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I
’m hanging out with the wrong crowd. Despite asking my friends — and acquaintances — incessantly about restaurants I should try, nobody told me about a taco place I found on my own, a restaurant that brimmed with people during a recent dinner service and that’s home to my new favorite tacos in the area. Plenty of locals know about it apparently, just not you. Y’all let me down. Not surprisingly, this taqueria stands in the Waughtown neighborhood, a commercial and residential district in southern Winston-Salem flooded with Latin food, and Mexican in particular. It’s akin to the stretch of Gate City Boulevard in Greensboro that houses so many of the Triad’s great Mexican spots, including Mi Casita, Villa del Mar, Mercadito No. 2, San Luis and El Mariachi, though it isn’t as treacherous for pedestrians and doesn’t include as wide an array of international options. It’s no accident that I wrote one of my first Triad City Beat food articles about El Rancho Taqueria just off Waughtown Street, not far from an assortment of businesses with Spanish names, Iglesia Bautista Cristo Vive (a church) and several Latin mini-marts. But while plenty of Camel City residents primarily know this area as the home of Kermit’s Hot Dog House, it is — more importantly — home to my new favorite tacos at La Perlita. The combination restaurant/meat market is bigger than others like it, with about 25 tables, including some that could seat larger parties. La Perlita trades in everything from hand-held burritos — which aren’t easy to find around here, for some reason — to pollo
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CULTURE Enjoy the barbacoa taco of your dreams at La Perlita
by Eric Ginsburg
16
(336) 723-7239
breakfastofcourse.com
Clockwise from top left: The barbacoa, carnitas, carne asada and al pastor tacos at La Perlita in WinstonSalem.
ERIC GINSBURG
food truck and Taco Riendo III. rostizado to camarones a la diabla to fried tilapia. The sopes But that’s why I’d saved the pastor and barbacoa for last. are cheap — three for $6 — and a flight of four tacos comes in The stringy-yet-hearty beef in the barbacoa reminded me of at just under $7. a variation on my Jewish grandmother’s brisket — just about That’s what I came for. the highest praise I can offer. The meat looked similar to the After some initial confusion about how to order (La Perlita Cuban dish ropa vieja in a way, or maybe a cousin of North offers table service, though this isn’t immediately apparent), I Carolina’s pulled pork, but I wouldn’t trade it for either. When snagged a table in the long, sun-kissed entryway beneath wide windows looking out onto the neighborhood. I’d picked carne I bit into this taco, I wished I’d doubled down on my instincts, and ordered three or four of these alone. asada, al pastor, carnitas and barbacoa, forgoing the more adventurous tripa (intestine), tongue and cabeza (head) choices. And then there’s the al pastor. My bar for pastor tacos is unreasonably high, but when The smell of cooking meats and the bustle of the restaurant started to raise my expectations, and I didn’t have to wait you’ve had the pork fresh from a spit roast and with a piece of pineapple that’s just been pulled off the grill, it’s hard to go long. Soon after I sat down, a server placed a tray of simple back. I felt the same way after returning from Italy, refusing tacos in front of me — just the meat, some chopped onion and a fistful of cilantro on each, with uneven radto eat the trashy pasta, bland tomatoes or over-processed cheeses I encountered back ish slices, a juicy lime wedge and some grilled spring onions between them. home for months. Visit La Perlita Tacos These are not those tacos. But the pastor I intentionally went for the carnitas and asada tacos first — they certainly looked from La Perlita still made me close my eyes Y Restaurante at 1001 briefly in satisfaction. It’s not an exaggerappealing, but knowing my own preferences, Waughtown St. (W-S). ation to say I loved it, or that I desperately I intended to save what I hoped would be the best for last. Neither disappointed, though want more. Plus, the grilled spring onions were incredible. neither left a strong impression. These are good, dependable tacos, I thought, improved slightly by the thicker green salsa My friends, acquaintances and readers may have let me down by not cluing me in to La Perlita sooner, and I considered on the table that tasted like a combination of cilantro, creamy avocado and heat. But nothing all that remarkable, especially repaying the favor by keeping this to myself. But that wouldn’t be fair to the talented folks at La Perlita, who deserve a whole in a community market with a sizeable Latino population and lot more recognition for their food. plenty of remarkable options around town, including Luciano’s