So, it has actually been a little over a week since I had the meal I’m reviewing, but it is still pretty clear in my mind. Good food tends to stick that way.

Anyway, the restaurant in question is La Norteña, a small, hyper-authentic Mexican restaurant in a shopping center at 3760 Ashley Phosphate in North Charleston (from downtown all you do is get off of I-26 W at the Ashley Phosphate exit, hang a left and after a couple miles start keeping your eyes peeled on the right hand side of the road). While I have been curious for a while, I admittedly had never actually made my way up I-26 to try out the real Mexican places that are all around the area. I decided to try this one out after reading a strong recommendation from another blog and already being desperate to try something new.

I was a little nervous on the way because the aforementioned blog led me to believe that I was going to need to call on my Spanish skills to make it through the meal. Unfortunately, even though I took Spanish for three years in high school and two semesters in college, mi Español no es bueno. The good news was that it really wasn’t an issue. English was obviously our server’s second language, but she knew the basics and was willing to put up with us butchering the pronunciation of her native tongue.

Anyhow, on to the food. In a pleasantly surprising twist from your typical cookie cutter Mexican place, La Norteña brings out 5 different types of salsa for their free chips. Be forewarned though, some of these pack some serious heat. I thought I had learned from experience that green salsas usually were safer to go ahead and dig into, but I learned my lesson pretty quickly. I didn’t love all of them, but one of the green ones (a more typical salsa verde) and a darker-red-on-the-verge-of-brown one really hit the spot. The chips were fine, but I’m still hoping that someday all Mexican restaurants will start learning from Santi’s and have the same big, thick, awesome chips.

The menu is pretty large and gives you all sorts of options. I had heard that things like cabeza (beef cheek) and lengua (tongue) were pretty common at the more authentic Mexican establishments, and although I consider myself a pretty adventurous eater, I decided to play it safe on my first visit there. That being said, I don’t think that either of the above things are gross, and I will probably try them both the next opportunity I have. My stance on foods I’m not used to seeing on a menu is this: if something is commonly found on the menus of a given type of cuisine, then that means that the restaurants sell enough of it for it to be worth it, which, in turn, means that there is probably a reason that so many people buy it.

Sorry, I went on a bit of a tangent there, but back to the subject. I ended up getting four tacos (which are sold at $1.49 a piece, an obscenely good deal). Two of them were carnitas, which just means shredded, braised pork, and two were al pastor, which is essentially the Mexican equivalent of gyro meat or shawarma. Wikipedia describes the preparation tacos al pastor as:

Usually pork, it is marinated during one or two days with a blend of different spices and herbs (such as adobo), and then slowly cooked on a vertical rotisserie called a Trompo (lit: spinning top), often with a pineapple on top. When ready, the meat is then thinly sliced off the spit with a large knife.

The tacos were prepared the way they typically (from what I have read) are prepared at most traditional Mexican taquerias, which means two small (slightly bigger than palm sized) tortillas stacked on top of each other, followed by the meat, chopped onion, cilantro, red or green salsa, and served with lime (this is pretty much what is represented by the picture at the top of this post, even though it’s not actually from La Norteña).

Now that we’ve got all of our explanations down, let me just tell you that if you haven’t had tacos al pastor prepared in this way then you are really missing out. The meat was amazing. It was tender and whatever spices they used to marinate it really brought out a great flavor. It was sort of subtly sweet and tangy with a hint of pineapple. Unlike most Tex-Mex American tacos, the meat is really the centerpiece of this variety. With a lot of the ingredients we are used to being in tacos (e.g. lettuce, tomato, sour cream, cheese) stripped away, your palate really gets to focus on what it is supposed to. You’ll wonder why you’ve been putting all of that other nonsense on your tacos all along (then you may remember, as I did, that you did so because the meat you’ll find at a place like La Norteña is prepared with significantly more care and skill, than the chunk of ground beef you throw in a pan with a packet of taco seasoning at home). The carnitas was also very good, but not memorable in the way that their al pastor was.

Another interesting item that we decided to try midway through our meal was a horchata a Mexican iced beverage derived from rice that is milky in appearance and also includes sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Sarah and I decided that this was some sort of Mexican egg nog equivalent. It was actually very good, and did nice job of taking the bite out of some of the salsas that came with our chips. One side note on this point, we decided to get the “grande” size since we were going to share it (and since it was only $2.29). This turned out to be totally unnecessary; the grande size seriously had to have been more than a liter. I felt like they gave us a gallon bucket with two straws.

All-in-all, it was a really great meal for a really great value. I plan on going back up that way soon and getting a little more creative with my ordering. I definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys Mexican food, or just enjoys good, simple food in general.

A few final points on La Norteña:
1. They get bonus cool points from me for having a delivery van outside that was like any normal delivery van, except it was sitting on chrome 20″ rims. Baller.
2. Do yourself and your server a favor and try to remember the basic rules of Spanish pronunciation: “H’s” are silent, “J’s” sound like the English “H”, fight the urge to roll your “R’s” unless there are two of them back to back, pronounce “A’s” like you would in the word “all”, and say your “E’s” like you would in the word “neighbor”. This will make things easier on your server and will make you look like less of a moron than I’m sure I did at some points.
3. Be a little adventurous. Don’t go to a place you’ve never been and get something you can get everywhere else. Getting a chicken burrito at a place like this would be like going to Blockbuster and renting Spiderman 2 when you know full well there’s a 50% chance it will be on TNT when you get home.

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2. El Bohio - James Island Restaurant Review