Take advantage of Mexican Restaurant Week at these Brooklyn spots

By Kristen V. Brown

Tacos are great, but there’s more to Mexican food than carne asada and beans.

Later this month, school yourself in traditional south-of-the-border gastronomy at the third annual New York Authentic Mexican Restaurant Week, now through Sept. 30.

“The idea is to really encourage the authentic flavor of Mexican food,” said Claudia Norman, director of Celebrate Mexico Now, a citywide cultural festival that will have its seventh run.

“There are certain ingredients that you don’t see here a lot, like huitlacoche [a corn fungus] or pasilla [a pepper paste], that really make the final result is of a meal authentic,” she explained.

This year 24 restaurants are participating, including five from Brooklyn: Cariño, Piramide, Fonda, Mesa Coyoacan and Chavella, whose tasty grilled corn is pictured.

Most of the restaurants will be offering $25 pre-fixes with special, traditional menu items like Piramide’s Morlcajete Norteno — steak, shrimp, queso fresco and poblano peppers in a heated lava rock — or Chiles en Nogada at Mesa Coyoacan, a popular Puebla dish of roasted poblano pepper stuffed with shredded pork and chicken, peaches, pears, apples and almonds, covered in a walnut sauce and topped with pomegranate seeds.

Of course, there will be tacos, too.

Cariño [2 S. Fourth St. between Wythe Avenue and Berry Street in Williamsburg, (718) 384-8282]; Piramide [499 Fifth Ave. between 12th and 13th streets in South Slope, (718) 499-0002]; Fonda [434 Seventh Ave. between 14th and 15th streets in Park Slope, (718) 369-3144]; Mesa Coyoacan [372 Graham Ave. between Skillman Avenue and Conselyea Street in Williamsburg, (718) 782-8171]; and Chavella [732 Classon Ave. between Prospect and Park places in Crown Heights, (718) 622-3100]. For information, visit mexiconowfestival.org.