There is a significant Central and Latin American diaspora in Barcelona. My friends here include Venezuelans, Argentinians, Bolivians, and Mexicans. What does that mean for food? Good, good things. Take Mexican – or more specifically – taquerias. I haven’t even been looking for them, yet up they pop, around every corner, beckoning me in with their simple fare and the promise of guacamole. Enter Tamarindo Taqueria.
Like Tamarindo neatly diverting my intentions when I was in the area with the goal of trying out Nanit. With their tongue in cheek “Taco que cierra no es taco” (“A taco that closes in not a taco” – indeed). My appetite tugged at my feet and in I went to have the €9.80 lunch menu which included a starter of frijoles norteños – impossibly salty beans with sausage and gritty milled pepper. Washed down with a large glass of tamarind juice (included). Followed by two tacos and a quesadilla with an in-elegant-not-quite mound of delicious pickled onions on the side.
I went back a few days later and ordered from the menu. Guacamole (€4.40), Nachos del rancho (€5.50) various tacos from €2.10 to €2.50 for the Pirata. There were a few women who ordered a salad at adjacent salads and I am going to say it; don’t go there. In the narrow galley kitchen, you have two large men, bandanas, black aprons already dirty by lunch. One of them is cleaning an avocado which in his large meaty hands takes on the proportions of a marble. Foreseeably – the salad comes undressed, with a bottle each of oil and vinegar plonked next to it. There is no way to satisfactorily make a salad dressing by glugging on oil and vinegar thereby rendering the salad a non-starter.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. After all, this is a taqueria, Tamarindo Taqueria. So sit down and order some tacos and save the salad for another day. I like that Tamarindo is really good value, seems to appeal to big dudes, gray-haired spectacled ladies and perky young things practicing their Spanish with heavy accents. All eating together, brushing elbows – some of them mistakenly ordering the salad.
See this and find more addresses on my Foodie in Barcelona Map
Tamarindo
Carrer Aragó, 236
08007 Gracia
www.facebook.com/taqueriastamarindo
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