Sobremesa

01

Tijuana, Baja California

Taco estilo Tijuana

Time at the table: 1h 00m

Photograph pending Two stacked corn tortillas holding finely chopped charred beef, a stripe of pale green guacamole sauce, cilantro and small white cubes of onion, with a grilled spring onion and a lime wedge beside them.

Two stacked corn tortillas holding finely chopped charred beef, a stripe of pale green guacamole sauce, cilantro and small white cubes of onion, with a grilled spring onion and a lime wedge beside them.

Salt and pepper on top sirloin, chopped fine over charcoal. Two small corn tortillas, never flour. It arrives already dressed, so there is no salsa bar and no decision to make.

Fact

The beef comes up from Ciudad Obregón, Sonora. Sonora raises it, Tijuana changes the wrapper.

Note

I gave my wife a taco tour for Christmas. December 23rd, four hours on foot, and of everything we ate that day this is the one I still think about.

02

Rosarito, Baja California

Venue: Tacos El Yaqui

Tacos perrones

Time at the table: 2h 00m

Photograph pending A large flour tortilla folded open around thick slices of grilled steak with charred edges, refried beans underneath, and stripes of chunky guacamole and red salsa along the top.

A large flour tortilla folded open around thick slices of grilled steak with charred edges, refried beans underneath, and stripes of chunky guacamole and red salsa along the top.

Tijuana says corn, never flour. Forty minutes down the coast the perrón reverses all of it: a flour tortilla, arrachera instead of chopped sirloin, beans and guacamole built in. Same coast, almost the opposite taco.

Fact

Tacos El Yaqui opened in Rosarito in February 1984, at Mar del Norte and La Palma. They say the name came from a customer who took a bite and said “este taco sí está bien perrón.”

Note

The line was an hour long and they sell micheladas while you wait in it. Sobremesa started before the food did.

03

Ensenada and Valle de Guadalupe, Baja California

Venue: El Trailero

Taco de pescado

Time at the table: 1h 00m

Photograph pending A folded corn tortilla holding a long piece of golden battered fish zigzagged with white crema, shredded cabbage underneath, a lime wedge resting beside it.

A folded corn tortilla holding a long piece of golden battered fish zigzagged with white crema, shredded cabbage underneath, a lime wedge resting beside it.

Battered fish, cabbage, crema, lime. Codified in Ensenada in the early 1960s by vendors working the Mercado Negro. Several claimants, no single inventor, which is what a real street food usually looks like.

Fact

Forty minutes inland, Valle de Guadalupe grows roughly 70% of Mexico's wine. The modern industry starts with Casa Pedro Domecq in 1972.

Note

El Trailero started as a truck stop. We still go there first, every time, before we drive up to the valley.

04

Guadalajara, Jalisco

Venue: La Chata

Torta ahogada

Time at the table: 1h 30m

Photograph pending A crusty split roll heaped with shredded pork and rings of raw white onion, sitting in a shallow dish flooded with thin brick-red chile salsa.

A crusty split roll heaped with shredded pork and rings of raw white onion, sitting in a shallow dish flooded with thin brick-red chile salsa.

A pork sandwich drowned, not drizzled, in chile de árbol salsa. The whole dish rests on the bread. Birote salado is a salt-forward sourdough with a crust built to be submerged and still hold.

Fact

Jalisco producers have pursued a denominación de origen for birote, the same protection tequila has.

Note

The cazuela at La Chata is a drink, not a dish, and it is my wife's order before she looks at the menu. We liked the place enough to go to the one in Puerto Vallarta too.

05

Ciudad de México

Venue: El Huequito

Tacos al pastor

Time at the table: 2h 00m

Photograph pending Two corn tortillas holding thin strips of red-edged roast pork, topped with cubes of pineapple, chopped onion and cilantro, a lime wedge beside them.

Two corn tortillas holding thin strips of red-edged roast pork, topped with cubes of pineapple, chopped onion and cilantro, a lime wedge beside them.

Levantine immigrants brought vertical spit roasting to Puebla in the 1930s. Mexico City swapped lamb for pork, added chile adobo and a corn tortilla, and by the 1960s had made it the city's signature.

Fact

El Huequito opened in 1959, El Tizoncito in 1966. Both claim it. Neither claim is settled.

Note

We have tried El Tizoncito and Orinoco. We keep going back to El Huequito, under the freeway bridge, our first and still our favorite.

06

Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca

Venue: A street stand at Plaza Santo Domingo

Tlayuda

Time at the table: 2h 00m

Photograph pending A very large thin tortilla folded in half and blistered dark from the coals, with black beans, strands of stretched white cheese and strips of grilled beef spilling from the open edge.

A very large thin tortilla folded in half and blistered dark from the coals, with black beans, strands of stretched white cheese and strips of grilled beef spilling from the open edge.

A tlayuda is not a dish, it is a stage. The word names a large thin tortilla, semi-toasted and partly dried so it keeps for weeks before anyone crisps it. Asiento, black beans, quesillo, cabbage, avocado, tasajo.

Fact

The tortilla runs 30 to 40 centimeters across, made from bolita corn from the Valles Centrales, chosen because it holds structure at that diameter.

Note

We went during Día de los Muertos. The templo was so packed we could barely move, and that was part of it.

The six meals

Taco estilo Tijuana

Tacos perrones

Taco de pescado

Torta ahogada

Tacos al pastor

Tlayuda

Total time at the table

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