![]() After I wrote about a great burrito from this little shop, readers commented they’d followed Carnitas Uruapan for half a century as it bounced from Tijuana to different locations in East County, so I reached out to its family ownership for some history. ![]() ![]() I defy you to ignore the specialty tacos.Pro tip: The small parking lot is often full, but the restaurant provides shuttle service from nearby Southwest High School at 1685 Hollister Street during busy hours. Fans of lengua (tongue) should make the trek on Fridays, the only day it’s on the menu. Order it con nervio (topped with succulent tendon) or go for the burn with a chupacabra, gently fried tortillas, onions, serrano chiles, and melted queso under a bed of birria. Slow, overnight stewing results in a deeply comforting, soul-satisfying mélange of beef, chiles, and spices that can be ordered by the bowl for self-assembly using the accompanying fresh corn tortillas, radishes, cilantro, onion, limes, and chile de árbol salsa, or already tacoized in a birria oil-fried tortilla, ready for dunking in a cup of fragrant broth. There’s a reason that Fernandez Restaurant almost always has a line of people waiting outside - Brothers Miguel Angel and Jorge Fernandez serve some of the best Tijuana-style birria around.Pair it alongside the cochinita pibil “dirty style” taco, a Yucatan specialty - pork shoulder marinated and slowly roasted in citrus juice and achiote, then pulled and piled onto a tortilla, shavings of pickled onion and cilantro leaves providing a piquant balance. Try spoonfuls of marrow on the birria or by itself on a hot tortilla, maybe with a bit of salsa macha. For just $3 more, do get the tuétano, a thick cut of beef shank bone that’s roasted until the marrow is meltingly soft, then dipped in birria broth and seared on the grill. Start with the quesabirria, milky mozzarella melted on a tortilla (made with masa from National City’s Tortilleria La Estrellita) and topped by warmly spiced, long-braised birria. Once you dig into her scrumptious tacos, you’ll understand why. Chef/owner Priscilla Curiel’s new spot on the main drag in San Ysidro just opened last September, but she’s already garnering loads of local and national attention.It’s a great time to be eating tacos in San Diego, and we’re just getting started. But we also have innovative chefs creating instant classics using ingredients and techniques from other cultures and cuisines. We all have our favorite birrias, our favorite barbacoas, and our favorite Baja fish, our al pastors, asadas, dorados, and sudados.They don’t have a millenia-old history - which may be a good thing, because nothing stifles creativity like the false weight of “traditional” and “authentic” labels. Whatever origin story you believe, the fact remains that tacos, in the long evolutionary timeline of Mexican cuisine, are in their culinary infancy.Others point to historical evidence in the writings of conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo that people living in the lake region of the Valley of Mexico ate tacos filled with small fish. One noted taco historian dates it back to the 19th century based on references to “ taco de minero,” or miner’s tacos, alluding to the mining practice of wrapping pieces of paper around gunpowder and slipping it into holes carved into the rock wall.No one knows the true origins of the taco. ![]() ![]() Our cover photo contest winner: Daniel Peña Esqueda Chicano taco from Tras / Horizonte by Kokopelli, in Tijuana: charcoal grilled octopus marinated with chiles adobados and nopales. ![]()
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