Don't nix this tamal

Every third week or so, the food section of the New York Times feels embarrassed about phoning it in and cribs a lead from Chowhound or Serious Eats.

Feeling locked up from all this rain, I decided to follow in their footsteps and pay a visit to Corona's Nixtamal, which has been grinding up some buzz by virtue of its being one of the few joints in the City to offer up fare made with fresh masa.

Put (overly) simply, masa is the dough that you get after you take ground corn soaked in a slaked lime bath to remove the husks (the concoction is called nixtamal). You'll find the dried stuff all over town, but I was surprised to learn that you couldn't just go out and buy the fresh stuff. Fans of Mexican food swear by the difference between the two, so I had to give it a try.

We tried three tamales (verde, chipotle, and mole; $2.50 each), an order of fish tacos ($6 for three), and the chips and guacamole ($6). I thought about trying the pozole as well ($5), but figured that I wouldn't be able to tell the difference so much when the masa was thrown into a stew. Besides, I had to leave something for the next trip.

To be honest, I couldn't tell if the masa in the tamales were any better. The corn filling in tamales always had the texture of congealed grits to me, and I can't say that this felt any different. That being said, the spicy pork filling in the verde was painful bliss, and the pork-chicken mix in the chipotle filling felt like some of the better pulled barbecue I've had. The mole was so-so, no doubt because I never really saw the point of white meat chicken.

The tacos, on the other hand, were flawless all around. The tortilla was soft, springy, and moist--without a doubt the most intensely rewarding I've had in the City. The roasted skate was moist and firm, and well balanced with just the right amount of herbs. Delicate, subtle, and understated, these were the best fish tacos I could recall having. Do yourself a favor and make the trip out there (at the very least, it's a short walk to what I will still refer to as Shea Stadium).

Sadly, although the guacamole was heads and shoulders above the made-at-your-table malarkey they serve at the fancier places, the tortillas were too thick for optimal frying and were too hard to enjoy. It was such a shame, too, since the homemade chips looked so invitingly greasy. I'll probably have to try these again, too.

Tortilleria Nixtamal
104-05 47th Ave. (map), Queens
(718) 699-2434