I have always heard that Neri’s is the best and since I mentioned them in yesterday’s post, it was time to try them. Lucky for me, there are two Neri’s in San Pedro. One located closer to the lagoon side in town and a relatively new one, Neri’s #2, in the DFC area…just around the block from me.
My best directions if you don’t know DFC? When you are on the main road about 1.5 miles south of town, look for the signs for Hidden Treasure Restaurant. Make that turn (it’s away from the ocean) and ask one of the many walkers or bikers headed to work. Ask them the way to Neri’s Tacos. Odds are that they already are carrying a bag of the Neri’s with them.
And then look for the crowd.
Very early morning (around 6:30am), you’ll be eating with the taxi drivers and early morning workers. Around 7:30am, you’ll be swarmed by school kids and their parents. Where else can you get a FILLING breakfast with a juice for $3bzd? I just get it to go.
You order them by the $1…so I order $2 tacos (or 6) with pepper (hot sauce) and a watermelon juice. Here is the menu on the outside. I’d say that it could use some work…but why? These guys are packed. According to a friend whose family sells them the tortillas (Criselda at Mata Rocks), her family sells Neri’s 2 30-40lbs a day AFTER 8am. (That’s 900 to 1200 tortillas just between 8 and 11:30! Not even their busy time.)
They are absolutely addicting. The tortillas are insanely fresh, the chicken filling is rich and salty, fresh chopped onions and the hot sauce is just spicy enough. You will be turned into a breakfast chicken taco junky…you will be converted immediately. And get this…the juice is ONE DOLLAR. My choices today were: watermelon, lime, banana, orange and horchata. Fresh juice. I have never seen watermelon juice less than $4bzd anywhere. One catch, it comes in a bag. So you can either have them snip off the corner and drink it that way (it’s pretty much all or nothing at that point) or you can bring it home, dump into a glass and enjoy. Both the watermelon and the lime are delicious.
The kitchen is very small…two ladies rolling tacos and a third making some of the other items they serve, like fry jacks. Here is the chicken mixture boiling on the stove.
GET UP EARLY. TRY THESE TACOS.
I polished them off at home while wrapping beer cans for a collector in Portugal. (He even shipped me the box.) Do you know how hard it is to find these cans undented and unscratched? Impossible I am finding…particularly the black draft ones. They even come out of the case scratched.
Later that day, I walked into town to meet a friend for lunch (woman can not live on tacos alone). I spotted something strange in the sky, something we haven’t seen for at least a week…clouds. The humidity has been so low. I am LOVING this very rare late April “cold front”. The clouds then started to turn black. Time to hustle.
The dock at Caribbean Villas.
Run!
It never rained…the wind was blowing towards this mass of storm clouds and kept them away. It turned into a beautiful afternoon at around 2pm. It’s the beauty of the Caribbean. It can be raining one minute and sunny five minutes later.
Mango’s (one of my favorite favorite places) has a fancy new sign…love the hanging mangos.
As always, the food is delicious. It’s my #1 recommended lunch place in town.
I had the Buffalo chicken wrap…gives you enough for lunch and dinner. With avocado and some citrusy ranch dressing? This thing is huge and tasty. The fruit on the side makes me feel like I am eating healthy.
Someone always has to get Amy’s Chef Salad.
When people are being seated in Wild Mangos, they are usually eye-balling your food. It all looks so good.
On my way home, I ran into one of the Belikin/Bowen & Bowen employees. All the delivery men have new uniforms. Upside? They have name tags…I like that since I am horrible at remembering names. Not so good? They dress exactly like the police in town. And they are no longer “color coded”. Before, the water guys wore blue thin stripes, soda wore red and beer green. Now I need to figure out how to get my hands on one of the old shirts. A total collectors’ item. I could make millions on Ebay.
Thanks Marvin for posing for me. I’ve known you for a few years now and never knew your name…
I love Neri’s fry jack, juices and tacos but even better is the habanero hot sauce!!! Can someone get a recipe???