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!
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
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?
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
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.
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.
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.
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.