Tacos in Mexico City

When traveling to Mexico City it is almost a must for me to get a taco or many tacos… This city is filled with so many diverse tacos, I would consider it the taco capital of the world if I may. No matter the time of the day, there is always a taqueria serving delicious tacos and in so many different ways.

Breakfast

When visiting my good friend Pedro in Coyoacán, we often have breakfast at Los Abanicos - a morning slash lunch taqueria.

What do they offer? A little bit of everything but me and Pedro always have tacos de guisado which means slow cooked stew tacos. Often served with rice to soak up the juices and salsa. We always get the beef tongue braised in salsa pasilla slowly cooked in a huge cazuela. There is also costilla en salsa verde and then chicharron prensado en salsa (pork skin cooked in a chipotle salsa). Served with a generous amount of rice first, then the braised meats on top to not break the tortilla. It is common to get two tortillas or like taqueros call it con copia with means with a “copy”. We usually eat about 2-3 then go on with our day.

Lunch

If breakfast tacos weren’t enough and we are still hungry, a few tacos de carnitas should help you with your day.

We go to the mercado de Coyoacán if we are still in the area but we often find these tacos everywhere in the city.

When ordering you tell the taquero to pick the piece of the pork you want. They warm up the small version tortillas on a steamer until sweaty and put the meat of your choice into your tortillas. It can be ribs, ear, tongue, skin or a little of everything. If you know me, you know I usually get little bit of everything.

Carnitas are slow confit pork cooked in pork fat. Usually the whole animal is broken into pieces slowly cooked in a huge cazuela. Some taqueros add beer some add Coca-Cola, some add sweet condensed milk. This is up to the taqueros recipe, it is common to add oranges and limes during the braise of carnitas and sometimes spices.

When served, it is usually with a spicy salsa. Sometimes red often made with chile de árbol, or sometimes green or salsa verde fresca, usually made with avocados, raw tomatillos, cilantro, onion, lime juice and chile serrano. This helps break all the fattiness of the carnitas. As toppings: some fresh cilantro and onion, and unmissable, fresh squeezed lime… and you are good to go!

If you are lucky enough they usually have chicharron to garnish your taco and this becomes a great crispy element.

Dinner

When the sun sets, one of my all time favorite things to do is doing a taco run with Pedro, where we head to a different part of town and get the very famous tacos al pastor.

The al pastor taco came from the Middle Eastern influence of shawarma or the vertical spit, brought by Lebanese immigrants in the 1950s. Instead of using spiced lamb, we use pork with a marinade that we call adobo, made with dried chilies, garlic, spices, vinegar and salt.

This overnight marinated meat is then layered into a cone shape that is then finished with a raw and peeled pineapple on the top of it. To be then slowly roasted getting, the outside charred and crispy by the fire, and very juicy in the inside.

It is shaved off with a knife and magically caught by the hand of the taquero who is holding up a tortilla. And then the taquero elegantly slices some pineapple onto the taco, showing off his skills catching the pineapple slice mid air and further away from the spit with the taco in his hand. Definitely a show and the taquero is the showman.

Another variation to the pastor is a gringa. An open face quesadilla with pastor meat and garnished with a pineapple onion and cilantro.

Across the street to the pastor taqueria, there is a suadero spot that is usually a slow cooked brisket cooked into chunks and cooked in oil or pork fat confit but a little more faster then carnitas. It cooks in the same pot then charred whole onions, sausage such as longaniza or chorizo, all these flavors combining into the same fat where everything is cooked.

After some time the suadero gets diced into smaller pieces and then put into a tortilla, garnished with a very spicy green salsa that usually leaves you craving for more!

I usually eat a couple but for my next round I get campechano. Here it means suadero, longaniza and sometimes bistec or nopales.

Campechano is commonly found in many taquerias in Mexico, depending on what the taquero is cooking they mix and match what they have on their menu.

I'm leaving out so many more types of tacos found across this giant city, but that’s a story for another newsletter. Needless to say, we eat a lot of tacos during our Mexico City Tour. And it’s not just about the tacos… the taquerías themselves are iconic landmarks and their impressively wide opening times make them easy to savor at one’s whim.

Writing this one made me salivate… I hope you did too…
Kaelin

Embark on a taco crawl through Mexico City
sampling the city's beloved taquerías

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