The Taco Chronicles aka Las Crónicas del Taco

Taco chronicles

Heads up on a new docuseries on Tacos premiering this Friday! Associate producer and scout by our own local Javier Cabral, also known as theglutster. Most taqueros featured are in Mexico but a few will be from LA I’ve been told.

Ps. Anyone interested in a private tour of kernal of truth tortillaria and taco tour this coming Monday night with theglutster and myself, dm me!

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Binged the entire season. LOVE IT! This and flavorful origins are my favorite Netflix food series by a long shot so far this year. I just love the focus on the food and techniques.

My favorite episode was Barbacaoa. Very time and labor intensive. I can’t imagine anyone in the US is doing anything comparable to what they do in Hildalgo. Would love to be proven wrong. Did I spot a Mexican haggis coming out of the pits? That worm salsa looked very interesting

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I’d have liked to see more about the pancita.

Aqui Es Texcoco makes traditional barbacoa. They have locations in Commerce, Chula Vista, and Tijuana.

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I went to AET when they first opened. Thought it was good, wonder how elaborate of a cooking setup they have going on in the back?

My bad, they can’t use the traditional method in the US.

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Screw the brick oven backyard project. Barbacoa pit FTW. I just need to figure out where to source some maguey leaves.

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Watched the pilot the other night but haven’t gone further yet. I thought it was pretty good, and it definitely made me want to go back to the DF.

@Sgee For barbacoa, I haven’t seen the episode so not totally sure if this is the same, but maybe Barba Kush can scratch the itch:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpM5AidD72w/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

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re: The Al Pastor episode:

  1. They inferred that there is a “purist” branch of al pastor specialists where the meat is NOT super red in adobo marinade or w/e. Anyone do that here?

  2. I found it interesting that griddled al pastor is sought after by some in order to achieve crisp. I have seen that at some places here, but thought that was a cheating technique when you don’t get enough action on the trompo

re: 1. Maybe Los Originales Tacos Arabes de Puebla? Different style technically, but trompo without color… (photo below via yelp)

https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/los-originales-tacos-arabes-de-puebla-los-angeles?select=ateGVnlODBPTLcy-q2SWIA

  1. Same! I still think it’s an inferior method, and I find that often ends up overcooked or oily or both, but very interesting to hear that.
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hah, speaking of griddled al pastor…seems to be this place’s style: https://www.yelp.com/biz/tacos-los-carnalillos-taco-truck-los-angeles-2

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Damn, those fine-dining carnitas gyoza.

I haven’t watched this yet, but I just saw this article in case anybody wants to track down similar tacos in LA:

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I mean, I agree with the pick but I found this hilarious:

As Daniel kindly points out in his appearance, “The tortilla is essential.”

Al Pastor L.A. Taco Pick: Leo’s Tacos

c’mon man, Leo’s is great but the tortilla is the typical cheap street tortilla - it’s what I expect for $1.25/taco. Where can I find some good al pastor on high quality tortillas besides 1986?

Remember the cutaway scene in the series when a woman in Michoacán proudly reveals, “The fattiness in the carnitas is what makes them tasty.” She is 100 percent correct. The one thing I learned in my life-changing carnitas journey is that if you’re going to eat carnitas, you gotta pretty much take a fucken swan-dive into the pool of the luscious rendered carnitas fat. If that fat isn’t running down your chin, arms, and your fingers aren’t sticky after with manteca , then you or the vendor didn’t do it properly. The best spots I ate at in Quiroga, Morelia, and Huandacareo all had one thing in common: The meat melted in your mouth and the caramelized pork skin was so gelatinous that it resembled freshly made chewy caramel.

Man, I have not had this experience anywhere including Carnitas El Momo.

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Lol me again. Al pastor is one of my primary interests.

I really like the pastor (aka adobada) on very good fresh tortillas at Angel’s Tijuana Tacos (either Eagle Rock or NoHo) and the tortillas at El Flamin’ in Echo Park are made fresh, though not quite as good as Angel’s. Mexicali does Al Pastor sometimes, and their tortillas are well above average.

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Guess I’ll just have to deal with Angel’s lines one of these days…

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Hasn’t been bad when I’ve gone (mostly late at night, mostly during the week)!

After seeing “adobada” and “al pastor” used somewhat interchangeably I finally saw someone sketch out some basic differences in this LA taco video. It seems like a fairly off the cuff definition but would you say it’s essentially accurate?

Doing the most cursory search on this site it does appear to be a Tijuana associated meat like the taquero at Don Cuco says.

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In my experience they do seem to be pretty interchangeable, and adobada is mostly the regional name for al pastor in Tijuana and Baja. Though I have noticed that the adobo tends to be a little more aggressive in Tijuana compared to other places I’ve had al pastor - something I definitely enjoy - so there could be something real to that!

FWIW I thought Don Cuco’s adobada was pretty good, though they didn’t have it the first couple times I went, so not sure if it’s an occasional thing.

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@Srsly have you tried barbakush? They were somewhat elusive a few years back and never managed to track them down.

I’ll have to checkout Don Angel’s, sounds good.