Pre-Colombian Mexican with Jen Ruske

KIOSCO PIAXTLA (258 Graham Avenue, Bushwick, New York 11206)

You're tired of hearing it. But it was yet another snowy NYC night when Cafe Drake and Ruske saddled up to the bar at John's Cafe (Manhattan Ave and Bedford Ave, Brooklyn) for unexpectedly expensive Martinis and Manhattans. Sufficiently buzzed we rolled into the Cafe mobile and sought out a Bushwick Puebla eatery deep in the neighborhood's scarier housing projects. Rewards awaited despite the fluorescent lighting and intermittent bursts of corny Spanish love songs from the CD jukebox.

We loved a cemita sandwich ($5) of spicy roasted pork dressed with fresh avocado, lettuce, crema and multiple layers of pickled jalapeno and serrano peppers. Even spicier was a platter of Camarones in Chipotle Sauce ($12), each shrimp tender and poached in fiery red sauce and sided with exquisite frijoles refritos and yellow rice. A steaming basket of tiny corn tortillas came along with the dish to soak up the incendiary gravy.

Loving even more, more than the Mexican beers ($5 each -a rip-off aimed at us, the sole gringos in la casa), was a heaping saucer of chicken enchiladas ($8) drowned in authentic mole poblano and peaked off with rounds of ripe tomato, mountains of shredded lettuce and cascades of chopped radishes.Heaven on an overflowing plate.

[Ed: Whas up with those deep-pocketed and puffy eyes? Trust us: not a nip/tuck-worthy moment. As a matter of fact, Cafe Drake had splurged that very afternoon on the rare indulgence of an Iron Curtain Facial, i.e. a Greenpoint Bellaruse procedure at ultra-discount prices. Blame it on that disgusting overhead, hospital lighting.]