three best bites: a week of meat and beer

I haven’t been writing these Monday posts for long, but today’s was by far the hardest to narrow down. It wasn’t that I ate meal after amazing meal this week; there were just a lot of things that tasted good and no standout favorite. It was especially hard to pick just one bite from a weekend trip to the area around Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, where my best friend and I climbed a hill and took in the views — and then proceeded to spend the rest of the day drinking beer and eating apps.

We also stumbled upon a 7-Eleven in Ranson, West Virginia that seemed to be some kind of innovations lab for junk food. (My friend is a connoisseur of these things.) Leave a comment if you’ve ever seen GatorLyte (exactly what you think it is), Reese’s animal crackers or spicy mustard Doritos. Consider the bright-yellow, so-sour-your-eyes-will-water Doritos an honorable mention among this week’s best bites — and I don’t even like Doritos.

where the Potomac River meets the Shenandoah in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia

carnitas tacos: I’ve made this New York Times recipe three times, and it’s yet to disappoint. The cooking method may throw you for a loop — I will never get over the fact that you can boil meat that will eventually end up crispy — but these carnitas are definitely worth trying. The meat is flavorful enough wrapped in a tortilla that it doesn’t need any help from a garnish, though topping it with a bit of salsa and cilantro is worth the extra effort. One thing to note: I can never get my water to boil off quite as fast as the recipe says it should, so you might want to budget three hours to see this through, rather than 2.5.