that department, and still does. But this new option, hidden away in colonia Narvarte, gives that old stalwart a run for its money. A norteño is nothing more than a filling so rich it needs no extras, rolled into a fresh, warm flour tortilla.
Here, some twenty guisos—cooked stews—are offered as fillings, representing several northern states: Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Durango and Sonora. The menu reads like a survey of northern comfort food, with machaca, deshebrada, cortadillo, discada and chile con carne sharing space with a handful of central Mexican standbys. Mostly beef-based, the flavors don't stray from a particularly narrow palette. Northern cooking relies on simple ingredients and a relatively small repertoire of chiles, so the results can seem one-dimensional. At their best, however, they are rich, deeply savory, a beautiful dark brick red and unapologetically picante.
Machaca con huevo, my favorite, is dried, reconstituted beef scrambled with eggs, a Monterrey standard that welcomes a spoonful of salsa verde. While the picadillo could use a bit more chutzpah, the slow-cooked beef barbacoa provides an excellent canvas upon which to pile onion, cilantro, lime and fiery red or green salsa. The chile de carne and cortadillo are similarly satisfying, recalling the sort of food one finds in roadside cafés along the highways of northern Mexico.
The joint jumps, full of down-home ambience, casual tables, norteña on the rockola and all. Prices are reasonable, with tacos going for $45 apiece. And the good news is that the 8 a.m. opening makes this a great breakfast/hangover treatment destination.
In a city awash in corn tortillas, it's refreshing to be reminded how good a flour tortilla can be when treated with equal respect.
El Harinazo
Diag. San Antonio 1695, Narvarte Oriente (see map)
Open daily 8 a.m. – 6 p.m.
