TOM PARKER BOWLES joins the queue at a North London stall that is making tacos to match Mexico City's finest
To get to Proper Tacos, you enter Nag’s Head Market, just off North London’s Seven Sisters Road, stroll past Holloway Fishers and the phone repair shop, then take a right at Maddan Traders (‘For all your smoking needs’), passing Injeer, Tasty Africa and Jackie’s Top Taste Caribbean.
The stall (and it’s little more than a sink, a couple of gas burners plus a few metal chafing dishes) sits between a Filipino bakery and an Indian thali place. It’s just after noon, and the queue is already three deep.
I love these London indoor markets, eternally thrilling warrens hiding behind deeply dull façades. From Brixton to Bayswater, Shepherd’s Bush to Tooting, you’ll find everything from psychics and hijabs to hair dye, knickers and bongs. They’re also a splendid place for a cheap lunch, the slightly shabby, Tardis-like spaces filled with an international cornucopia of Brazilian pão de queijo, Nigerian suya, Malaysian laksa and Sri Lankan short eats. The opposite of those slick, purpose-built food halls, these markets are London at its multicultural finest.
‘The menu is succinct,’ says Tom, ‘just four fillings chalked on a board’
But back to Proper Tacos, and the menu, short and succinct, just four fillings, chalked on a board in front. Everything is made from scratch each morning (or the night before) by Teresa and her small team, the blue corn tortillas pressed to order. I get the whole lot.
A ten-minute wait, the anticipation, as ever, honing one’s appetite, and my name is called. The tacos are customised to taste, as is right and proper − chopped raw onion, coriander and three kinds of salsa (fragrantly fiery roja; cool, sharp verde; and nutty, oily macha). Go for everything, along with a lusty squeeze of lime.
I’ve yet to master the art of elegant taco eating, and quickly abandon myself to joyous, grease-soaked greed. Beef suadero, a Mexico City classic, is packed with slow-cooked brisket, rich and redolent, the juice dripping down my fingers.
Spicy pork chicharron has a lusciously fatty depth. Chicken encacahuatado is cooked in a creamy peanut sauce, while even the vegan nopales (cactus) taco is packed with vim and verve. All are beautifully spiced and balanced. The salsas are superb.
In short, some of the finest tacos I’ve eaten in London, messily magnificent. Good value, too, at three for £15. Including a drink. Close your eyes and you could be in some Mexico City mercado. Proper Tacos, in every way.
£15 a head. Proper Tacos, Unit 6, Nag’s Head Market, 22 Seven Sisters Road, London N7; @propertacoslondon