Tehuitzingo Deli & Grocery | Hell's Kitchen, NYC

A few blocks from Toloache's soaring ceilings and haute Mexican food, you'll find Tehuitzingo, a little deli with a big secret: some of Manhattan's most authentic (and cheapest) tacos.

Head to the back–past the cases of wrinkly jalapeños and the shelves of canned chipotles–to the little window that looks into a cramped kitchen, where two women tend to a few pots and a griddle to a sporadic soundtrack of norteno music and telenovelas.

The food they turn out is magnificent: quesadillas filled with squash flowers ($2.50), specials like shrimp simmered in salsa verde ($3), and pudgy tortas ($5) overflowing with avocado, lettuce, mayo and toppings like salty chorizo and golden chunks of potato.

Most people, though, come for the tacos ($2 to $3), because all the components show such careful execution. The corn tortillas are cooked enough to banish the grittiness that ruins so many tacos. The meat–especially the carnitas, cecina (chewy bits of salted beef) and crunchy, hacked-up pig's ear–is invariably tasty. And the self-serve salsas offer the right amount of tangy, spicy pop.

A recent dispute with the landlord nearly spoiled the fun, but now everything's cool and the secret lives on.

Tehuitzingo Deli & Grocery, 695 10th Ave. (between 47th and 48th sts.); 212-397-5956