"A1 WBarfieldsr" > wrote in message
.. .
> ---snip---

To add a bit of color to Barfield's recipe, birria is a very traditional
breakfast or morning snack for working people in Mexico. It had it's origins
in the slaughterhouse just south of downtown Guadalajara where today you get
the best birria in the world from the 'estanquillos' small restaurants that
line the Western side of the rastro. Within this neighborhood you will find
several worl-known birria restaurants. Now, as you take a break from your
maquiladora in Tijuana, you will find the two-wheeled tented vendor kitchen
within a block or two of wherever you have your plant. They are everywhere!
You order one or two tacos at a time while leaning forward to eat so as to
not spill the juice on your clothing. Or you order a cup of the juice, the
soup, with or without meat, and garnish it with finely diced onions,
cilantro, chile sauce, raddishes, chile de arbol, a squeeze of the little
Mexican limes, a dash of salt....

Over the past twenty years birria and tacos al pastor (the pyramid of meat
slowly being broiled and sliced thin to make tacos) have proliferated
throughout Mexican's working class like wildfire. Some taco shops have
opened in the hightest class neighborhood such as Polanco, where you pass
through security checkpoint after checkpoint to park in a secure parking
spot for you to enter the taco stand in safety. The prices are ten times
higher than on the street - but that is a reflection of the popularity of
these two taco fillings.

A lot of birria is made with kid and a lot with mutton; but mostly it's
pieces of beef that don't sell well in the regular markets. It all started
as a way to use up the salvaged meat as the butchers chopped away at the
main cuts. Instead of tossing the pieces to the dogs, they gave them to
people willing to cook up a spicy dish and serve as a snack during that
midmorning break called almuerzo. That has changes and quality meat is used
almost exclusively in most places.

Wayne, and my favorite birria vendor is behind the Gigante store in Parque
Industrial Las Brisas, about a half a mile East of the Cinco y Dies.