100 Favorite Dishes, No. 8: Mi Lindo Oaxaca's Stellar Huaraches

We're sharing (in no particular order) our 100 Favorite Dishes, the Dallas entrées, appetizers and desserts that really stuck with us this year. Our Best of Dallas® 2017 issue premieres today. We could have chosen any of the fabulous foods at Mi Lindo Oaxaca, the Oak Cliff institution that is...

By Brian Reinhart

September 28, 2017

Look at this meaty, cheesy beauty. Brian Reinhart

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We're sharing (in no particular order) our 100 Favorite Dishes, the Dallas entrées, appetizers and desserts that really stuck with us this year. Our Best of Dallas® 2017 issue premieres today.

We could have chosen any of the fabulous foods at Mi Lindo Oaxaca, the Oak Cliff institution that is moving this fall to a new location on West Davis Street near the Kessler Theater and the original Norma’s. The mole, made from scratch, is superb; the squash blossom quesadillas are fantastic; the chapulines, or grasshoppers, have attracted lots of attention from hungry bug-eaters across Dallas.

But, at least for this version of the 100 Favorite Dishes, we’re going with Mi Lindo Oaxaca’s huaraches, enormous fried masa bases topped with meat, onions and cheese. There’s something elemental and deeply satisfying about eating a huarache. Is it the interplay of textures? The skill in making a masa that’s firm and fried but not brittle? The awesome spice blend in which Mi Lindo Oaxaca marinates its cecina (pork)? No. Be real. It’s totally the fact that this is a starch with meat, onions and stringy, molten cheese on top.

It doesn’t hurt that, like everything at this excellent cash-only restaurant, the huarache offers a huge number of calories for the price.

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Brian Reinhart has been the Dallas Observer's food critic since spring 2016. In addition, he writes baseball analysis for the Hardball Times and covers classical music for the Observer and MusicWeb International.

Contact: Brian Reinhart

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