"Al Pastor" (Tacos al pastor; Cabrito al pastor)

[Barry Popik]

TACOS AL PASTOR--190,000 Google hits
CABRITO AL PASTOR--790 Google hits
...
I just did a first draft for "al pastor." It's not in OED ("miserable
on food, and don't even ask about ranch dressing"). "Tacos al pastor"
are very popular in Austin.
...
I didn't see "tacos al pastor" or "cabrito al pastor" in Robb Walsh's
"The Tex-Mex Cookbook" (2004).
...
O.T.: I just noticed that Google ads attached a  "Liposuction NY" ad
to this entry. Is it any wonder that I'm making three bucks a day
(before taxes and expenses)?...I see that Wikipedia's "Big Apple"
entry was vandalized again (someone added that "Big Apple is a
nickname in the hood"), and John Baker thankfully changed it back.
Wikipedia must be trying to kill me...Grant Barrett says to look at
site "visitors" and not "hits," but for some reason, I've been getting
20,000 hits a day recently....Three lousy bucks for all that. Food
history pays!
...
...
...
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/al_pastor_cabrito_al_pastor_tacos_al_pastor/
...
Entry from November 26, 2007
Al Pastor (Cabrito Al Pastor; Tacos Al Pastor)
"Al pastor" means "shepherd style," a term originating in northern
Mexico. "Al pastor" is meat carved from a vertical spit, often seaoned
with pineapple, onions, cilantro and lime.

"Cabrito al pastor" (goat) was first served in Texas in the 1940s.
"Tacos al pastor" was served in Texas by the 1970s, but became a
popular dish (especially in Austin) by the 1990s.


Wikipedia: Al pastor
Al pastor, literally meaning "Shepherd Style", is a dish developed in
Mexico City likely as a result of the adoption of spit-grilled meat
brought by Lebanese immigrants. The dish is similar to the Turkish
döner kebab, Shawarma, or Greek gyros.

Preparation
Usually pork, it is marinated with a blend of different spices and
herbs, and then slowly cooked on a vertical rotisserie called a Trompo
(lit: spinning top), often with a pineapple on top. When ready, the
meat is then thinly sliced off the spit with a large knife. It can be
served with small tortillas, onions, pineapple, cilantro and lime. It
is also a common ingredient in tacos, burritos, and tortas.

Popularity
Tacos al pastor, although less widely available than other styles in
fusion Mexican cuisine, are one of the most popular tacos served in
Taquerias both in Mexico and US latino neighborhoods.

In some places in Northern Mexico, like Nuevo Leon, these are usually
called Tacos de Trompo.

Everything2.com
tacos al pastor
A Mexican delicacy, invented some thirty years ago in Mexico City.
Tacos al pastor are invariably eaten in a restaurant, because to make
them you need a vertical broiler, which nobody has at home.

The meat is pork, seasoned with red stuff that I assume to be achiote.
Slice upon slice of meat is impaled upon the vertical spit, which is
then topped with a whole pineapple and occasionally an onion.
The spit is then mounted in the vertical broiler, and the cooking
process begins. As the outer layer of the huge ball of meat (it is
actually called la bola) roasts, the cook (actually a specialized guy,
called el pastorero) trims off the cooked bits and collects them in
something that resembles a dustpan.

The complete taco employs tortillitas: the pastorero dips briefly the
tortillita in the drip pan (didn't I mention that the meat is quite
fatty and releases large amounts of fat ?), slices off meat on the
tortillita, slashes at the pineapple (which is also cooking) and
catches the falling slice with the tortillita. The taco is then served
with raw chopped onion, cilantro, hot sauce, and lime. Since the
individual taco is quite small, you can easily eat five. Or ten.
Especially if you are drinking Negra Modelo.

One of the best places for tacos al pastor in Mexico City is called El
Tizoncito, and it is actually a local mini-chain of restaurants. Also
very good is El rincón de la lechuza on Miguel Angel de Quevedo.
Another tasty one is Charly II on Av. San Fernando in Tlalpan.

Taco Journalism
Wednesday, May 23, 2005
Austin Chronicle's "Best of" Taco Trucks - Round One
(...)
Tacos Al Pastor
Location - 1911 E. Riverside Austin, TX 78741
Cornbiter and myself had a tough time finding this inconspicuous
little joint tucked in front of one of many shopping centers on E
Riverside. The truck looked innocent enough, no real signage or prices
displayed with a nice lineup of jarritos sodas and mexican cokes.

I ordered two pastors on corn with cilantro and onion served with an
extremely spicy/tasty salsa verde. The salsa made its way up your
mouth nicely and had a long and strong finish. Now let me let you in
on something, Belinda Carlisle must have been talking about Tacos Al
Pastor when she wrote 'Heaven is a place on Earth." These taco's
rocked! The pastor was diced coarsely and the meat, which consisted of
both charred and moist pork, was seasoned perfectly. There was a taste
explosion in every bite. Chase it all down with a mexican coke and
Cornbiter D and myself were in Taco Heaven.

If you are still reading this I hope it is on your cell phone while
you barrel down I-35 on you way to this place, not to be missed.
Tacos Al Pastor - 5 1/2 stars- jarod

Google Books
La raza cósmica: Misión de la Raza Iberoamericana
by Jose Vasconcelos
Agencia mundial de libreria
1927
Pg. 191:
...largo y estirado sobre tres palos enterrados en el suelo, encima de
las brasas ardientes; se llama allá lo mismo que entre nosotros:
cabrito al pastor

7 April 1948, Brownsville (TX) Herald, pg. 6, col. 1 ad:
EL OASIS
Restaurant and Bar
Front of the Market Square
West Side
MATAMOROS
Ribs and Cabrito (Al Pastor)
Best Mexican Food
Roberto Guerra, Owner

Google Books
Modern Mexico (Mexico Modern)
Mexican Chamber of Commerce
1950
Pg. 12:
... especially on Saturday nights and Sundays; and he should give 1n
to the advertisements of cabrito al pastor (roast kid), Monterrey's
most typical dish.

31 December 1950, Brownsville (TX) Herald, "Matamoros-Victoria Highway
Short Route To Mexico City," pg. 14A, col. 1:
Among its tourist attractions San Franando has little to offer except
its quaint plaza, located right in the heart of the city, an old
church, and its genuine Mexican dishes such as cabrito en sangre,
cabrito asado, cabrito al pastor, agujitas, and its famed machacado
con heuvo (an omelet made from dried beef and scrambled eggs). Its
dried beef (carne seca) is famed throughout Tamaulipas and in some
parts of Mexico. Cattle are butchered and the meat is salted (and
sometimes spiced) and hung out in the sun to dry. Cabrito en sangre is
meat from a kid cooked in its own blood. The dish is spiced with
oregano, cominos, mejorana and other fragrant and tasteful herbs which
give it a delicious flavor and a tang all its own. Cabrito asado is
broiled kid meat. Cabrito al pastor is kid meat broiled over an open
fire, usually on a spit. Agujitas are spare ribs broiled over charcoal
embers.

16 March 1957, San Antonio (TX) , pg. 8, col. 7 ad:
JASMER'S DRIVE INN
3839 W. COMMERCE
CABRITO AL PASTOR
MEXICAN DINNERS

20 April 1957, San Antonio (TX) Light, "Cabrito Treat at New Jasmer's
Drive Inn Cafe," pg. 8, cols. 2-3:
A dining treat not often encountered outside northern Mexico is now
available to San Antonians at Jasmer's restaurant and drive-in, 3639
W. Commerce st.

This newest and most comfortable establishment of its kind features
cabrito al pastor, an incomparable piece de resistance which may
require a bit of explaining to the uninitiated. Cabrito, in Spanish
and in the interpretation of the owner of Jasmer's, means kid or young
goat and "young" refers to the brief life span of the goat, not the
comparative age in terms of elephant years.

"Al pastor" means, roughly, "like a shepherd," or prepared, with some
refinements, in the manner in which it has been prepared by sheep
herders through hundreds of years on the plains and in the mountains
of Mexico.

Broiled on a spit over hot coals, cabrito becomes one of the real
delicacies of all meats. It is this regional Mexican food which is
attracting crowds to Jasmer's, together with sandwiches and short
orders with more familiar sounding names.

19 March 1960, San Antonio (TX) Light, pg. 8, col. 5 ad:
Mario's Restuarant
325 So. Pecos St.
Specializing in
"Cabrito Al Pastor"
"BILLY GOAT COOKED IN A PIT
OLD MEXICAN STYLE"

7 May 1960, Galveston (TX) Daily News, pg. 2, col. 7 ad:
Direct from Monterey's "Los Arcos Cafe" and introducing for the first
time to the SOuthwest area "Mexico's Widely Known"
"CABRITO AL PASTOR"
Young kid with it's open hearth, cooked-in falvor—see it cooked before
your eyes.
(...)
El Sarape
1001 Ave. C

8 February 1963, Brownsville (TX) Herald, pg. 10, col. 1 ad:
CAMERON PARK
DRIVE-INN
Cabrito Al Pastor
Tacos & Tamales

9 April 1972, Dallas (TX) Morning News, "Cabrito al Pastor Is Favored
Entree" by Frank X. Tolbert, section A, pg. 37:
CABRITO is the favorite entree of most folks on both shores of the Rio
Grande along the Texas-Mexico border. Cabrito signifies unweaned goat
kid either broiled, fried, or roasted.
The best is cabrito al pastor, meaning prepared farm or ranchero style
over coals and open flame. And the very best cabrito al pastor which I
had in my current wanderings along these borders was at a modern
restaurant called El Rancho Grande in Ciudad Miguel Aleman, formerly
San Pedro de Roma (or St. Peter of Rome) across the Rio Grande from
the architecturally impressive City of Roma, Texas.
(...)
While we were in Ciudad Camargo, a cathedral town several miles
inboard from the Rio Grande but opposite Rio Grande City, Mr. Boyle
pointed out a small cafe called the Alamo which he said often produces
a cabrito al pastor even superior to that in the Migeul Alaman
restaurant.

"The reason may be is that the cooks at the Alamo are specialists.
Nothing but cabrito al pastor is served there," said George Boyle, a
native of San Benito, Texas, and a man with a good command of Spanish.

I'll have a report on Alamo next in my "gastronomical tours." And I
also hope to sample a Matamoros (the big city across river from
Brownsville) cafe called Los Nortenos which serves nothing but cabrito
al pastor with a few condiments.

5 April 1964, San Antonio (TX) Express and News, entertainment
section, pg. 6, col. 3 ad:
CABRITO AL PASTOR
Guacamole Salad, Refried Beans, Coffee of Iced Tea ... $1.50
THE PAN-AMERICAN RESTAURANT
720 Pleasanton Rd.
OUR TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR SPECIALIZING IN ORIGINAL MEXICAN FOODS

Google Books
Fly Down, Drive Mexico
by David Dodge
New York, NY: Macmillan
1968
Pg. 135:
Cabrito al pastor tastes pretty much like what it is; plain old grilled goat.
Nobody, gringo or mexicano, ever ate birria without coming back for more.

17 June 1972, Dallas (TX) Morning News, "A Bouncing Bridge to Miguel
Aleman" by Frank X. Tolbert, section A, pg. 23:
The restaurant in Cuidad Miguel Aleman has a big menu, from frog legs
and quail to steak, although the specialty is cabrito, broiled in an
open pit over mesquite knot coals. In contrast, Senor Saenz's
establishment in Camargo serves nothing but cabrito al pastor, also
barbecued over the open pit, and sometimes served "on a stick" to
those who want to take out.

29 August 1972, Dallas (TX) Morning News, "About Restaurants on
Tex-Mex Border" by Frank X. Tolbert, section A, pg. 17:
The Moderno has acceptable cabrito, yet it's not the classic cabrito
al pastor, cooked over an open hearth such as you can get for half the
price at such smaller cafes as El Rancho Grande and Waldorf (not
kidding) in Ciudad Miguel Aleman, across river from Roma, Texas.

3 March 1976, Port Arthur (TX) News, "La Iguana Restaurant prepares
food in tradition of Mexico," pg. 31, col. 4:
La Iguana is the only restaurant of its kind that sells "Cooked over
charcoal" cabrito al pastor (bar-b-que Lamb), carnitas (prime pork),
tacos al carbon (beef & pork steaks that are spiced & broiled), carnes
asadas ahujitas (broiled steaks), chorizos (sausage), pallitos
(roasted chicken), baizas Mexicanas (hot sauce), frijoles a la chana
(ranch style beans), homemade tamales y tortillas, also includes a
large menu of the most popular Mexican dishes.

2 September 1976, Corpus Christi (TX) Times, pg. 10C, col. 4:
Town Club members ill "visit" Mexico on Saturday, Sept. 11, in
celebration of Diez Y Seis. The club's parking lot will be converted
to an authentic village plaza with "puestos" offering cabrito and
turkey cooked over an open pit, tacos al pastor, mole con gallina y
much, much mas.

25 October 1977, Brownsville (TX) Herald, pg. 7C, col. 2 photo caption:
TACOS AL PASTOR (on the grill) one of the many types of tacos
available in Matamoros, are prepared from a hanging wedge of beef and
pork. Put both in a corn tortilla, add onion, tomato, caliander, and
salsa. Ten more, please!

27 July 1986, New York (NY) Times, pg. XX14:
Follow them with taco al pastor, a fresh, soft, puffy flour tortilla
stuffed with pork, marinated in chili and served with cebolletos
(grilled spring onions), and seasoned with cilantro (coriander).
(Old Mexico Grill in Santa Fe, New Mexico—ed.)

23 October 1992, New York (NY) Times, pg. C26:
The delicious burrito al pastor ($9.95) is a neatly folded pouch
containing strips of grilled steak, green pepper and onions, carefully
topped with a vivid pico de gallo and sour cream.
(Benny's Burritos—ed.)

Google Books
Mexico on Fifty Dollars a Day, '94
by Marita Adair (Frommer's Staff)
New York, NY: Macmillan Publishing
1993
Pg. 772:
Tacos al pastor Thin slices of flavored pork roasted on a revolving
cylinder dripping with onion slices and the juice of a fresh pineapple
slice.

Google Books
Mexico 1995 (Fodor's)
by Berkeley Travel Staff
Fodor's Travel Publications
1994
Pg. 57:
The tacos al pastor (marinated pork, onions, and pineapple on a spit)
cost about 60e each.

Google Books
A Cook's Tour of Mexico
by Nancy Zaslavsky
New York, NY: St. Martin's Press
1997
Pg. 86:
Monterrey Cabrito al Pastor Restaurant.
Pg. 154:
Tacos al Pastor. Throughout Puebla, storefronts sell this relatively
newfangled (possibly fifty years old) Mexican taco,...

27 April 2003, New York (NY) Times, "Four Mexico City Restaurants That
Stay Close to Their Roots" by Mark Bittman, pg. TR6:
Or venture over to La Condesa, the up-and-coming neighborhood
reminiscent of the East Village, and stop at El Tizoncito, a joint
that offers delicious tacos al pastor, in which a coal-fired vertical
oven perfectly browns a gyrolike affair of achiote-laced pork
shoulder. The meat is sliced to order and layered into a tiny taco,
with a little of its drippings, some chili sauce, a bit of onion and a
garnish of deftly cut pineapple. You eat 5 for a snack and 10 for a
meal. It's not elegant, and blessedly it's not pasta.

Rosita's Al Pastor - Austin, TX (Yelp)
Nick L.
Austin, TX
4 star rating
05/15/2007
You've seen how most taco stands and taquerias in Austin tend to do
tacos al pastor: nondescript brown chunks of pork, seemingly stewed--
not cut from a skewer, as should be the norm--and sometimes garnished
lightly with chopped pineapples. A pretty reliable, if unspectacular
order that generally tastes the same at most places, with the
exception of a few outliers.

When I heard about Rosita Al Pastor, a family restaurant tragically
tucked away in a massive, unattractive strip mall on the 1900 block of
East Riverside, I was intrigued. A restaurant so dedicated to the
pursuit of turning out excellent al pastor that they included it in
the name? What did this mean for the rest of the menu? Was al pastor
all they served, to the neglect of other fine Mexican meats? How could
I have driven by this place for years without ever having noticed it?

Well it turns out that Rosita's offers a full-service menu that
features the usual lineup of tortas, tacos (including some damn fine
egg and potato), burritos, gorditas, etc. that you can mix and match
as you please with assorted meats (I don't remember seeing
carnitas—why is carnitas exceedingly ubiquitous in California and so
hard to find in Texas?) However, you would be remiss if you did not
pair any of these entrees with Rosita's crown jewel: smoky, bright red
strips of tender, savory pork, bursting with flavor --true al pastor
that I'm fairly certain is sliced piping hot off a skewer. Topped with
some freshly chopped white onions, cilantro, and Rosita's house salsa
verde, these tacos are pretty much perfect, I think. What's the secret
ingredient that gives the pork that brilliant red zest? Maybe we'll
never know. I've only seen al pastor of this hue in Mexico, and come
to think of it, chorizo as well. Maybe someone more enlightened can
bring me up to speed as to why that is.

On my first visit, I ordered three tacos al pastor on both corn and
flour tortillas. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the warm,
fluffy texture of the flour tortillas far surpassed the corn
tortillas, and I'm usually a corn man. So don't be afraid to be a
gringo and ask for flour...it's worth it! For what it's worth, my
friend ordered his al pastor on gorditas. I looked wistfully at his
plate, as it seemed that he was given a larger portion of meat. Your
mileage may vary. My meal came out to less than $6, if I remember
correctly.

HornFans.com
hornian
11/16/07 07:20 PM
Re: Best Tacos al pastor in town
I really like the ones at Curras on Oltorf. They mix a little bit of
pineapple in there, plus that cilantro and onion stuff, top it with
the avacado sauce (its not guacamole, it a sauce), and it's allsome.
Make sure you sub borracho beans. And of course you have to get it on
corn tortillas, but that goes without saying.

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