The Best Things Our Food Editor Ate (and Drank) This May

As food editor of Yankee and co-host of Weekends with Yankee, it’s my job to travel around New England trying all the great food that our region has to offer. In this regular column, I’ll share my favorite discoveries, from New England-made products to cheap eats to fine dining meals. Come along for the food crawl!

The Best Things Our Food Editor Ate (and Drank) This May

I have a lot of New England travel coming up—stay tuned!—but other than a trip to New York, I stayed close to Boston this month. And I ate well.

1. Beef Birria Tacos at Borrachito Tacqueria & Spirits in Boston

We had just come off of a boat ride around Boston Harbor and the night air was cool and damp, as it tends to be near the ocean in spring. I was craving tacos, and not just any tacos. Birria tacos. Traditionally birria is a Mexican stew from the Jalisco region made with braised goat meat, dried red chiles, marjoram, Mexican oregano, onions, garlic, and other spices. Around Tijuana, cooks began replacing the goat meat with beef and using the braised meat as a filling for quesadillas and tacos, serving the rich cooking broth, or consommé, on the side for dipping.
Just a short walk from the water in Boston’s Seaport district, Borrachito serves a most excellent birria taco. In fact, all the tacos are fantastic, thanks in part to the fact that they make their own tortillas. You just can’t do better than homemade. Borrachito is the first Boston outpost of a (shh!) New York-based restaurant group, but hey, you can’t argue with quality. The consommė was so good that we asked for extra tortillas just to soak it up. If you give Borrachito a try, just know that it’s really two restaurants in one: the casual taqueria in front and a “secret” restaurant/lounge in the back, which you reach through a door that looks like the entrance to a walk-in cooler.

Eggplant Parmesan at da LaPosta in Newton, Massachusetts

Thanks to da LaPosta for letting me use this photo of their excellent eggplant parm.

The food at this Italian restaurant is so good that I’m slowly working my way through the entire menu, which is difficult because it changes seasonally. The pastas are handmade and the pizzas are Neapolitan-style, long-fermented and wood-fired. Pizza toppings range from mozzarella/tomato/basil to the Bagna Cauda pie, which has house-made sausage, escarole, mozzarella, lemon, garlic, and anchovy (don’t let that last one scare you — it’s a perfect flavor combination). But I want to draw special attention to the eggplant parmesan, because there are so many mediocre versions of this dish out there and this one is perfect. Chef Mario LaPosta cuts the eggplant thinly and fries it crisp, then layers it with just the right amount of cheese and a wonderfully tangy tomato sauce. It’s rich but not greasy. Deeply savory but not too salty. I’m thanking my lucky stars that we live within their delivery radius.

Mola Foods Golden Turmeric Iced Tea Latte

Lafortune Djabea began Mola Foods after moving to the United States from Cameroon in 2000. Now, from her headquarters in Nashua, New Hampshire, she makes spice blends, seasonings, sauces, and teas inspired by the flavors of West Africa, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Southeast Asia. In Cameroon, mola means “friend,” and Djabea’s mission is to build community through cuisine. Her Golden Milk Turmeric Tea is a sunny blend of honey, coconut milk powder, cinnamon, cardamom, turmeric, ginger, and other spices. It’s delicious warm, but as we head into summer, I’m stirring a couple of teaspoons of the powder into 8 ounces of cold milk with a few ice cubes to keep myself cool and healthy.

Amy Traverso

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