El Cajon Boulevard can sometimes seem like an ocean of restaurants, arriving wave after wave. After passing the twentieth Pho’ or Mexican Restaurant your senses can shut down. And in the end, I’ll end up at an old standby. But once in a while something will catch my eye. At El Panson, it wasn’t the generic sign, that got my attention.
But it’s that Baby on the right that grabbed me. That’s a "trompo" or "top", a vertical spit of meat, typically Al Pastor. This meant of course, an immediate right turn and a search for parking. For the uninitiated, cooking with a vertical spit was supposedly brought to Mexico by Lebanese immigrants. And the cooking style has been adapted, using a "roll" of thinly sliced pork that has been marinated and rubbed with herbs and spices, called Tacos Al Pastor(Shephard style tacos). The meat is turned and shaved off, much like Gyros, and made into tacos. During that visit, the Missus and I had several good tacos, but the photos never really came out(see photo on the right). And now with the weather a bit warm for February, I wanted to grab a few tacos, and decided to see if my camera would work this time. On this afternoon, El Panson was quite busy, and the sounds and smells of various herbs and spices hung in the air. One Gal was hard at work on tortillas, while one Gentleman flew around in the small little space filling orders.
I ordered three tacos(all tacos $1.50), and had a seat. After a short wait, a Young Lady popped out of the door and into the small dining area and I had my tacos:
I quickly hit the salsa bar, and grabbed some pico de gallo, and some of the extra hot salsa, and some lime, and I was good to go. I’m not one for over garnishing my tacos. As I learned on my trip to Yuma, the flavor of the meat really needs to come through. As per standard, these tacos came on small corn tortillas, which gave the flavor a little boost.
Here’s the run down on the various tacos. First up Tacos La Cabeza:
Tacos De Cabeza, or "head tacos" are usually made from beef cheek meat. Most versions of Tacos De Cabeza in San Diego are horrible. Made from undercooked waxy, fatty, and stale tasting chopped chunks of mystery meat. The version at El Panson was very moist and soft, with no greasy and waxy texture. The meat was lacking the intense "beefiness" that I’ve experienced in good Cabreza, but was pretty decent. The onions and cilantro added flavor and crunch to the taco, and the other garnishes made it complete. Overall, pretty good, not oily or greasy, and lacking the rich beefy flavor I enjoy, but mile above most of the Cabeza I’ve had in San Diego.
The Adobada.
I guess I get confused, I know it’s Al Pastor, I even order it as Al Pastor, but it’s on the menu as Adobada. I watched the meat sliced from the trompo, juices flying everywhere, and vaporizing as it hit the heating elements, I had high hopes for the Adobada. In the end, the flavoring was much too mild, though the meat was very soft and moist, and the caramelized "bits" added some nice flavor. I enjoy my Al Pastor/Adobada seasoned a bit more aggressively, though I’d happily have this again.
Birria De Res
So what I’ve learned is Birria De Chivo is stewed goat(yum!), and Birria De Res is stewed/roasted
beef. On my first trip with the Missus, the Birria had a good bit of spice, and the flecks of chilies could be seen in the meat. The Birria was also much more moist. Today, the meat was much milder and not as juicy. Still enjoyable, but not great.
What ‘s really interesting is, that because the various meats are quite rich, you’ll find that three to four tacos, with garnishes may make you quite full. Portions can be deceptive.
Here’s one of the surviving photos from our first visit. The taco with Guacamole is the Carne Asada, and it was quite dry and tasteless.
If you’re in the area, and want a nice snack El Panson might fill the bill. BTW, I understand that El Panson means something like ‘Fat Man’…….
Tacos El Panson
4433 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92115
OPEN DAILY
Sun-Thurs 10am – 12am
Fri – Sat 10am – 3am