Some might only break out the trompo on weekends, sticking to the griddle during the week. It can’t be entirely avoided, but it’s one way for a taco to fall short of its magical, mystical potential.Įven more confusingly, practices aren’t always consistent within the same taqueria, or from one to the next. But this messes with both the tenderness and also the texture of the meat, which is a huge part of an al pastor taco. To the best of my knowledge this is the main reason why so many of them will cook the meat on a spit and slice it as it browns, only to reheat it on a flattop. So while Chicago does have a large number of spots where they’re cooking layered meat on a spit, many of them are using the gyro cookers that can only get so hot. Getting hold of that equipment is easy for all of Chicago’s mom and pop taquerias, allowing them to make real tacos al pastor right inside their restaurant.īut sometimes a gift can also be a curse, and that’s the case with these machines. They’re designed to cook the pre-made gyro meat, which for whatever reason doesn’t require the heat to be as high as a taquero would want his heat source for his trompo to be. All those pre-made slabs of mystery meat are made somewhere in Chicagoland, and so is the equipment to cook them with. For every tortilleria this city has, there’s also a gyro cone distributor. That’s due to another popular type of spit-roasted meat, gyros, which happens to be huge in Chicago. It’s just marinated meat otherwise.Īt first it might seem as if Chicago is pretty average when it comes to options for the fresh sliced stuff off the spit, but when one really gets down to it there are probably as many spots here as there is anywhere east of LA. If I don’t see a spit with a trompo of meat spinning, I’m not ordering al pastor. I ate there twice if not three times a day and ever since then I’ve been scouring the cityscape for the real deal, which must be cooked on a spit. They reminded me of gyros, except with so much more flavor. It was Spring Break my sophomore year of college and the one thing I could vividly remember was the addicting tacos coming from a vendor in the food court of a mega mall. Me personally? I first fell in love with tacos al pastor in Cancun of all places. Ralat believes the root of the issue is a “cultural/culinary prejudice that sees Mexican food as dirty and dangerous.” Despite the fact that well known chefs like Alex Stupak have made al pastor a hip and trendy thing, the prejudice persists-even though no one’s getting sick in Mexico. While setting up a trompo of al pastor and selling tacos on a corner might be possible in a place like Los Angeles, it’s not accepted in cities like Dallas where cooking meat on a trompo is considered a no-no by health departments. Aside from the whole ingredients thing, there’s also local law. Unfortunately the same goes for tacos al pastor on the streets of D.F., or elsewhere in Mexico. So while we can still experience some truly amazing tacos, none will ever achieve the out-of-body-experience that eating a Cochinita Pibil taco on the streets of Mérida can bring. We just don’t have the same ingredients here in the states. Ralat once told me: “Go to Mexico.” I had never thought about it before like he explained it, but he was dead on as I thought back to the tacos I’ve eaten while there. WHEN SOMEONE ASKS ME WHERE TO get the best tacos, I can’t help but think of what noted taco historian José R. This was in 1966 and no one else disputes it, so El Tizoncito is considered the birthplace of this style which is now found all over, and of the iconic look of tacos al pastor-a meat cone on a spit, topped with a chunk of pineapple. The first place of business to add pineapple is said to be El Tizoncito in Mexico City. No one’s sure how pineapple came into play, but adding fruit to pork dishes for a sweet and sour tang is traditional in Mexican cooking culture. As Tacopedia points out, the biggest changes in the product were the meat itself-which switched from lamb to heavily marinated pork in adobo (never mind that they’re still named “shepherd’s tacos”)-and the addition of cilantro and onion. To this day there’s a handful of businesses in Puebla that claim to be the original source of Arab tacos, with two of them, Antigua Taqueria La Oriental and Tacos Árabes Bagdad, going as far back as 1933. In Chicago one has to look no further than the Anteliz family to find tacos árabe-both Cemitas Puebla in Logan Square and Cemitas Zurita in Little Village can set you up with some, while further west, in Aurora, so can Las Cemitas Poblanas (no relation except in inspiration).Īs tacos árabe made their way elsewhere in Mexico, they quickly morphed into something else completely, and that’s where tacos al pastor begin. Shortly thereafter the taco árabe was born, spit-roasted meat served on either pitas or corn tortillas.
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