We were able to gorge ourselves on delicious food for about 100 pesos per person. (El Vilsito also serves up a taco called a “gringa,” which uses a white flour tortilla instead of a corn one and adds melted cheese to the mix.)Īt most taquerías, customers can fill their bellies without breaking the bank, and El Vilsito is no exception. We immediately understood why so many people were in line for these tacos, and quickly ordered another round. The tender pork had just the right amount of spicy flavor, which was perfectly complemented by the sweetness of the pineapple slices. The tacos were excellent, the pastor meat easily some of the best we’d had in the city. From there, a customer can add different types of salsa or have the chef prepare the taco with diced onion and cilantro.Īlong with three tacos al pastor, which we topped off with a bit of green chili salsa, we ordered a homemade horchata, a sweet rice water drink, and dug in.
As the chef slices away, the meat and pineapple masterfully land in a small, round corn tortilla he holds in one hand. As with tacos árabes, the pork is sliced thinly off the spit by a chef who then cuts pieces off of a pineapple that has also been rotating atop the spit. What sets tacos al pastor apart from tacos árabes is that they are served in tortillas instead of pita bread, while the meat is marinated in a special sauce – usually made with annatto seeds ( achiote), peppers, spices and even nuts and raisins – that gives the meat a reddish color.
The Mexico City version is known as tacos al pastor, or “shepherd’s tacos,” a word play evoking their lamb-based origins. Pork is now used instead of lamb in the tacos, which go by the name of tacos árabes, or “Arab tacos.” The practice of roasting meat this way was brought over to Mexico in the 1920s by Lebanese and other Middle Eastern immigrants, and the tacos were originally made with lamb. In Mexico City, tacos al pastor are made from layered, marinated pork that is put on a spit and slowly rotated through an open flame. These two prep stations offered El Vilsito’s most famous dish, tacos al pastor. Most people gathered around the taco preparation areas situated on either side of the restaurant. Even at 2 a.m., every seat was taken, and customers overflowed onto the front sidewalk, where they ate standing up. Brightly lit and packed with people, the taquería was comprised of a few tables and an open kitchen, lined with a counter with bar stools behind which chefs busily prepared food for hungry customers. We half expected to find stacks of tires and piles of greasy rags inside, but once we passed through the garage doors the interior magically transformed into a typical taquería without a hint of the neighboring auto business. Like an auto repair shop, El Vilsito was accessed through a pair of large, matching, roll-up doors. (This plan, it must be noted, doesn’t extend to the personnel: fortunately, the garage’s daytime mechanics are not the taquería’s nighttime chefs.) Both establishments, it turned out, are owned by the same family, which came up with a clever one-building-fits-all business plan that allows the space to be a car repair shop by day and a taquería by night. Upon closer inspection, we found the entrance to the taquería a little further down the street, housed in the same building as the garage. We arrived to find a place that was shuttered and dark and looked disconcertingly like an auto parts store. We first came to El Vilsito one late night on the recommendation of a friend. Take the case of El Vilsito, a taquería in the Narvarte neighborhood that does double duty as an auto repair shop.
In Mexico, small business owners and entrepreneurs often display high levels of ingenuity.
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