The holdays featured a welcome visit from my New York daughter Rachel. She subscribes to the "There's no good Mexican food in New York" catechism (of which more later) and for our last get-together before her departure we hit a mutual favorite, Taqueria Cancun in the Mission District. She was up for a full-blown carne asada "Mission" burrito. Her arm provides some perspective on the size of the thing, which is no mere nosh, but she was able to eat the whole enchilada, er, burrito. I had a mandate to show up at my inlaws a couple of hours later with an appetite for a major feast of Chinese food, so I contented myself with a 'super" taco al pastor.
After the meal, we stopped into Acaxcutla Restaurant a couple of doors away, which now sports a full blown Guatemalan panaderia.
I was clueless, but asked what was "tipico" and "delicioso" and 
the pleasant counter woman suggested the croissant-shaped Gusano
"caterpillar" and the two-dough Concha. This combination was
suggestive enough of a good time, so I took home two bucks worth (each
4/$1). They both had a nice doughiness to them and were obviously
fresh, but even unfilled they were too sweet for my taste, reminiscent
of breads from Chinese bakeries but even a bit sweeter. The Acaxutla bakery has a large variety, so next time I'll try to tell her I want something a little less sweet.
Personally, I find it hard to buy into the "no good Mexican food in New York" cliche. Queens alone has over 70,000 Mexicans, probably almost as many as San Francisco, and there are that many again and more in other boroughs. The Mexicans may be overshadowed by South American and Puerto Rican populaces, but there is certainly a critical mass of gullets clamoring for home cooking. The task is to find who's cooking it.
