El Gallito!

El Gallito

693 Main Street
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601-3740
(845) 471-4834

Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' about!

After last week's excursion to the pleasantly gringo-ized Cafe Maya on Main Street, Wappingers Falls, with their pleasant margaritas, it was nice to come home to some Poughkeepsie Main Street Mexican.

No frills, no loud music, no English (OK, the owner spoke real good)... No beer. No, sniff, margaritas. But yet again, we had some predictably wonderful Mexican food.

We began with the now standard Mexican (cane sugar) Coke, 2 Jarritos Tamarindos, and Zoe was brave to try the, and I am not making this up, Boingo Guava soda, also made with pure cane sugar. Truth be told, we reckoned it was just sub-saturated with real sugar, which they must've figured was a good substitute for guava.

The waitress, who spoke not a word of English (to us, at any rate), dropped off some fantastically fresh salsas (red and green), which had us waiting in anticipation for the chips that never came. When I asked in my broken Spanish for chips, she just smiled and shook her head. She had multiple blenders stuffed to the brim with chiles in the back, whirring away.

The offerings at El Gallito were slightly different than the other Mexican restaurants in Poughkeepsie, perhaps reflecting the restauranteur's Puebla origins (Puebla is a state in Mexico north of Oaxaca and a little east of Mexico City). The menu is quite simple, written only in Spanish. Zoe opted for the good old standard- Tacos de pollo. These tacos were a little rough, served with a healthy portion of fresh cilantro, a smattering of onions and only a small wedge of lime to dampen the rabbit food. Not exactly what even an intrepid 10 year old had in mind.

Nina and our friend Dan, who accompanied us on this week's outing, opted for the chicken burrito. Mostly chicken, rice and beans with some of that really nice green salsa. I learned of this not from young Dan, who plowed through his burro with the gusto of a 20-something who has been working the Appalachian Trail all summer, but from Nina who was horrified to find, *gasp!*, salsa on her burrito and wouldn't eat it! Punk.

Luckily, the waitress humored me when I asked for the, "Especial de la casa" in my just-slightly-less-than-useless Spanish. Pollo rostisseria! She brought out the most wonderful looking half bird I'd seen in a long time. Roasted to perfection, Nina complained that it was hard to eat because the meat just fell off the bones. I found the chicken a bit bland, but when wrapped up in a fresh, warm corn tortilla, a smattering of rice and black beans and some of that salsa... Yeah, that's right!

I shared my chicken with Nina, and she her burrito with me. Zoe snaked my Coke, and I kindly refused her Boingo (I know, that just sounds wrong...). And Dan happily munched away during this typical occurrence of McAdoo standard bliss.

La Cabanita

La Cabanita

739 Main Street

Carolina Ramirez tells us that her mother's cooking is so good, she's single-handedly covered uncounted Arlington High School Taco Bell devotees over to her Oaxacan style cuisine.

After eating at her taqueria, I understand why.

The Ramirez family shares their matriarchs gifts with the general population at their Main Street establishment, La Cabanita. Located near the corner of Main and Grand Avenue, the unassuming storefront belies the delicious food inside. Entering with us yesterday were the intrepid Jenny, with her daughters Logan (9) and Lauren (6). Old mainstays Tom, Freya (11) and Linnea (9) joined us a little bit late for lack of parking.

Carolina seated us while the girls grabbed an armful of Jarritos (pineapple was the flava of the da) and I a Sidral Mundet. When Tom finally showed, he got a Mexican Coke- a treat as it is made with real sugar, not high fructose corn syrup. As we got settled, she hit us with some warm tortilla chips served with a blended red chile salsa. Like everything I tried, the salsa had the perfect amount of seasoning- neither to salty, peppery, nor spicy. Just right. The poor, poor children were disappointed almost to the point of tears as the menu's tantalizing advertisement for fresh guacamole was thwarted because of underripe avocados. Somehow I know that their guacamole would have been riiiight.... A little later, after Tom requested some pico de gallo (also good), she brought out some nice green salsa with a sour cream base, spiced with mild chiles and heaps of cilantro.

It was a bit of a challenge ordering over the big screen TV blaring music videos, which ran the gamut from Nortena to Nelly, so we accepted it as local color, and got accustomed to it. Zoe, however, insists that the rather racy video fare was decidedly NOT age appropriate and offended her tweeny sensibility, yet she remained glued nonetheless.

Nina very confidently ordered the al pastor tostadas and Zoe the al pastor burrito (makes a father proud, it does!). Knowing that there would be plenty of leftovers, I ordered a couple of al pastor (runs in the family) tacos. Jenny followed Nina's lead and ordered the steak tostada which she shared with Logan while Lauren plowed through a bean and cheese taco. Tom ordered his old faithful, the steak torta. The torta came slightly different than his favorite at Mole Mole as it has one big piece of steak rather than slices, and mayo (a secret weapon in Senora Ramirez's arsenal, I believe), which he found surprisingly tasty, albeit a departure from the norm.

Freya ordered the steak tacos. The tacos at La Cabanita are very small- an order comes with six soft corn tortilla tacos, topped with onion and cilantro, garnished with fresh radishes and lime. Perfect! Well, my al pastor tacos were perfect because I could actually taste the grilled pork and pineapple without being overpowered by the chiles. But when an 11 year old girl with Minnesotan-Scandinavian roots calls it, "bland", one might wonder if it might have benefited from just a bit more zing.

Linnea, not daunted by the well-meaning waitresses that seem to consistently ignore her pleas for a simple quesadilla (flour tortilla, if available, please, and only cheese. No pico de gallo. No tomatoes. For God's sake, no habaneros. No nothing. Nada.), ordered her standard. After getting her meal, she saunters over to Tom with her patented deadpan. "They put ham in it." After noticing a hint of a smile that only a father could pick up, she returned to her meal, ecstatic. (We soon learned that she did not indeed have a quesadilla, as expected, but rather a zynchronizada- a quesadilla with ham, cheese, mayo (secret weapon) and tomatoes- sin mayo y tomat.)

All was well and good until it was time to settle the tab. Then it got better. In classic style, they had a large glass container filled with fresh horchata at the counter. We ordered a large for the girls to share. They sampled it with mixed approval (Nina had no problem with that. "More for ME!"). While it was a bit on the thin side, it sure hit the spot on this impossibly hot day.

La Cabanita is truly a gem.