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Carne al pastor near me1/23/2024 Morales tops the meat with an avocado slice as well as cilantro and onion and sets a lime wedge and radish slices on the side of the plate. Vista Hermosa’s tacos ($1.25), which also include a chicken taco made with pollo adobado (chicken marinated with guajillo and pasilla chiles, achiote, orange juice, vinegar and cilantro) are Mexico City-style, modeled on the tacos sold in the Plaza Garibaldi. The tacos are served on freshly made corn tortillas, cranked out with a small hand roller that owner Raul Morales brought from his native Michoacan. The meat is pork butt, soaked overnight in a complex marinade that includes five kinds of dried chiles, orange juice, vinegar, achiote, garlic and cinnamon, then grilled. Taqueria Vista Hermosa makes possibly the tastiest carne al pastor in town - it’s even better than any I’ve tasted in Mexico. ![]() That’s important when summer sun is beating down on the asphalt. This truck has a spacious parking lot and plenty of bright yellow benches where customers can sit in the shade. Other choices include chicken, tongue and buche. Here, the carne asada tacos are outstanding: savory meat in larger tortillas than those used by most stands, meaning you get a bigger, meatier taco, and topped with green salsa, cilantro and onion. Hugo’s is open only at night, but next door, at the corner of Third Place and Indiana Street, A Que Tacos is open all day. It’s a popular place, and the outdoor dining area is lively with customers. The carne asada is nice, tinged dark brown from grilling and served on steamed tortillas. There’s also a less-common choice, chorizo con papas (sausage with potatoes, which is soft as mashed potatoes), as well as the above-mentioned extras: grilled onions and nopal cactus in the chopped fresh salsa. Serious tacos are likely to come from simple neighborhood spots that waste no money on frills, so we checked out modest commercial districts, unglamorous side streets and nondescript strip malls to find taquerias where enthusiasts recommended good examples of straight-ahead meat ‘n’ tortilla tacos.Īt Hugo’s, the selection of fillings is classic - asada, pastor, lengua. Sometimes there is shredded lettuce, but no cheese, olives or sour cream. Some places set out serve-yourself arrangements of red chile salsa, tangy green tomatillo salsa, chopped fresh salsa and, once in a while, avocado salsa. The tacos we sampled ranged from 60 cents to $1.75. Toppings, such as chopped onion and cilantro, must be pristine. Salsas should be lively, never murky from refrigeration. If so, salsa, onion and cilantro will be added. You may be asked if you want the taco con todo. But it could also be sesos (brains), cabeza (head meat), buche (hog maw), chicharrones (pork cracklings) or tripas (beef small intestine, which one taqueria menu defines as “guts”). The meat could be carne asada (steak), carnitas (fried pork) or carne al pastor (spit-grilled marinated pork). The tortillas should be tender and warm from grilling or steaming. The meat, freshly cooked and well seasoned, is placed on top, and the taco is served open-face. There are even taco drive-throughs and 24-hour taco places.Ī cult taco is simple, just two soft corn tortillas (smaller than the standard 6-inchers). Paper plates and plastic cutlery are routine, table service almost unknown. ![]() They’re sold from catering trucks, stands, carnicerias, tortillerias and neighborhood cafes. Gazing at murals depicting scenes of the state of Jalisco, they settle down to devour their little bits of heaven on a plate.Ĭult tacos are not fancy or high-priced. Grilled onions accompany the orders.Īfter stopping at the condiment table and helping themselves to sliced radishes, limes and a chopped salsa in which bits of nopal cactus mingle with tomato and onion, diners head for the mosaic-topped stone tables and benches of the open-air dining pavilion. For the customer requesting con todo (with everything), they spoon on just the right amount of spicy salsa, chopped onion and cilantro to make one tasty bundle. Inside a silvery catering truck, cooks pile carnitas, carne asada, barbacoa and other meats onto hot soft tortillas. There, as at dozens of other modest eateries across the Southland, hungry diners are savoring the simple but perfectly satisfying combination of meat, corn and seasoning that makes up a comfort food we call the cult taco. We follow a purple-and-red neon sign that reads Bienvenidos to Hugo’s Tacos in East Los Angeles where, on weekends, the crew dishes out food until 4 a.m. But lovers of Mexican food head out in search of something else. Some night owls head to Pink’s for chili dogs, others to Tommy’s for burgers. At this hour, spicy street food is enticing - never mind the heartburn. ![]() It’s late at night, time for a quick bite.
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