Tacos and tortillas and tequila, oh my!

{ Delicious Mexican dishes from Fonda Manhattan  |  25 June 2013 }

My heart beats for tacos. Soft, pillowy masa rounds filled with slow-cooked pork, topped with pickled onions, dotted (let's be honest: drenched) with fiery salsa and washed down with a potent tequila.

I've always felt this way about Mexican food, but our little jaunt down to the Yucatán Peninsula earlier this summer, plus non-stop taco (and taco-like) eating, confirms that yes: I am wholly consumed by the thought of my last taco and where my next will be coming from.

That's where my dear Fonda comes in. I first went to the restaurant with a few girlfriends a year or so ago. It was the end of summer and already a little fall'ish outside—the food was delicious and memorable, but there's just something about tucking into a table full of tacos and tortillas when the weather outside is sultry. After refreshing my memory of its goodness at the Seaport Smorgasbar, I had to take R (whose eyes grew wide as he took his first bite from the kiosk) for a proper dinner date.

So in the midst of the heatwave this week we booked a table at Fonda. The morning of I made sure to wash my hair and wind it up while wet in braids and buns (my portable A/C), to put on a blowsy brightly-colored top (I like to echo my surroundings), and pulled up the menu on my computer (to periodically re-tabulate my ordering strategy throughout the day).

And, my goodness, when our reservation time finally rolled around (and I swam through the mugginess of Soho and the East Village to arrive in Alphabet City) it didn't disappoint. The only thing I would do differently the next time we go (because, yes, there will most certainly be a next time), is not to make the rookie mistake of sitting at a table a few feet to the left of the bar, instead of right at it, because the menu served over there offers most of the same dishes that we ordered, but at "Happy Hour" (which lasts the whole evening!) prices. Noted: cocktails and apps at the bar, entrees and tequila at a table.