Restaurants offer up specialties of Mexico

South-of-the-border food is a category diners seem to love and restaurateurs want to deliver. These eateries focus on stateside variations of two Mexican classics.

CHRONIC TACOS

Be nice.

Randy Wyner offers a good reminder why it’s so important for business owners to remind their employees of this simple courtesy.

The co-founder of Chronic Tacos was 19 when he moved to Newport Beach, Calif., from nearby Santa Ana. The first thing he noticed about his new home was the lack of street taco stands that had formed the landscape of his childhood.

“Newport Beach had one taco shop, and it wasn’t very good,” he told me while in town last week. “On top of that, they were mean.”

Fed up with shoddy treatment, he walked out of the shop one day. With the bravado of youth, he said that he’d be back, but as a competitor, and that his taco shop would be better than theirs. Nyah, nyah. (Well, the nyahs are an embellishment on my part, but I imagine that’s how he felt.)

That was 15 years ago. Today there are 51 Chronic Tacos across the nation and three in Canada. The 50th state is home to the 51st shop, at Safeway Center in Kapahulu.

I wasn’t expecting much from this endeavor. Too many negative stereotypes are associated with fast-food franchises. Add to that the fact that Hawaii has never been known for great Mexican fare. I stopped dreaming to avoid disappointment.

None of this was lost on Wyner, who saw the similarity between Newport Beach and Honolulu and is optimistic about Chronic Tacos’ future here. He envisions at least two more of the Cali-style shops popping up here in coming months.

Considering the restaurant’s fast status, I was impressed by the fresh salsa ($2.25 with chips) and credible guacamole ($2) without the mayo filler used so often to save on the cost of avocados.

Both condiments top an order of nachos ($10.25) that elicits a “wow” when topped with carne asada (add 75 cents). This is the real deal, not mystery meat, but chunks of grilled chuck steak marinated in spices, herbs including cilantro, and citrus.

As wonderful as this was, I’m a sucker for pork, and the carnitas did not disappoint. Slow-cooked over a day, then roasted, they were light and airy with pure pork flavor that needs no enhancers. Note that the staff has been slammed with lines out the door, so another time the carnitas were more like kalua pork. I hope they can arrive at more consistency.

The way things work here is you pick your base, whether a street taco ($3.50), burrito ($9.75), tostada ($9.75), salad ($9.75), quesadilla ($9.75) or torta ($9.75). To these you can add chicken, carnitas, al pastor (adobo pork), carne asada, fish or shrimp ($1 to $2). You have the option of having that seafood beer-battered and fried or sauteed. My preference is for the latter.

If you’re tired of tortilla chips, Chronic Fries ($10.25) are essentially nachos with a different kind of chip.

Finish your meal with a cup of eight light churro bites ($2.25).

TIO’S TAMALES

When Ray Mascarenas moved here seven years ago from New Mexico, he was disappointed that he could never find a taste of home. He had always entertained the thought of starting a food truck, but as luck would have it, he found a small space on Nuuanu Avenue last year and decided to skip ahead to opening a restaurant.

Rather than attempting to serve a full menu in his one-man shop, he was inspired by his 21-year-old son to focus on one specialty, the tamale. He had just taught his son’s girlfriend how to make them, and after sharing them the response was, “Dad, my friends love your tamales!”

The tamales feature the other star of the menu: the Hatch green chili, which permeates much of New Mexican cuisine that bears Mexican, Spanish and Native American influences. He brings in only certified chilies grown in Hatch Valley in southern New Mexico. The chili is a hybrid derived from the breeding of pasilla and Colorado chilies, resulting in mild, pleasant heat balanced with a touch of sweetness and tanginess. The feel is more like a warm hug than sting on the tongue.

Bits of the chili permeate New Mexico pork, Santa Fe chicken and calaba­citas (vegetarian) tamales sold at $2.50 for one, $8.95 for a four-pack or $25 for a dozen. The tamales feature a nice balance of filling to masa, the corn flour dough that encases it.

The tamales can be eaten plain but can be on the dry side. You’ll want to get them smothered in Mascarenas’ chili verde, which is uncharacteristically pink, rather than the green suggested by its name. The sauce is a specialty of Mascarenas’ northern New Mexico family. Pork and tomatoes are incorporated into a fire-roasted chili sauce, making it richer and more savory than the tomatillo versions familiar to Hawaii.

You can try the sauce on tamale plates featuring rice, beans, lettuce and tomato ($8.95 for one tamale, $10.95 for two, $12.95 for three).

In the morning, try breakfast burritos filled with egg and potato ($3.50); Spam, egg, jalapeno and tomato ($4); or chorizo, egg, potato and chili verde ($4.50).

For more heft at lunchtime, an excellent grilled steak (carne asada) fills chimichangas ($11.95), burritos ($8.95 hand-held or $10.95 smothered with chili verde and cheese) or tops papitas (french fries, $9.50 small, $11.50 large).

He also brings a taste of Colorado to the table with a deep-fried Hatch chili relleno, sort of like crisp gau gee with that chili center. I would prefer to enjoy the chili without the shell, but it’s been a hit when smothered with that beautiful chili verde.

Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.