3/7/2025 Back to PV
We caught the 12:00pm Water taxi at 12:15pm. They had us strap up in life vests and did not offer to sell us beers. The boat back to PV is more for residents than tourists. It was a direct trip. In PV we made our way from the Los Muertos Pier to All Access Sports Bar. We got some epic fried pickle chips. The brewing was thick crispy, and flakey. The Wings were just as good as remembered. The boneless wing were just a bit odd, and the mini chimichangas needed the right sauce. I was pretty hungry, and did not communicate well with my travel buddy. We did not really need 4 different items from the starter menu. However, I did not share all of my thoughts, and Dave may not have shared all of his.
After lunch we back packed up the Malecon a couple miles to Zona Centro. We got checked into our Air BnB. It is a nice 2 bed, 2 bath Condo. There is a pool on top of the building, and we took a dip in it’s cold ass water.
Peppe’s Taco’s
After beers and exploration, we made out way to Peppe’s tacos. There was a queue of folks waiting for tables. This is one of 2 places in town that gets a lot of attention. The folks in line if front of us were from the greatest state in the union, California. They had read about Peppe’s in the New York Times. I know of them from YouTube. They have two Al Pastor spits out front. Only one was in use on our visit. They are open until 6:00am! From my spot in line. I had a front row view of the action. I got to watch the culinary gangster run the spit. I took note of his “char management”, and also the doneness of the meat. They slice it off very thin. I am not sure it comes up to the WA State Health Department Serving Temperature before it is cut off. However, I understand a bit about food science and the pH of the marinade is part of the equation. (Edit to add; on another nite. I noticed some tacos being “finished” on a small flat top griddle, to the right of the spit.)
It did not take us long, and we were seated at a table. We observed things, and we think we got in just as they were slowing down from a rush. I was delighted to see that they had flour tortillas on the menu. As flour tortillas are traditional for Al Pastor. Ignorant people associate the flour tortilla with Americans. However, just like the Al Pastor spit. The flour tortilla came into Mexico with middle eastern immigrants. The flour tortilla is Turkish Lavish. It is Yufka in Syria. Post World War 1, the Ottoman Empire fell apart. Many people where displaced. Many folks who followed the Christian religion in; Lebanon, Syria, and ethnic Greeks in Turkey needed to find a new home, or get “ethnically cleansed”. Before Tacos Al Pastor, there was Tacos Arabia.
It did not take long for our food to arrive, but we were hungry. David got one asada taco, one taco Al Pastor, and an Asada Quesadilla. I got 3x Al Pastor on flour tortillas. The flour tortillas were bigger than the corn. Probably a good 5-6 inches. I am not used to handling so many inches, and could only take 3 at a time. The flour tortillas were sturdy, with some stretch and chew. They were not very puffy, and may have been rolled even thinner than I roll mine. They held the taco together well. The meat on my taco was perfect. There was a good mix of seared, shared, and just cooked meat. The marinade had plenty of salt, and was just right for my palate. For Dave it was a bit much.
J. Kenji Lopez Alt (my favorite food scientist, and cook book author) tells us that most home cooked food is around 1% salt by weight, and most restaurant food is right about 2%. For most of my home cooking I target 1.5%, by weight. I am pretty good at not over salting, but it has been a problem in the past. My mother does not salt as heavy as me. So, typically I will use her palate when cooking for the family. Once she tells me it is good, I wait until she is not looking, then add just a little more. I bet these tacos hit that 2% salt.
I think I am ready to get serious about making Al Pastor at home. Many home cooks get hung up trying to emulate the huge vertical spit. I followed some BS advice of an “internet chef” and tried that once. The Al Pastor spit is the same spit used for Shawarma and Gyro. It is my opinion that emulating it is foolish. That big-ass spit was a way of “industrializing” the kebab for fast-food, mass production. If you are doing this at home, use your kebab or kefta skewers. You will get the char on the outside, and less in the center. You can control the char by how thick the meat is. Slice it thin off of the skewers. Then, it is just getting the right contact time for the marinade. The best Al Pastor has plenty of contact time. The meat is often sliced pretty thin on the industrial spit. So, it probably does not need a lot of contact time. I think for a home cook. Targeting a thickness that only takes ~6 hours would be handy for most BBQs and Celebrations.
After dinner we hit up a roof top bar, and got served beverages by a hot Cubana lady. I am not sure how we know she was Cubana, but Dave felt the same energy. We had a couple roof beers back at the BNB, and called it an early night.
