Chef Miguel Canseco likes to say he was the primary to introduce Sonoma County to quesabirria tacos, the now vastly fashionable creation of birria beef and cheese folded right into a fried tortilla with consommé for dipping. They’re bestsellers at his Taqueria El Paisa in Rohnert Park and his Tacos El Paisa meals truck within the Roseland neighborhood of Santa Rosa.
However Chef José Rodriguez likes to say that no, he was the primary to supply quesabirria at his El Fogón Taqueria in Rohnert Park. Clients love his extra-cheesy model (additionally obtainable as a burrito).
Both means, each say their quesabirria is palms down one of the best. That’s created a semi-playful competitors between them for a number of years now, as is well-known amongst their households and buddies.
So, when the 2 males joined forces a number of months in the past to launch Tacos Tijuana, it raised some eyebrows. Whose quesabirria would reign supreme on the hybrid trailer truck and tiny kitchen in Santa Rosa?
Canseco and Rodriguez compromised, based on their enterprise companion and advertising director Uriel Brena, and someway the Tacos Tijuana quesabirria is even higher.
“I really feel like none of us may have completed this mission alone, although instantly everybody was saying, ‘Who has one of the best birria?'” Brena stated. “Generally you suppose the man subsequent door is taking away your small business, however that doesn’t imply you don’t like him. They’re buddies, in order that they put their recipes collectively and made it even higher.”
Including to the collaboration is the outline of those tasty avenue treats. At Tacos Tijuana, the menu describes their model as “a shotgun marriage of a quesadilla and a birria taco; the quesabirria featured red-stained tortillas, piles of shredded meat and an ample quantity of melted cheese.”
If that sounds acquainted, it’s as a result of it’s the identical description as at El Fogón. But the Tacos Tijuana head cook dinner, Edwin Hernandez Garcia, used to work at El Paisa. The thriller deepens.
I am going to simply say this — I just like the quesabirria at El Paisa and El Fogón, but it surely’s Tacos Tijuana for the win. They’re merely lavish with succulent beef braised with guajillo and ancho peppers, filled with a lot of creamy cheese spurting from the tortilla and pan-fried till crisp in a dollop of golden brown fats from the birria pot. You’ll dunk the 4 tacos within the salty consommé and ferociously devour each chew ($15.99).
Many cities, flavors
Tucked within the beer backyard behind Shady Oak Barrel Home subsequent to Santa Rosa Plaza, Tacos Tijuana is a captivating, uniquely Mexican meals operation.
Past that mouthwatering quesabirria, it provides specialty dishes from Oaxaca, Michoacán, Mexico Metropolis and, in fact, Tijuana. It additionally options an in depth menu of vegan and vegetarian choices, brimming with such luscious, full flavors that you simply’ll by no means miss the meat or dairy.
The Oaxaca, Michoacán and Mexico Metropolis connections are an homage to the backgrounds of the cooks and Brena. The Tijuana hyperlink comes as a result of, after the trio began sharing tales, they found that they had all crossed into the USA on the metropolis’s border and had a style for the meals there.
“Someday, we have been hanging out and realized we had all began in the identical place in quest of the American dream,” Brena stated. “The evening we determined to place this mission collectively, we stored speaking about Tijuana. I don’t know if it’s as a result of we have been so very poor on the time and we have been so hungry — bodily, and for needs of a greater life — however the meals we had in there was one of the best we’ve ever had in our lives.”
The grand opening celebration final month set the tone for the way particular Tacos Tijuana is locally. Rodriguez as soon as owned a catering and occasion provides firm, so visitors have been greeted with a incredible bounce home designed like a cowboy ranch, full with inflatable steer skulls, log partitions, a bucking bronco backdrop and a pretend mechanical bull the youngsters may trip on.
Mariachis serenaded with hovering melodies and blaring trumpets. Members of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce mingled with visitors sipping cerveza, and Cosmo, the black cat, seen the group from his perch on a Sport of Thrones arcade machine within the Shady Oak bar. Some 400 folks had RSVP’d, and plenty of lined up on the trailer to purchase signature dishes like Garcia’s well-known al pastor, slow-roasted on vertical trompo rotisserie.
That is a number of the greatest pastor I’ve ever loved. Rust-tinged from its sweet-spicy marinade of pineapple juice, chiles, oregano, achiote and cumin, the tender meat is piled in double corn tortillas with grilled pineapple chunks, cilantro, minced white onion and an uncommon addition of roasted potato ($2.99).
