Tacos El Pariente: Birria Taco Sample

We'd just finished our hour-long tour of Intelligentsia Roasting Works, then had some delicious tacos at Rambo's Tacos in Glassell Park. I was dropping off Javier and HC to the local Gold Line station in Highland Park (Southwest Station) so they could go their respective ways. On the way, Javier points out a truck that I've passed for years without ever noticing. "Chivo," is a spanish word for "goat-er" like fromager (cheese-er) or perhaps butcher. Generally a good sign when you're looking for high quality birria. Birria is a slow-braised goat meat that's succulent and falling-off-the-bone at its best. I haven't had too many renditions of it though Javier suggested that whenever we see "birria" or "chivo", just go and try one taco.

That's exactly what Christine and I did, even though we had just had some tripas, lengua, and cabeza tacos at Rambo's. The sign says, "tacos hecho a mano," meaning they're all hand-made.

We ordered one taco, costing just $1. NICE. In the meantime, Christine created a little melange of veggies to counter the meat, since she loves her vegetables. A little sauce to season it and we were on our way to finger-lickin' good concoction of Mexican veggies.

We saw them grilling up a fresh tortilla - nothing from a plastic bag here. Definitely encouraging. Also, they took out a huge hunk of bone and axed off chunks of juicy flesh for our taco. Another encouraging sign, it definitely re-whet our appetites despite the greasy "snack" from Rambo's.



It's simple, tender meat, unadorned until we lightly dressed it with some cilantro, diced onions, and a hint of sauce. I didn't want to overpower the meat on this taste. It was not offensive at all, in fact it was slightly musty but in a good way. The gamey flesh was tamed with the hours-long braising while each bite had grassy and herbal hints. To hell with this flowery language - we just devoured the thing. I wanted to order more but I had to restrain myself. We should have dipped the taco in the wonderful broth that they provided, but we just sipped it slowly.



Christine is one lover of anything brothy or soupy, let me tell you. I think soup/broth comprises like 50% of all her meals. And she loved this broth.

I didn't know that birria is generally considered to have aphrodisiac qualities, so I'll keep that in mind. I'm sure that's one last tidbit that'll convince you to try not only this birria place, but many more. Like Javier says, whenever you see "chivo", try a taco. Just do it.

Tacos El Pariente
Corner of Ave 50 and Monte Vista St.
Highland Park
Los Angeles, CA 90042