Recently, a friend told me about a fast food place in a mall food court where I could get authentic Mexican tacos.
When I heard how far away the location was, northwest of Highway 400 and Finch Avenue, I was a bit discouraged.
However, my food curiosity won out and I headed up the 400 to the Milvan Shopping Centre, also known as the Plaza Latina Milvan.
After searching up and down the street, I finally found the "mall" — a building with several stores at the front that weren’t open for business. I had to find someone to direct me to doors that led to the inside of the mall.
At first, the narrow hallway made me wonder if this trip would be worth it, but then it suddenly opened up into a modest-sized food court with several Spanish influenced (Mexican, Colombian, etc.) take-out restaurants. The food court was packed, mostly by people of Spanish descent.
I walked over to Chilango Taco, as tacos were my goal. I ordered a pork barbacoa taco. It was made from scratch.
The tacos were freshly fried on the grill and were the soft variety, covered with pieces of the pork, chopped cilantro, both raw and fried onions, a small slice of pineapple, and a lime to be squeezed.
What a gathering of complementary flavours and, this was the best, the bill for five tacos and a bottle of water: $11.
Dr. Josh Josephson is the owner of The Cookbook Store and Josephson Opticians. He is a chevalier of Les Chevalier du Tastevin and the Le Chaine des Rotisseurs, a member of L’ordre Mondiale and a member and former president of the International Wine and Food Society, Toronto chapter.
