The Taco Task Force previously tackled Baja style fish tacos, birria and the cursed potato taco, and while we found more than a little success, our January 22 mission inspired the most hope: Carnitas! Pork cooked in its own fat, preferably in a stainless steel or copper pot called a cazo. Organizer Bill Esparza (Street Gourmet L.A.) once again assumed control of the itinerary and provided key context, as he’s enjoyed the dish in his Mexican motherland, in places like Michoacan, Jalisco, Mexico City and San Francisco de Los Romo, which resides outside Aguascalientes. This time, he recruited me, Matthew Kang (Mattatouille), Dave Lieberman (OC Weekly) and wife Linnea, Zach Brooks (Midtown Lunch) and Valentina Silva (Eastside Food Bites). Who has the best Los Angeles carnitas? Find out!
Prior to our mission, Esparza e-mailed participants a primer, writing, “Most of the carnitas you’ve had in LA come from the cheater method, first boiling the carnitas in water, then frying them in lard or oil prior to serving. Although this is faster, the result is that stringy, and sometimes hard texture. This cooking style tends to be dominated by salt, since it lacks pork flavor. Carnitas are usually head to tail, lots of fun parts, but for our run, we are comparing the taco surtido only. Surtido is a mixture multiple parts. The hardest part to get right is the shoulder (maciza),so we’ll be looking to see all parts are cooked tender. We’ll also stick with a salsa verde at each stop as a control.”
There were certain factors we assessed at each stop, including the quality of the key ingredient, the condiments/tortilla, the quality of the cooking and the overall flavor.
Here’s my rundown, with interspersed scoresheets where MK stands for Matthew Kang, BE stands for Bill Esparza, JL stands for Joshua Lurie, DL stands for Dave Lieberman, LL stands for Linnea Lieberman, VS stands for Valentina Silva and ZB stands for Zach Brooks. We rated each category using a 5-point scale. Keep in mind that the scores don’t just represent a carnitas taco, they reflect a taco. In theory, a 5-point carnitas taco should be just as good as a 5-point potato taco, not that there would ever be a 5-point potato taco. EVER!
STOP #1: Metro Balderas
5305 North Figueroa Street, Highland Park, 323 478 8383
The time to go to Metro Balderas is clearly on weekends, when Abraham Guzman’s Mexico City-inspired restaurant features carnitas and tacos loaded with almost every imaginable cut of hog, including riñon (kidney), trompa (snout) and nana (uterus).
My approach was to order a single taco at each stop, though some people split tacos, which was probably a better idea, since this sort of taco isn’t exactly quick to digest. Metro Balderas cooks their carnitas in a cazo, including cuerito (skin), costilla (rib), trompa (snout), nana (uterus) and oreja (ear), along with firm strips of stomach, juicy shoulder meat and gelatinous lips. The meat features a range of textures that contributed to rewarding bites, though the meat could have been pinker, which is a sign of expert preparation in places like Mexico City. The varied salsa bar added to the taco, including a tangy, somewhat spicy salsa verde of tomatillo and serrano.
Grade of Key Ingredient: MK 3.5 DL 3.5 LL 2.5 BE 4 ZB 4 VS 4.5 JL 4 AVERAGE 3.857/5
Condiment/Tortilla: MK 3 DL 3.5 LL 3 BE 4.5 ZB 4 VS 4 JL 3.5 AVERAGE 3.643/5
Overall Flavor: MK 3.5 DL 2 LL 3 BE 3 ZB 5 VS 3.5 JL 3.5 AVERAGE 3.357/5
Cooking: MK 3.5 DL 3.5 LL 4 BE 4 ZB 4 VS 4 JL 4 AVERAGE 3.857/5
OVERALL SCORE 3.6785/5
STOP #2: Los Cinco Puntos
3300 East Cesar Chavez Avenue, East LA, 323 261 4084
This super cocina (super market) has been an East LA staple since 1967. Inside, they house bins of dried chilies, semillas (seeds) and cones of piloncillo (Mexican brown sugar). Art on the building’s exterior bode well.
People line up 20-deep to score orders of Michoacan-style carnitas, which are indeed cooked in a cazo. Most people order meat by the pound, fixings and stacks of tortillas to go, but it’s also possible to eat tacos in-house.
Grade of Key Ingredient: MK 3 DL 3 LL 4 BE 2.5 ZB 4 VS 4 JL 2 AVERAGE 3.214/5
Condiment/Tortilla: MK 3.5 DL 4.5 LL 4 BE 3.5 ZB 5 VS 4 JL 4 AVERAGE 4.071/5
Overall Flavor: MK 3 DL 3.5 LL 4.5 BE 3 ZB 4 VS 4 JL 3 .5 AVERAGE 3.642/5
Cooking: MK 3 DL 2.5 LL 3.5 BE 2 ZB 4 VS 4 JL 2 AVERAGE 3/5
OVERALL SCORE 3.48175/5
Blog Comments
Cherry
April 13, 2011 at 3:08 AM
Okay. Now I’m gonna need some tacos. So hungry. Thanks for the post!
Dave Lieberman
April 11, 2011 at 8:50 PM
“But Jo-o-osh… why is there no u-u-uterus?”
Joshua Lurie
April 11, 2011 at 10:35 PM
Dave, you’re better than that, and you know perfectly well where to find the nana del puerco.
Dave Lieberman
April 11, 2011 at 1:14 PM
Good writeup, Josh. It took a significant amount of convincing for me (dorky white guy) to convince the cooks (jaded by whiny white people who only want muscle cuts) that I wanted the whole thing… and they still didn’t touch any of the truly “horrifying” bits, which is what I wanted.
Joshua Lurie
April 11, 2011 at 8:08 PM
Dave, kudos for never settling for what’s handed to you, and for never whining.