"Good Mexican food" is a subjective term. For me, good Mexican food reminds me of living in California, of tiny taquerias where no English was spoken and the food was spicy hot, homemade, and good, served by a nice, older woman who always remembered your favorite thing each time. It was the type of food you would eat before going out for a night of drinking as it would set the base to keep you ok all night, or the type of food you'd eat the morning after a long night of drinking, to bring you back into the world. It was comfort food extraordinaire, heavy and filling.
I have suffered too many bad Mexican food experiences in Europe to even list. The worst ones were probably in Germany, where there was no spiciness to the food and the nacho chips had a powered salty spice on them. (shudder)
So where is this lovely hole in the wall I'm sending you to? It's The Taco Shop in Copenhagen, Denmark. Yes, Denmark of all places. It's not as cheap as the taqs in CA (especially if you were to factor in the round trip flight from DE just for lunch!), but it is less expensive food by Denmark standards. For example, that's the number 16 nachos in the back of the photo, that plate was just over 5 euros. Also it is extremely filling food. We went for lunch and it was literally the only food I ate for the entire day.
We went to the one on Nr. Farimagsgade 57. It is very close to Israel Square (Israels Plads), so perhaps a 20 min walk from the Central Station. They speak very good English, and there are menus taped to the counter in other languages, including English. I would compare it in style to an imbiss in Germany, just a tiny little place where you order at the counter and can eat sitting on stools while looking out the window at the neighborhood people passing by. They do not do margaritas, or anything else alcoholic, but that could be a calculated move, to keep the customers eating and then moving on rather than sitting with drinks for a longer time. Oh, and if you go? Bring me an order of take away please.
7 comments:
Wow, that looks fantastic. Before we went to Denmark at Easter I did a little research and found out that the Danes are crazy for Mexican food at the moment. Looks like when they do something, they do it RIGHT. Instead of putting corn in in and calling it "Mexican" like the Germans do. :-)
If you find a decent Mexican in the Köln area, PLEASE tell me! I used to try regularly to find one, but they were all so deplorable I gave up.
On the other hand, it allowed me to discover good Turkish restaurants.
Another blogger once recommended a place in Duesseldorf (so, not too much of a trip from Cologne) called Zapata. I haven't tried it yet, so it's all on his word. If you go to the DUS Hbf, take the U76 (or U74, too, I think) toward Oberkassel/Krefeld. It's on the right side of the road in the heart of the Oberkassel neighborhood.
christina: i hope they don't stop being crazy about their version of mexican food-as it's so yummy.
vailian: i also gave up on koeln mexican.
debbie: i also have heard of that one, but have not tried it either. i was too scarred by my koeln experiences to venture any further.
hmm...I'm still a bit suspicious about it actually being good (after looking for so long), but since our definition of good Mex food is the same, I'll take your word for it.
j: i too was hesitant to believe. after eating it on the first day, i planned the entire second day of the visit around going back there for lunch, THAT is how good it was.
Oh. My. God. It actually looks good! And if I didn't know better I'd swear I saw actual cheddar cheese and jalapenos on those nachos.
That's it, the next vacation we take will be to Copenhagen...
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