In Praise of Your Local Mexican Joint: La Tolteca, Wilmington, DE

Pure comfort, which is what all great Mexican should be
Photo Credit: TH

Tex-Mex food, the stuff that Americans generally know as "Mexican" food but is really a hybrid of of American and Mexican culinary ideas, hits the peak the highest for a lot of people, myself included. Authentic Mexican food can be extremely good too, but much like with any country as big as Mexico is, the cuisine is not monolithic. But the Tex-Mex food when it is really good is worth going out on the first weekend of relaxation on stay-at-home orders. When it's bad, well, you tend to stay far away from places that serve bad Mexican food. The variance is wider than most common varieties of food Americans eat. It's hard to screw up tomato sauce or gravy completely, and even bad Chinese food (which similarly to Mexican food is basically an immigrant invention over here, not authentic food made in China) is tolerable if you stick to the vegetarian options. However, you really haven't lived until you ordered a chile relleno from a bad Mexican joint, and the pepper comes out hella undercooked while the batter on the outside more resembles an omelet than something crispy and breaded, which in a sense is the same as saying you haven't lived until you thought you were in danger of dying.

That is why when you find a place that serves real deal Mexican food, you hold onto it tightly. You become protective of it, almost defensive. It's the kind of place where quality and price point intersect. Sure, Rick Bayless and Bobby Flay are known for taking that style of food and gentrifying it, but not even the fine dining equivalent matches the local places, almost exclusively owned and run by immigrants making the recipes of their abuelitas in an attempt to scrape by in a society that can a lot of times be hesitant to welcome them the way their ancestors wanted to be welcomed when they came over.

One of those places is La Tolteca in Wilmington, DE. Located on US-202 close to the Pennsylvania border, La Tolteca is situated on a heavily-commercialized strip of road that has as many dining options as there are stars in the sky. When you are in a sea of chain restaurants, places that can grab potential customers' attention because of locations that are near them, you have to stand out. La Tolteca stands out, which is why my wife and I were willing to be among the first wave of people attempting to restore normalcy to daily lives after COVID-19 all but ground it to a halt. I'm going to level with you all. I was scared at first at the prospect of dining out without a vaccine to solidify the herd immunity that you just can't build up with communal contagion alone. I've also seen footage of other places totally ignoring guidelines, allowing people to crowd together with no regard for social distancing or contagion blocking, ramping up for a second spike of this shit soon. Thankfully, La Tolteca was one of the places doing it correctly. The restaurant was maybe filled to a quarter capacity with all servers wearing gloves and masks, deep cleaning tables after guests leave, and utilizing disposable menus and flatware.

The reason why we were so eager to go back to La Tolteca specifically was that the food is excellent every time we go there. Generally speaking, it is the platonic ideal of a local Tex-Mex joint that you fight for, that you vociferously defend, that you unequivocally praise. I ordered the chimichangas, pictured above, which is my go-to entree. I've had the chilaquiles, the brocheta alambre, and Philly tacos before too, but the chimichangas are such a well-constructed, flavorful dish, with tender steak tips inside of a deep fried tortilla whose texture more resembles the best possible Taco Bell chalupa shell than anything else. It comes slathered in their queso sauce and topped with guacamole and sour cream. This dish is the kind of thing one might crawl across the desert for. My wife got her standby as well, carnitas. The bark is always chewy and concentrated with flavor, and the meat inside is always tender and juicy.

Almost every Mexican restaurant has refried beans as a side, and you can tell a lot by a joint by that particular dish. Are the beans coarse and mealy, or are they smooth and flavorful? Do they taste reheated or like they were cooking all day long before serving? It might be a silly thing to judge a restaurant on, but honestly, what separates the contenders from the pretenders is the quality of the bean. La Tolteca has a refried bean that is worth eating alongside your entree. They don't just take up space on a plate.

I don't know how long this lessening of restrictions is going to last, to be honest. People breaking quarantine on a mass scale (Google Lake of the Ozarks) might put everyone on lockdown again. However, if you can make sure that the restaurant you're going to will be playing by the book or better. Enjoy the simple pleasures in life, especially if you have a Mexican restaurant that you can count on to deliver amazing and amazingly affordable food.

What: La Tolteca
Where: 4147 Concord Pike, Wilmington, DE 19803
Website
Price: Family Night Out
TH Recommends: Chimichangas (fried, steak), Carnitas, Tricolor Enchiladas, Chilaquiles, Tableside Guacamole (when all COVID-19 restrictions are finished, obviously)

Price Key
Family Night Out - Avg. Dish $0-$20
Date Night! - Avg. Dish $20-$40
Ready the Guillotine - Avg. Dish >$40