I’ve always noticed the “Farmers Market” sign while driving on the 5 Freeway when passing the exit for the Coronado Bridge. I’ve also passed the structure on Imperial Avenue, and have wondered just what was in this large brick building.
The main business in the building is the Plaza Del Sol Market. But walk East past the Market and enter through the doorway, and you’ll enter another world. This half of the building contains a huge collection of stalls, selling everything from Car Insurance to Carnitas. Among the many food stalls, on the far east side of the building among the crowds eating even at 2pm on a Sunday lies Taqueria El Guero. I decided to stop here, mainly because many of the other stalls were either packed or closing down. But “El Guero” was going strong, except for the empty Trompo(verticle spit, that holds and cooks Al Pastor). The trompo was enough to make us stop and grab some tacos.
All tacos here are $1.16 each, ad include items such as tripas(intestines), buche(stomach), and carne asada. The drill is, a Gal with a order pad meets you at the counter and you place your order; in our case Cabeza(cheek), Al Pastor(marinated and rubbed pork, grilled on a verticle spit), and Carne Asada. We had originally wanted lengua(tongue), but they were out. When your order is ready, you get just tortillas with the meat on it. You walk over to the “salsa” stand, and load up on what you want, from radishes to onions. (Sorry, no sour cream!!!!) Walk on over to a empty table and eat. Be careful, there are pigeons in the rafters, and they create the major pigeon by-product, you really don’t want that on you, or your taco!
We really don’t put much on our tacos, at least these type of tacos. The well marinated, or well stewed meat has alot of flavor. In this case the Asada was too mild, and the Cabeza was pretty good, but a bit too waxy, and not cooked to the moist tenderness that I enjoy. The Al Pastor, was excellent though, very moist, and slightly spicy. The Al Pastor needed no additional flavoring, though perhaps it could have been a bit more caramelized, but I think that’s the product of our late arrival.
3 Tacos and Horchata for 5 bucks ain’t bad. The Al Pastor makes this place worth another visit.
Over the next few weeks I’ll cover the other eating stalls within the Farmers Market, especially Carnitas Michoacan, which besides selling carnitas in tacos and tortas, sells carnitas by weight and “part”(i.e. leg, shoulder, skin). Today we arrived late and there was only leg and “skin” left. Though we were the only Non-Hispanic people I saw in the market, most people(except the tamale guy) speak English.
So if you have a chance, go ahead and enter another world at the San Diego Farmers Market.
Taqueria El Guero in the San Diego Farmers Market
2100 Imperial Ave.
San Diego, CA 92102