Back in November of 2010, I was desperately looking for poblanos to make my favorite black beans recipe. None of the supermarkets near me were selling them. At least five places were hit that day; some never sold it and some were just out. Eventually I went on-line to search for some Mexican markets is Queens and found Tulcingo, Restaurant & Bakery 40-11 82nd Street, Elmhurst, NY 11373. (Not related to the Tulcingo in Manhattan, but is related to one in Brooklyn.) I read a review that said they had grocery items in the front. I crossed my fingers and headed that way figuring there must be poblano peppers somewhere in Elmhurst.

When I entered Tulcingo, I was relieved that they did indeed have a little Mexican grocery section in front and loaded a plastic bag full of large beautiful poblano peppers. Then I noticed that the middle third of this restaurant was covered in rows of fresh breads and baked goods, none of which looked familiar.  I visually inspected each item until reaching the back, a counter where you could order food. Well, it was lunch time so I ordered a cemita to-go. That was history. I fell in love with their cemitas and raved about them to Lon. They’re huge and slathered with a great chipotle/mole sauce (I think). Back then (less than a year ago) the Cemita Mixto (mixed sandwich) with three meats was $7.50

Lengua and chorizo cemita 3
Since then, we’ve gone back a few times, always ordering to-go. We’ve tried a few items including their torta, Steak Tampia (pictured top-left), rice & beans (bottom-right), and flan (bottom-left), and found that we don’t care for any of them, with one stand out exception being the awesome Tres Leche cake with walnuts (top-right).

Steak tampiaTres Leche Cake
flanrice and beans

Here’s the bad news: recently their prices have gone up to $8.50 for a two meat cemita. Also, they are consistently incredibly slow, expect to wait 20 minutes for a simple sandwich. And they don’t speak English so we can’t pre-order on the phone though we’ve tried (Lon necesita para practicar su Español). Yet, we will still continue to go back just for the cemitas! They have 14 choices of meats and you can order mixes. Our favorites are pierna (pork leg), lengua (tongue), and chorizo (sausage).

Lengua and chorizo cemita

 

posted by jessica at 11:13 AM Filed under Favorites, Latin, Restaurants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.