Móle

Occasion: Lunch with Yining, to muse over which beers to buy by the litre
Location: Móle on Allen between Houston and Stanton (molenyc.com)
Edibles: carnitas (pork confit) tacos with guacamole, rice and beans

Musings: Good Mexican is hard to find in the city. If there's one thing transplanted Californians gripe about, it's the lack of cheap and delicious Mexican. (That, and the lack of In-N-Out - which is highly overrated, in my opinion.) While it's not exactly the cheapest, I now have a decent recommendation.

I first tasted Móle's delicious soft tacos at Dan and Lilly's. My friends are lucky enough to live within the delivery radius of Móle - and in the same building as a Whole Foods! I split an order of the pork tacos and a quesadilla with Emily. (I often do this with unknown restaurants, on the theory that you're spreading out your risk.) The quesadilla was fine but the tacos were spectacular. I immediately made a mental note to revisit.

The restaurant itself is very small, seating about fifteen people inside and four outside. We had no trouble getting seated, as NY locals had all fled to the Hamptons or wherever for the weekend. I ordered the pork tacos, this time greedily keeping the entire plate for myself.

It's described in the menu as two tacos but it's really four: two generous heaps of pork, onion and cilantro served on double layers of tortillas - easily separated into four tacos satisfying enough for even this enthusiastic carnivore. The chunks of pork are flavorful and juicy and the tortillas are fresh, soft and redolent of corn. The $14 plate also came with rice and beans, which I could have done without (and barely touched) but did not have the option to exclude. A side of guac was an extra $3. So, not cheap. But, to compare, the excellent soft tacos I had at Lotería in Los Angeles were $3.50 each.

Yining had the adobo pork sandwich, which was huge and came with a mountain of fries. It was good, she reported, but I could see that she was jealous of my tacos.

[Note: If you work anywhere nearby, the weekday lunch menu has a $7 taco place, which I would guess to be a smaller serving.]