(This venue is closed.) As you've gathered, this restaurant serves chow from both Guatemala and its larger neighbor to the west. Often the differences between the two cuisines can seem very slender, and I didn't attempt to parse a distinction between chicharrones Chapines and chicharrones Mexicanos.
Though they can be made from many different animal proteins, "chicharrones" usually means deep-fried pork rinds. Seasonings aside, some recipes simply call for broad swaths of skin; many of these two-bite nuggets, to their great credit, also included a bit of pork meat. It was my dining buddy who procured these homemade chicharrones from a basket near the register ($5 for a fat zip-sealed bag that might have weighed a pound). After enjoying a few himself, he kindly (or shrewdly) handed off the bag into my custody. Clearly he already know full well what happens to your willpower when you keep a bag of chicharrones around the house.
On any given day this restaurant prepares four to five Guatemalan dishes to complement a largely Mexican menu. On a return visit these included pollo guisado, which interlaced chicken with fine shreds of tomato, and costillas en salsa roja, fall-off-the-bone pork ribs enlivened with chipotle (each, with rice and tortillas, $8). Also shown: a chuchito de pollo ($1.75), the Guatemalan cousin to the tamal; jamaica ($2).
Guatemex
22 Ave. O (West 10th-West 11th Sts.), Bensonhurst, Brooklyn
718-621-2113
