Tacos de Suadero

This is a Mexico City taco. Not a generic 'Mexican taco.' A taco de suadero belongs to the sidewalks of the Centro, to the corner of Bucareli at one in the morning, to the taquerias of Roma Norte and Doctores and Tepito where the comal is concave, the size of a wagon wheel, and the meat sits in a moat of its own fat at the perimeter while the carnitero chops to order at the center.

Suadero is a specific cut. It is the thin sheet of beef between the flank and the rib, fat layer still attached. It is not brisket exactly and it is not flank. In Mexico the carnicero hands it to you in a slab and you know what you are getting. Outside Mexico you have to ask, and you have to be willing to substitute carefully. What you cannot do is buy lean stew meat and call it suadero. La manteca es el sabor. The fat is not a flaw to be trimmed. The fat is the taco.

The technique is a confit, slow cooking the meat in rendered fat until it surrenders, then chopping it fine, then crisping it on a hot comal in some of the same fat. Two tortillas, not one. Raw white onion, cilantro, lime, salsa. The order is 'con todo.' The tortillas are small because you are supposed to eat four or five. Cada estado, su propia cocina, and this one is chilango through and through.

My mother did not make suadero at home. Nobody does, really. This is a street dish, the kind you eat standing at a tin counter under a yellow light bulb. But I have spent twenty years watching taqueros work the comal, asking what cut they buy, watching them chop, and what follows is as close to the corner of Bucareli as you can get in your own kitchen. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.