As we were finishing up dinner at Maximo Bistrot; I asked the Missus if She wanted dessert. She said "yes", but not from Maximo. The Missus had something else in mind for "dessert". As we walked out of the restaurant, She told me, "I want tacos for dessert"! Tacos? Well, ok then, I had a place just a few blocks away that was still open in mind. Taqueria Orinoco.
There was already a line forming when we arrived at the taco shop right on busy Avenida Insurgentes.
The line moved fairly quickly and we got up to the counter to order in like 15 minutes or so.
From here, you place your order, are given a number if you are eating in, and if the place is buzzing like on this evening, you wait until a table is ready.
And the place was definitely hopping on this evening.
The tacos here are Monterrey style; that would be Northern….so "trompo" is similar to Al Pastor. We ordered one each of the three on the menu. I think what the Missus enjoyed the most were the salsas; ranging from mild to a really nice and tangy cilantro, to a totally scalding Piquin, which I first ran into during my trip to Paredoncito. The Missus really loved it; but paid the price!
The tres tacos came on a metal tray with griddled onions and really good "smashed" potatoes, basically cooked twice…..my favorite part of the meal.
Our favorite taco was the chicharron, slightly crunchy outside, really fatty, though perhaps a bit on the dry side. The res was dry, chewy, and pretty bland. The trompo, was like Al Pastor, but not nearly as sweet. The tortillas were really good, pliable, but up to the task of enrobing the fillings without breaking. The corn flavor was good and straight-forward.
And while these are considered to be on the expensive side, with water this still came out to just over five bucks US.
As we left there was a line to the end of the block…….
Taqueria Orinoco
Avenida Insurgentes Sur 253, Roma Norte
06700 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Hours
Sun – Wed Noon – 1am
Thurs Noon – 3am
Fri – Sat Noon – 5am
Needless to say; we were pretty stuffed, and we rolled on back to where we were staying. I slept like a baby, at least until the birds started chirping in the morning. Still, we both fell back asleep after that.
There really wasn't any reason to get up early, the Missus had only one thing on the agenda for the day. We finally rose around 8 and left the hotel soon thereafter.
La Condesa is quite charming. I wish I took more photos. The area is known for murals; like this one across the street from where we were staying.
The neighborhood is quite charming.
And along with "people watching"; there were two things we especially loved checking out.
The squirrels doing the "tightrope walk" on powerlines to get from tree to tree.
And the dogs…..and some of the dog walkers who did a pretty amazing job.
We were really enjoying ourselves…….
Thanks for stopping by!
Using our best Spanglish (a pretty feeble excuse for communication) and a lot of pointing at the menu, we were able to order. We started with margaritas on the rocks:
Along with the drinks, arrived some rather ordinary yellow cheese spread thing and some rather good crackers:
Both Tina and I preferred dipping the crackers into the complex and spicy table salsa:
For our first course, we decided on steamed clams. They arrived dripping in butter on top of some grains of rice on a large plate. This was a generous portion and the clams were fresh and balanced between tender and chewy:
While not the best rendition of steamed clams that I have ever had (I would've liked a little garlic), they were quite serviceable and their flavor was enhanced by squeezes of lime juice:
Along with the clams came our bottle of L.A. Cetto chenin blanc. This dry and fruity white wine from the Guadalupe Valley, which we chose from the modest list of about a dozen Mexican wines, paired nicely with our meal:
We then each had a marlin taco. While not much resembling the smoked marlin tacos at 
This taco was very good, but not "in your face" powerful. What I mean is that the flavor was complex, multilayered, and subtle, adjectives that I do not often use when describing Mexican food. The next time I have this, and I sure hope there is a next time, I will simply spoon salsa all over the taco and eat it as if it were a mini marlin quesadilla.
The shrimp were of excellent size and quality and perfectly cooked, and the sauce was a wonderful complement to them. The main courses were accompanied by okay coleslaw and a tasty truncated cone of buttery rice. We also received a basket of toasty bread, which was great dipped into the that great creamy chipotle sauce:
I was very impressed by both the look and the taste of this dish. Sometimes Veracruz sauces can be much like an Italian pasta sauce, with green peppers, olives, and capers in a thick tomato sauce. At Mr. Choby's, the chef had decided to present the mariscos integrated with an assortment of vegetables. The fish fillet pieces were fresh and tender as was the octopus, and the shrimp, while smaller than Tina's, were also very good. Fresh tomatoes, seafood juices, and olive oil were the basis of the brothy sauce. Even with the frozen peas and carrots, the collection of vegetables (in particular the seeded and deveined jalapeno slices) was excellent and provided color balance and textual variation as well as a variety of tastes. The jalapeno flavor, in particular, added a nice touch of picante spice and capsicum flavor without overwhelming the other ingredients:
We were happy. Our mouths were happy. And when we got the check, our pocketbooks were not too unhappy:
