Reader mail

Happy, snowy Friday. Now, this is winter weather!

What are you eating today? Soup? Stew? Chili? Who do you think has the best chili? I'm still searching for the perfect bowl .....

On another note, check out today's Dish column on the cheesesteaks from Claymont Steak Shop and Italian hoagies from Gaudiello's in Trolley Square. Claymont's steak sandwich is one of the best I've had in Delaware. It's not made with Cheez Whiz, which makes me very happy. Yeah, I know the Whiz is the more traditional Philly cheesesteak topping, but, sorry I just don't get the appeal of processed cheese. And yes, I do know my Philly cheesesteaks. I've got family born and bred in South Philly - heck, my uncle is in the Mummer's Hall of Fame - and I've been to all the old haunts Pat's, Geno's, Jim's, John's Roast Pork, etc.

Reader mail is back - sorry for the delay. Mexican food and the status of Pala's is on your minds today.

Remember: You ask. We answer. Every (well almost every) Friday. Keep the letters coming.


Can you recommend a really great Mexican restaurant or two?
Thank you!
Kimi

Kimi, not sure how fancy or casual you want to go. Here are a few very authentic taco places, Eric Ruth and I checked out:

For terrific tacos, go to Jalisco Mexican Grocery Store, 1720 West Gilpin Drive (off Del. 141), near Newport; 993-0450.

Don't be put off by the graffiti on the building at this grocer – across from Five Star Pizza – near the intersection of Del. 141 and Faulkland Road. Actually, the taqueria is inside the store which stocks its shelves with cowboy boots, soccer jerseys, diapers, tamale steamers and earthenware bean pots, along with such Mexican food staples as cans of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce and cellophane bags of dried ancho chiles.
The tacos ($1.50 each) are some of the best, and least expensive, we've found. Taqueria el Jalisco offers only three kinds: Beef, pork and lengua (tongue). The menu is taped to the counter, and the taqueria has eight tables for those who want to eat in.

La Poblanita, 3804 Lancaster Pike, Wilmington; 993-0464.
You can eat in at one of the 10 vinyl-covered tables or take out at this clean and neat taqueria planted in a small, slightly gritty shopping center across from a Pathmark grocery store and a Mercedes-Benz dealership off Lancaster Pike. The eatery offers a good selection of tacos ($2 each): Al pastor (spicy pork), lengua (cow tongue), chivo (goat), carne asada (grilled beef), pollo (chicken) and chorizo (Mexican sausage).

The counter staff will ask if you want your tacos on one or two corn tortillas. (We got two.) Takeout tacos, dressed with chopped onions and fresh cilantro, are served on Styrofoam plates along with chunks of radishes, lime wedges and pickled jalapeños.

While the al pastor wasn't spicy enough for us, we found the grilled beef very good. The chorizo taco is so moist and flavorful it didn't need a slathering of green or red salsa. The bland chicken taco, clearly aimed at scaredy-cat gringos, would never be my first choice. Definitely order – especially if you're daring – the goat meat taco.

For more of a restaurant experience, I like Taqueria Moroleon, 15 New Garden Shopping Center, Kennett Square, Pa., (610) 444-1210. It's a BYOB tucked into the New Garden strip shopping center off West Cypress Street near Kennett Square, Pa. The sign just says "Mexican food." What is worth the drive is the steak and chicken molcajete ($13.95.) Grilled strips of skirt steak and chicken, hunks of soft cheese and spicy sausage, whole scallions and blistering hot peppers are served along with onions and wedges of tomato inside of a deep, rough-textured volcanic rock bowl known as a molcajete. The entire contents are smothered in a red salsa made with tomatoes, garlic, onions and chile de arbol, or you can choose a spicy salsa verde. The impressive and steaming bowl is delivered to the table along with tortillas -- get the corn ones -- so you can make your own tacos. You also get rice, beans and guacamole. It's a definitely a dish to share, though our server said that some men can finish the entire bowl themselves.

I recently called Pala's, one of our favorite places for take out, and their telephone lines were disconnected. Did they close(I hope not)are they under going renovations or is something else going on? Thanks. - Mitch.

Mitch, I got a phone call that Pala's Cafe was bowing out last August after more than 60 years on Union Street in Wilmington's Little Italy neighborhood.

Delaware longtimers know Pala's, a city institution, as the home of the "World's Worst Pizza." The sign was always a big joke to family and regulars. Actually, the tavern - not a restaurant - used to serve one of Wilmington's best pizzas, along with good strombolis and chopped antipasto salads.