On Sundays, and only on Sundays, at the back of a market in Jackson Heights, you can get what I believe to be the best Mexican food in New York City.
I’m from Chicago, which has amazing Mexican food. Ever since moving to New York, I have missed Chicago’s Mexican food, in particular carnitas, barbacoa, and birria, typical slow-cooked meats from various parts of central Mexico. And while you can find versions of all three of these meats in New York City, rarely do they live up to the standard I came to expect living in Chicago. Most tragically, it’s virtually impossible to find either barbacoa or birria de chivo, made with goat, in New York.
But no longer! 5 De Mayo makes all three of these wonderful Mexican meats in-house. Their carnitas glisten with fat and are served skin-on, a telltale sign of good carnitas. And see how translucent the skin is? It can be broken apart with a spoon and mixed in with the lean meat underneath, moistening it and infusing it with flavor. The carnitas are also heavily salted, which is another traditional characteristic. Both the carnitas and the barbacoa are served with an excellent salsa verde, which has a strong, blunt heat from serrano chiles along with highly aromatic notes from cilantro and tomatillos. Barbacoa is leaner and has a somewhat gamey flavor characteristic of goat, which is complemented beautifully by slow cooking in agave (maguey) leaves, which infuse the meat with their unique aroma. Birria, here listed as “consome,” is also excellent. This is the style with tomato and chickpeas (one of my favorites), and the goat is wonderfully juicy and tender. (Unfortunately no photos of either the birria or the barbacoa, but I’ll make sure to get them next time.)
5 De Mayo Food Market and Carniceria
81-6 Roosevelt Ave
Queens, NY 11373