It may be the predictable thing to do, but we can't think of a better time to take stock of the state of Mexican food on this island than when Cinco de Mayo is just four days away.

You've heard the complaint before (we all have): What does a person have to do get good Mexican food around here?

Let's start with the bad news, which also happens to be old news. Hawai'i doesn't do Mexican. Not really. There are poor versions of the food that make it seem like everything south of the border is bland and cheesy. And there are better versions, which are just cheesy. And red. But paprika and Monterey Jack do not a good Mexican meal make.

Now for the good news. Sprinkled among the red and cheesy are dishes that really stand out as being a solid nod to our southern friends' cuisine. They are full of signature Mexican flavors like spicy chiles, smoky cumin, tangy citrus, sweet tomatoes, salty pork fat ... you get the idea.

O'ahu is home to a handful of Mexican eateries that really get a few things right. Here, we highlight five good dishes from various Mexican restaurants around the island.

EL PALENQUE

Way off the beaten path in Wahiawa is, what is quite possibly, O'ahu's best Mexican restaurant.

El Palenque, a family-run hole-in-the-wall, makes delicious homemade Mexican food that's fresh and satisfying — and as authentic as it gets here.

The restaurant's signature dish is its chimichangas ($9.95). We ordered the carnitas variety, which came in the form of two hand-rolled chimichangas, lightly deep-fried and stuffed with generous chunks of tender salty pork and a blend of white cheeses.

These chimichangas, even though they're fried, aren't greasy at all. Instead of weighing down the homemade flour tortillas, the frying lends just a light crispness to the outer layer of the chimichangas, giving them crunch without making an oily mess.

Also on the menu is the traditional Mexican hangover cure, chilaquiles. El Palenque cuts it into bite-sized tortilla triangles, sprinkles them with cheese, covers the whole thing in a rich dark red sauce and lets everything simmer and melt together in a griddle until the tortilla pieces have soaked up the sauce. The result is a sort of deconstructed enchilada.

It's warm, spicy comfort food, and a rare find on local Mexican menus.

El Palenque, 177 S. Kamehameha Highway, 622-5829. Hours: 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5-9 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturdays, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sundays.

MEXICO

Mexico is everything a Mexican restaurant should be to us gringos. It has desert-hued walls decorated with things like lassos and bulls' horns, and the tables and chairs are chunky rustic wood pieces that are meant to make us feel like we're in the rugged Southwest, when we're actually just in Kalihi.

The spacious, high-ceilinged space is a great place to meet friends for pau hana margaritas and a huge sizzling plate of the restaurant's queso dip. At $4.95 for a medium portion — $7.50 for the large that easily feeds three — the molten plate of melted cheese is the best pupu deal around. And where other restaurants get away with serving a bowl of warmed-over, processed cheese product, Mexico's queso is literally shredded cheddar and Jack cheeses that have been thrown onto a hot griddle to melt.

The queso arrives at the table on a sizzling platter, which continues to cook the bottom layer of the cheese until it reaches that irresistible crunchy-chewy stage, which is almost better than the dip itself.

Get there early — parking is limited and the place starts to fill up at around 7 p.m.

Mexico, 1247 N. School St., 845-9059. Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays.

LA TAQUERIA DE RAMIRO

For Cali-style tacos, there's only one place to go: La Taqueria de Ramiro. One of Fort Street Mall's most popular lunchtime spots, Ramiro makes a few basic Mexican taqueria staples — burritos, nachos, quesadillas — to please the harried Downtown lunchtime crowd, but it's the off-the-menu tacos ($3.25) that really make mouths water.

Made with East L.A. flair, the small soft corn tortillas come filled simply with meat and salsa, unless you ask for other toppings to be thrown in. The chile verde — pork simmered in tomatillo and green chili sauce — is our go-to, but the carnitas tacos are good, too. A squirt of lime juice add just the right finishing touch.

La Taqueria de Ramiro, 1148 Fort Street Mall, 532-8226. Hours: 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Mondays-Fridays.

MEXICO LINDO

When it comes to stuffed flour tortillas, all burritos are not created equal.

Kailua's Mexico Lindo, whose sister restaurant is Mexico, proves the burrito theory by not trying to eliminate the one thing that takes burritos to another level: pork fat.

Our Western sensibilities (at least the newly accepted ones that have gone all PC — "palatably correct") shun such unpopular culinary options as animal fat, but the fact is, there's plenty of flavor to be gleaned from cooking with the stuff.

Mexico Lindo makes its refried beans with pork fat (and the usually bland side dish is elevated to a full-flavored delicacy), and doesn't bother to separate the fat from the meat for its signature El Mariachi carnitas burrito ($13.50).

There's a reason fried pig skin is considered a delicacy in pork-eating societies. It tastes good. Mexico Lindo gets it, and doesn't mess with a good thing.

Mexico Lindo, 600 Kailua Road, 263-0055. Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays.