Ixtapalapa Taqueria, Gaithersburg, Montgomery County, Maryland

Ixtapalapa Taqueria is sensational. Let me say that up front, but first here’s how I came to try it. Did I tell you that Nancy makes quilts? She started out with a group of elementary school mothers, and has moved on to design and sew beautiful quilts herself. From time to time Nancy’s quilting takes us to a quilt store in Gaithersburg in the pretty far Washington suburbs, 20 miles from the DC line.

Gaithersburg is remarkable for its diversity. At last report, 36 percent of the population was Hispanic and 15 percent Asian. It follows that, like Arlington and Fairfax, it can boast a large number of restaurants opened by immigrant entrepreneurs who serve their native food. As we were heading there I did a lot of fast restaurant research and settled on highly rated Ixtapalapa, in large part because I liked the name.

Behind Ixtapalapa lies a great success story. It started as Taco Bar in a gas station, and the quality of the food was so toothsome that the owners were able to open their own brick and mortar spot at 10003 Fields Road in Gaithersburg under the name TB El Guero, and next the Ixtapalapa Taqueria at 411 North Frederick Avenue. Most recently they’ve opened La Gula at 21030 Frederick Road in Germantown. That says a lot for their food, and I’m about to say more.

After you enter Ixtapalapa, you find a large menu and a counter at which you order. You seat yourself at

one of the tables or booths within the large, open, and pleasant dining area.

Not long afterwards your food arrives at your table, heralded by a call of your name. Nancy chose a pollo ($3.50) and a pollo mole taco ($4.00). As you can see, the pollo was topped with onion and fresh cilantro, while the mole bore queso fresca and a crema garland. You also can see how generously stuffed the tacos were.

I ordered three tacos, a Suadero or, according to the menu, beef rib ($3.50), a Lengua, or tongue ($5.25), and a Cachete, or beef cheek ($3.50).

I also ordered some nopales ($4.00), which came sautéed with onion and oregano. You can see them in the upper right.

Along with the tacos came three sauces, a mild green sauce, a more complex yellow sauce that reminded me of the ahi amarillo sauce at El Fuego, and a spicy/hot red sauce. Two good gluten free corn tortillas held the filling of each taco. Nancy was pleased to try each of the sauces on her pollo taco and each enhanced the otherwise mild flavor. The mole needed no additional sauce, and Nancy commented on how smooth and tasty it was. She enjoyed both of her tacos, as well as the nopales, about which more anon.

Each of my tacos looks the same, and the flavors, while in each case delicious — I mean truly delicious — were similar enough that I probably should have ordered a more mixed group of meats. That’s on me of course, and as it was, I found that I got good variety by mixing each with each of their three sauces. The meats are, from left to right, the suadero, the lengua, and the cachete. Each had a good, meaty, beefy flavor, and each was moist and tender. The cachete, not surprisingly, was the most flavorful of a great lot. The meat from cheeks also makes pork (guanciale!) and fish especially delectable. Again, though, each was a huge hit.

I was surprised at how how flavorful the nopales were. Nopales are cactus pads. With thorns and skin removed, they are a mild vegetable. I don’t remember having any since I was monitoring an election for the Justice Department in San Luis, Arizona, and meandered across the Mexican border to eat lunch. That was ages ago, and the nopales didn’t make much of an impression on me. These, however, were delicious. The onion and oregano added exactly what the other nopales had lacked. Nancy liked them as well. Truth be told, I ordered them mainly because of a report that food scientists had found that an indigenous group had developed diabetes after they switched from a nopales-heavy diet to a diet of fast food and two-liter bottles of soda. Nancy had scoffed, but why not try some? I’m a big fan and promoter of health foods, as witness here and here, for example.

I sit here trying hard to think of a Mexican meal that I’ve enjoyed more in the Washington area than Ixtapalapa, and I’m having trouble coming up with one. The closest competitors are probably Tacos Hernandez and La Tejana, but I really think Ixtapalapa was better than either of these. It was fantastic, good enough that I may take the 20-mile drive there just for the restaurant, and not wait until I have something else to do out that way. I think I’ll repeat on the cachete, but branch out to try the cochinita and the chorizo. Right now you’ll be trying to think of an excuse to go to Gaithersburg. I can suggest the International Global Latitude Observatory, one of six such observatories worldwide established in 1899 to measure the precession and nutation of the earth. Or you could and should throw off all pretense and go try Ixtapalapa Taqueria. You owe it to yourself.

***

And while you’re at it, click “follow” on our front page to receive blog posts in your email box. Or bookmark us and check in from time to time. We’re on Instagram(johntannerbbq) and Twitter (johntannerbbq1) pages, and if you’re planning a trip, you can “Search” the name of the destination city, state, or country for good restaurants (in Europe, often close to sites, like the Louvre, Prague Castle, Vienna’s Old City, or the Van Gogh Museum, that you’ll want to visit in any event.  We welcome comments and questions, and eagerly seek suggestions of places to eat and stories to cover.