An authentic Mexican taqueria lands in Englewood

A Taco de Pescado is made with grilled fish and topped with an avocado slice at Taqueria Los Gueros in Englewood, where authentic Mexican food hasn't always been available.

A Taco al Pastor with spit-roasted pork, fresh pineapple, onions and cilantro on a single corn tortilla. Salsas and an incendiary slaw allow you to customize your taco.  

-- HACKENSACK, N.J. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Englewood wasn't known for authentic Mexican food until Jesus Pita opened a branch of his popular Passaic city restaurant on West Palisade Avenue in June 2011.

I recall once ordering fish tacos at Englewood's Blue Moon Mexican Cafe in the mid-1990s, and the dish that was served to me was a soggy mess.

That's when I began exploring the Mexican taquerias, restaurants and wholesale food warehouses in the city of Passaic, where thousands of immigrants from Puebla settled.

When I still ate meat, we enjoyed many a taco at Brenda Lee's two locations in Passaic city, which is connected to Englewood by NJ Transit's No. 780 bus.

Now, the owners of two Taqueria Los Gueros in Passaic have opened a branch in Englewood, about a block from the Pita family's Los Maravillas de Tulcingo, a full-service restaurant. 

Let the battle of the pastor tacos begin.

Spicy green salsa, top right; fiery red salsa, top left; an incendiary slaw of onions and Habanero peppers, bottom left; and fresh lime are served with every order of tacos.

Jarritos is a brand of soda from Mexico that is made with sugar, not high-fructose corn syrup.

Diving in 

On Thursday, after a medical appointment in Englewood, we drove downtown to Taqueria Los Gueros, and ordered Tacos al Pastor for my son and Tacos de Pescado for me (an order of 4 tacos are $6 and $8, respectively).

The brightly decorated space is long and narrow, with high tables and chairs along one wall and the open kitchen along the other. 

The taqueria doesn't make the pastor tacos with fresh pineapple unless you request it. The fish tacos are made with two corn tortillas, pico de gallo (fresh, chopped tomatoes, onions and chilis) and an avocado slice.

The Burrito Mexicano (Carnitas) is made with a flour tortilla ($6). It's filling, but not very interesting. Stick with the tacos and tortas.

At Taqueria Los Gueros, pork for the Taco al Pastor is spit roasted in the style of Mexico's Lebanese immigrants. 

Fish tacos

I loved my fish tacos, which are made with grilled tilapia and corn tortillas, and gobbled each one in two or three bites. They were hot and scrumptious, and I made sure to add green and red salsas to them.

My son said the pastor tacos with onion and cilantro were delicious, reminding him of those we enjoyed at Taqueria El Califa in Mexico City.

My wife agreed after trying her takeout order of pastor tacos.

At El Califa, the pork on a vertical spit is topped with a fresh, peeled pineapple, allowing the taco maker to slice off fruit and meat with one motion into the corn tortilla in his hand.

The limited menu at the moderately priced Taqueria Los Gueros also offers sandwiches called tortas ($3 to $10), quesadillas ($7 to $9); and plates of eggs, fish or meat with rice, beans and tortillas ($6 to $10).

On Taco Tuesdays, five pastor, carnitas (pork) or pollo (chicken) tacos are only $4.99.

Taqueria Los Gueros on West Palisade Avenue in Englewood is one of four in North Jersey. The Englewood location is clean, and brightly decorated and lit, attracting taco lovers, above and below.

Details

Taqueria Los Gueros, 46 W. Palisade Ave., Englewood; 201-408-5924. Open 7 days from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Metered street parking until 6 p.m., except Sundays.

Other locations: 231 Monroe St., Passaic (1-973-472-1091); 210 Dayton Ave., Passaic (1-973-773-7245); 93 Route 17 south, East Rutherford (201-340-4361); and 304 9th St., Saddle Brook (1-862-225-9683). 

Restaurant, shopping and cooking notes

El Califa in Mexico City serves a wonderful taco al pastor. The ingredients include spit-roasted pork, fresh pineapple and a soft corn tortilla. They're served three to an order.

In Mexico, tacos are street food. Even in restaurants, such as El Califa in Mexico City, they are served simply -- your choice of meat or poultry in a soft corn tortilla with chopped onion and cilantro, and great hot sauces on the side.

At Rosa Mexicano in Hackensack, fish, chicken or steak tacos are transformed into a meal. I joined two friends for lunch there Friday, and we ordered chicken and fish tacos, and enchiladas Suizas. (I didn't pay the bill, but recall each dish was around $11 or $12.)

My tender white fish had been marinated in achiote, orange and garlic and came with onions in a small skillet. I also got a wedge of lime, a small serving of creamed corn, another of smoky beans and a little red salsa. 

Larger bowls of herbed rice and refried beans, and a covered basket of warm tortillas were meant to be shared. We asked for a green salsa and some sour cream. 

I assembled my own tacos with the soft corn tortillas made in the dining room -- smearing some refried beans and sour cream on one, adding a little fish and onion, pouring on a salsa or two. One of my friends added rice to her chicken tacos. It was a satisfying lunch in a restaurant that makes just about everything from scratch.

Rosa Mexicano, 390 Hackensack Ave., Hackensack,

in The Shops at Riverside; 201-489-9100.

Gammiok in Fort Lee

On Saturday night, we stopped for dinner at Gammiok, the stylish Korean restaurant in Fort Lee.

Most Korean restaurants serve four or more complimentary side dishes with every meal, but Gammiok is different. 

It highlights its kimchi service -- cabbage and radish kimchi are brought to the table in a small vase and sauce comes in a separate container. The cabbage kimchi is cut with a scissors and placed on a plate with the radish kimchi, then the sauce is poured on top.

Gammiok also is alone in serving a basket of fresh, crunchy cabbage leaves and twisted, hot green peppers that aren't for the faint of heart.

Our appetizer was a thick, seafood and scallion pancake ($9.95) -- one of the non-spicy dishes on the menu -- that the waitress cut like a pizza.

Our entrees were comforting stone-bowl bibimbap ($13.95) -- steamed rice topped with vegetables, ground beef and a raw egg. I asked the waiter to hold the meat on mine, and fry all the eggs. 

You get a mildly spicy red sauce and a second sauce to pour on top before mixing all the ingredients together, making sure to scrape up bits from the bottom of the hot bowl. A wonderful meal.

For takeout, we ordered a container of Gammiok's cabbage kimchi ($7).

Gammiok Restaurant, 485 Main St., 

Fort Lee; 201-242-1333.

Littlenecks in Hackensack

Littlenecks, those well-known, wild-caught clams, were available on Sunday at the Costco in Hackensack, and they made a great appetizer for a dinner of crab cakes and baked potatoes.

The clams were $2.99 a pound, but came in a bag that weighed just over 5 pounds. That's a lot of shells, but a manageable amount of clams for two (my wife doesn't eat them).

Preparation couldn't be easier. Keeping them in the bag, I rinsed them briefly, then carefully emptied the live clams into a pot. I poured inexpensive Japanese sake over them, just to cover the bottom of the pot, turned up the heat and covered it. Wine white is just as good.

When the clams open, they release salty water to mix with the sake, and they're done. I eat mine with a spritz of fresh lemon juice, my son with hot sauce. Then, I drink a cup or two of the delicious sake broth. 

Also at Costco, I found salted Alaskan pollock, two pounds for $6.39, an inexpensive stand-in for salted cod. I hesitated to buy the pollock last week, because it is from China, which has a poor food-safety record, but I picked up some Sunday to try it.

King whiting

My wife found whole king whiting at the H Mart in Englewood last week for $3.99 a pound and asked the fish monger to clean and gut them and cut off the heads.

At home, she rolled the whole fish in flour and fried them. In a separate pot, she cooked sliced carrot, onion and hot peppers in vinegar and water, and poured the vegetables over the cooked fish.

That's called "escoveitch [of] fish" in the Caribbean.

At Red Hen Bistro in Wood-Ridge

Image via Wikipedia

When I read in the paper that fish tacos were the most popular dish at the new Red Hen Bistro, I planned to have our one weekly dinner out there Saturday evening. The Wood-Ridge restaurant also offers fish and chips, a dish my son loves almost as much as the tacos.

Well, we were disappointed, and despite trying to eat a healthy meal, we ended up with a lot of fried food bordering on greasy. But Chef-Owner Carlos Valdez promised to make us soft fish tacos the next time, and comped us with a wonderful bread pudding and coffee.

Valdez says he is Mexican, yet his St. Helena fish tacos (3 for $9.95) were served in brittle, fried tortillas that fell apart as we tried to eat them. When we asked for a hot sauce, all the kitchen had to offer was a tepid chimichurri. He said the next time, we should specify that we want two soft corn tortillas for each taco, the way they are served in the Pueblan taco joints in Passaic city.

The fish and chips ($13.95) were another problem. One piece of haddock came in in too much fried batter and was accompanied by roasted, not fried, potatoes. Yet, the delicious roasted potatoes were a welcome break from all the greasy food. 

I started with a refreshing Little Bistro Salad, organic greens, croutons and champagne vinaigrette ($5.95), and we shared an order of excellent truffled frites ($4.95) with truffle oil, herbs and shaved cheese.

We are not dessert eaters, but the complimentary bread pudding with Bing cherries -- served in a puddle of white chocolate -- was delicious and not too sweet.

The menu is filled with comfort food, such as wild mushroom risotto and Croque Madam, a grilled ham, cheese and fried-egg sandwich. A special was cassoulet, the white-bean stew, with crispy duck leg, but we're not eating meat. More detailed menu descriptions would avoid confusion, such as with the fish tacos.

The storefront has a comfortable interior, and you can bring your own beer or wine. But there is only one off-street parking space, and street parking is limited. We parked on a street off Moonachie Avenue. An off-note in the dining room was the constant sound of dishes being washed.

Red Hen Bistro, 525 Moonachie Ave., Wood-Ridge; 

201-728-4501. Open Monday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.