uhhh so we finally checked out tacos borolas (taco stand way out on american way with an adjoining sister panaderia) and la michoacana (newish paletas spot on summer) and holy jeez, they were both wonderful. we had the best tacos (beef tongue which was my favorite and chorizo) i've ever had short of las tortugas (and obviously way cheaper--less than $2) with tortillas that had been grill-toasted with the perfect amount of char, and this crazy "torta cubano" with in-house baked bread and oh, about five kinds of meat (breaded steak which was my favorite component, surprising given normally i don't "get" the southern love for chicken fried steak etc., sausage, ham, what else...!). R said it was the best "cuban" he'd ever had. they had a salsa station with salsa verde, a red one i liked a lot, and a chunky, spicy habanero one--they were all excellent. also as much cilantro and radish to top as you wished. and agua fresca too of course, mm. the guy making the tacos outside had all these friends n' fans lounging around amid the smoke and boombox spanish-language music--wonderful. the panaderia next door was full of cases of the fanciful sweets we've become familiar with thanks to caminos de michoacan and la espiga, with a few new wonderful surprises (a rather gelatinous-looking fruit-studded bar cake, other stuff too) and things we'd only heard of but never seen in person before (a huge full-size flaky-cookie-ish pastry of a mountainous tortoise). they had a case of frozen bar treats like all kwik-e marts have too, only these were full of paletas in wonderful flavors (chile!). and wrapped candies with various nuts and dried mango, things like that. everyone was so nice too.

then la michoacana and oh my gosh that didn't disappoint at ALL. it was like yolo where the counter person was super nice and guided us through all the things they have, complete with so many samples i felt full before we even ordered anything (check it out--they have the following ice cream flavors among others: rum raisin, tequila, pistachio, pina colada, "german" full of nuts and coconut and caramel, pine nut; the following paletas: cucumber chile, mango chile, real watermelon with seeds and all, hibiscus/jamaica, tamarind, pine nut cream, passion fruit, pistachio cream, cookies and cream, rum raisin, strawberry, strawberry chunks suspended in cream...i can't even remember them all); these sundae things where various fresh fruits marinated in mysterious stuff are placed in this sweet, rich creamy concoction; agua fresca including some flavors we don't encounter in the usual spots; elote (! no more driving to germantown for it...); nachos, g'ah! we wound up trying mango chile (salty at first and then luscious and refreshing and spicier as you reach the bottom and the stick), watermelon (awesome), pine nut cream which is a gorgeous pearly pale pink (hands down the winner for me; i'll definitely order it again...to die for. you get to the bottom where the pine nuts have sunk and ohhhh), and pistachio cream. so awesome.

i remember my first year here, lamenting that a place as sweltering as memphis didn't seem to have anything besides ben and jerry's and baskin-robbins, how corporate and sticky-bland sweet, not even something akin to pittsburgh's dave and andy's waffle cones with candy at the bottom or rochester's local abbott's custard franchise. now this city puts those to shame--this summer you can take your pick of orchid sno cones at jerry's, homemade gelato and baked goods with locally sourced amazing ingredients at yolo, cherry joes at wiles-smith, and crazy awesome popsicles like cucumber chile at la michoacana. crazy good!

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