Two-Dollar Tasty Tacos de Tijuana
I had my first experience of these amazing tacos when I visited family in Chula Vista (San Diego), California. But just like my first experience, the Las Vegas site continues to show me why Baja California’s amazing tacos are just that incredibly good!
Tacos El Gordo is simplicity done right!
It’s cafeteria-style ordering system can be somewhat confusing but have no fear, plenty of the friendliest people, however much English they chose to speak, are willing to help you understand. Facing the counter, the far left window is the lady making the freshly pressed, homemade corn tortillas as well as the grilled, perfectly caramelized green onions and peppers.
The guy just to the right of her is grilling and serving up the incredible carne asada. When I mean incredible, I mean carne asada done right. Thinly sliced steaks, grilled, and then thinly sliced for your taco-eating pleasure. This ain’t Roberto’s or Fausto’s where they have huge pieces of beef (top round/beef chuck) that they thinly slice and then cook up on the flat top. This is perfectly grilled and seasoned, smoky steak!
To the right, my favorite stuff, are all the other pieces of beef and pork that you would never see in any other restaurant, let alone a Mexican restaurant. Buche (Pork Stomach), Saudero (many definitions but I’ll go with something like brisket), Lengua (Beef Tongue), Cabeza (Beef Head), Sesos (Beef Brains), Tripa (Beef Tripe). If you’ve never had any of these cuts of meat, you need to try it, at least once. They are all perfectly clean-tasting cuts of meat. They know how to serve up their innards, if you know what I mean. Quick tip…you have to order the tripa and ask them for the crispy tripa. IT WILL ROCK YOUR WORLD, PROMISE!
Finally, to his right, the ‘piece de resistance,’ the pork Adobada. Meaning “marinated,” the adobada is what you MUST get if you ever visit Tacos El Gordo. It’s pork marinated in a red chili sauce with vinegar and oregano. It’s slow roasted with sweet pineapple (which you have to ask for a piece of when ordering the adobada, it raises the bar), on a contraption that a New Yorker would think it was a gyro on the spigot. Slowly rotating around a flame so that the natural pork juices keep running down the meat, keeping a nice crust on the outside to keep the juices in. The taco de adobada is topped with a salsa rojo and this heavenly avocado cream.
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“Con cebollas y cilantro?” “Si, con todo!” Unless specified, all the tacos are topped with raw white onions and cilantro. The adobada and the innards (as I call them) are also topped with a special salsa rojo. But the adobada alone gets the special avocado cream. Sandwiched between two freshly made corn tortillas, just ask for a plate of carmelized green onions and peppers and your done! Oh, don’t forget to let them know if you want it ‘to-go’ or ‘for here!’ You can also get these meats topped in a Sope ($4), sandwiched in a quesadilla ($4), or topped on a tostada ($2). For $10, you can get any of the pork Adobada or the steak Asada with fries topped with guacamole and crema fresca…that’s best for ‘midnight munchies!’
For only $2 a taco, this stuff is the cheapest, best tasting, late night Mexcian food at its best! Open from 9AM-2AM Sunday-Thursday and 9AM-4AM Friday & Saturday, this is thee place to fulfill your Mexican cravings!
Thank God its clear across town because if it was any closer, El Gordo is exactly how I’ll be for the rest of my life!
