#34 – QUESO FUNDIDO DE HUITLACOCHE at HECHO EN DUMBO

Once again Time Out New York released their Top 100 Dishes of the year and once again, I’m going to eat my way through every one. And no price point or subway delay will stop me. In no particular order, here’s my take on their Top 100.

Hecho en Dumbo is a new Mexican restaurant in the East Village. “Hecho en” means “made in” and DUMBO refers to the gentrified neighborhood in Brooklyn that’s an acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. It has nothing to with a similarly named flying elephant.

At one time, Hecho en Dumbo was indeed located in DUMBO where it operated out of the Dumbo General Store serving dinner only. Last year, Chef Danny Mena and his staff moved the whole operation into their own space in the East Village. Some people will call it the EVill, but I don’t like that name quite as much as DUMBO. And while I can’t attest to the food being just as good as it did in its original location (I never made it out to the original), I can assure you this is some of the tastiest and most inventive Mexican food happening in the city today.

The restaurant lost some of its romantic charm when we sat at the brightly lit kitchen bar- we didn’t feel like waiting for a table. But the service was friendly and we got some great recommendations besides the queso fundido de huitlacoche, which was Time Out’s pick. Okay, more translations: I’ll get to the queso fundido in a moment, but huitlacoche is a fungus that grows on corn. It’s basically corn mushrooms.

Hecho en Dumbo specializes in antojitos, which are small plates, so we ignored the entrees and ordered a bunch of these. We started with Picaditas de Jaiba, which were a wonderful take on crab cakes (jumbo lump crab on top of  a Masa corn cake) with ripe avocado and jalapeno oil. The Burritas de Res were mini-burritos of flavorful beef yet they were missing some components – guacamole, salsa, or crispy vegetables. Something. The Tacos el Alcalde were right up my alley – tacos of spicy, smoky Spanish flavors. They featured surprising ingredients of smoked sable fish, braised octopus, and shrimp making for a spicy, smoky few bites.

Finally, the Queso Fundido de Huitlacoche was one of three options for a pot of fondue-like cheese, comprised of two cheeses: Oaxacan and Queso Asadero. Even without Time Out’s urging, I probably still would have picked this. Aside from those suffering from lactose intolerance, I can’t see how somebody wouldn’t like it. It’s really just a dish of melted white cheeses, with a brown bubbly crust on top. Who doesn’t love melted cheese? The huitlacoche itself was rather sparse, with just a few nuggets of earthy funky kernels. They were a nice surprise in every few bite or so, but I could have done with more throughout the queso. But dipped onto a thin tortilla, this is a rich, cheesy treat. Muy delicioso. Now that shouldn’t require much translation.

Would Hecho en Dumbo’s Queso Fundido de Huitlacoche make my Top 100 of the year? If the black corn flavor was more prevalent, maybe, but it stays at a 7 out of 10 because of the cheesy, greasy goodness. It could have been called Queso de Queso and I would have been happy.