![]() ![]() Tacos al Carbon is a Mexican recipe of charcoal-grilled meats served up taco style, and they are fantastic. Today we're making Homemade Tacos al Carbon, and I already know you're going to love it. We're cooking some incredible beef tacos in the Chili Pepper Madness kitchen, my friends, only these aren't your everyday tacos. It is a traditional maize preparation in which dried kernels are cooked and steeped in an alkaline solution then drained, rinsed and milled to produce masa, or cornmeal, which can be formed into tortillas.This is my favorite tacos al carbon recipe with marinated flank steak that is grilled over hot charcoal for that wonderful smoky flavor, served with roasted red pepper and pico de gallo. La Parrilla Loca and other East Oakland taco stands like Tacos Mi Reynita and El Asadero Poblano make their tortillas on-site and by hand, using a time-consuming process called nixtamalization. With LA being a lot closer and easier to get to, it has just taken a bit longer for different types of tacos to make it to the Bay Area. Also, each family brings its secret seasoning or marinade to the operation, as well as salsa recipes that have probably been passed down for generations. The use of regional cooking methods, such as grilling meat over piping hot charcoal for a smoky flavor, also adds a dimension rarely seen in the Bay Area until recently. ![]() I think, for me, it has to do with the freshness of the tortilla. While there are certainly many good tacos in the Bay Area, I’ve always wondered why the tacos in LA are better. Sorry, your browser doesn't support embedded videos. When it was cooked like this, there were nice little plumps of porky pop with each bite and a medium amount of spice. But at La Parrilla Loca, they cook the sausage in full over the charcoal as they do with the chicken and carne asada. Typically, the Mexican sausage is decased and cooked on a plancha, giving it a coarse texture. The chorizo taco was definitely the favorite of the bunch. The sweetness of the piña, “pineapple” in Spanish, offsets the mild spice of the marinated pork.Ĭhicken, left, and steak cook over hot charcoal at La Parrilla Loca in Oakland, Calif. Often, the taqueros will perform a bit of pageantry and slice a nub of fresh pineapple, which sits at the top of the trompo, making it fly acrobatically through the air with a perfect landing on top of the meat in the tortilla. The meat is slowly cooked over the course of hours, and the taqueros shave off the crispy bits into the tacos. Thin cuts of chile-marinated pork are delicately layered on top of one another around a vertical metal rod to create what is called a trompo, which then rotates next to a hot flame. ![]() Next up: al pastor, which many people know as the meat on the spit. The meat was still tender and elicited memories of the carne asada at Tacos Mama Cuca, which is unfortunately closed at the moment. It had an intense smoky flavor, which is part of the allure of meats al carbon. First up was the carne asada al carbon, which is grilled over charcoal. When I visited La Parrilla Loca last Sunday with a friend, we ordered five different options so we could try as much of the menu as possible. The taco assembly station at La Parrilla Loca is seen in Oakland, Calif. Finally, it is wrapped and cradled in a piece of butcher paper, a defining characteristic of Tijuana-style tacos. Then it’s scooped into a handmade tortilla, smeared with a generous dollop of guacamole, doused with your choice of a silky red salsa or a chunky green salsa and smothered in a healthy handful of chopped onions and cilantro. The meat of your choice is chopped with a long, thin saber on a weathered tree-trunk-like slice of wood that acts as a chopping block. Just behind him sits the trompo, or spit, of pork al pastor, waiting to be carved. At the center of the operation, you’ll hand the taquero your order stub and watch the magic show firsthand. The carne asada al carbon, marinated chicken and traditional chorizo all cook over intense flames from the charcoal grill. Then you get into the longer line, which turns the corner of the old Fandango Latino nightclub, where you’ll eventually see an assembly line of taco greatness. On the corner sits a small trailer where you place your order. Travel | This hike is filled with seals, waterfalls and a magical sea caveįood | Inside the fast food industry's secret Calif. History | The unbelievable true story of a body found in a Calif. Culture | My secret to dating in San Francisco is a spreadsheet ![]()
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