Downtown San Luis Obispo restaurant owner Oscar Macias remembers eating birria ever since he could chew. Traditionally made with young goat meat, the fragrant terra-cotta-colored stew was a birthday staple.
Now at 32, Macias wants SLO County to enjoy the flavors of his Mexican home through Taqueria El Güero.
"That's what they call me—el güero. It's a term in our culture for someone with a light complexion. Since early age, everyone just called me güero, güero, güero," Macias said with a laugh.
Macias is originally from Michoacán, Mexico. Each generation of his family received recipes from their grandparents, which they tweaked a little over time. At El Güero, his mother, Patricia, oversees the birria. That recipe came from Macias' grandfather, who passed away recently.
"We feel that there's a part of him left behind in our business and day-to-day lives," Macias said. "It was a hard time for my mom. Preparing the food her dad taught her to make brings her some peace."
Patricia also altered her dad's birria recipe for El Güero—she swapped the original goat meat for beef.
Born in Jalisco, birria is a celebratory dish of goat, beef, or lamb that's cooked in a marinade of dried spices, like ancho and guajillo chiles, ground cumin, chipotle pepper, cinnamon, and ginger. The meat is then shredded and braised in the broth and drippings the stew creates. As a taco, the birria filling is stuffed in a corn or flour tortilla that's already been dipped in the broth and fried. With the addition of cheese, birria queso tacos ruled the culinary social media space for the past few years, and El Güero wanted in—Michoacán style.
- Photos Courtesy Of Taqueria El Güero
- MOTHER'S TOUCH Oscar Macias (right) and his mother, Patricia (left), want to ensure that El Güero's food tastes the same as when she cooked those dishes when Oscar was growing up.
"We knew that we wanted to sell tacos. We did the birria because it was popular in Mexico," Macias said. "At first, it wasn't a big seller because it wasn't well known. It blew up on social media when we did a video on birria. Overnight, people swarmed us for birria."
El Güero's birria queso taco platter is perfect to combat the chill that's gripped SLO in recent weeks. Tinted bright orange from the birria consomé (broth), three handmade corn tortillas brimming with cheese and beef are delicious hunger-crushing heavyweights. They come with a hot cup of cilantro-flecked consomé filled with rice, and a spicy chile de árbol salsa. Pair the platter with a chilled bottle of Mexican Coke for a heavenly match.
"The broth on the side, on a cold day, brings back memories of early mornings," Macias said. "The consomé is reheated in the mornings, and you just drink that. The cilantro, onions, a few tacos with beans—that's your morning pickup. It has all the nutrients from the meat and bones, so it gives you liveliness."
To make their birria more palatable to SLO diners, El Güero swapped goat meat for beef, tamed the spice kick, and added a new way to cook tacos.
"Our usual way is a regular tortilla with the birria and that was the taco. The melting of the cheese and frying of the tortilla is fairly new," Macias said. "That opened my eyes to the potential of something that was already good and transforming it into something even better."
Want something lighter to munch on?
Try El Güero's regular taco plate with a choice of grilled veggies or meats like carne asada (steak), al pastor (marinated pork), carnitas (braised pork), and chicken. The corn tortillas are large, warm, and have a heft to them. They're especially good with lashings of the chile de árbol salsa and lots of lime.
Customers can also go for the torta—with a buttery telera bun that sandwiches beans, jalapeños, salsa, cheese, and any of the meats—or a quesadilla, nachos, or burrito. In 2023, the restaurant will expand its seafood options and plans to release a line of desserts like tres leches and coffee flan.
- Photos Courtesy Of Taqueria El Güero
- MICHOACÁN FEAST El Güero not only dishes up birria, but also tortas, tacos, burritos, and nachos.
Macias said that he wants to introduce another menu item that his family would eat with birria.
"Christmas is a big time for birria with a side of tamales. We're actually making tamales this Christmas," he said. "We're doing a test run. My mom hates me for this, but they have to taste exactly how I remember them tasting."
A specialty dish, El Güero's birria will set you back $18, a far cry from the dollar street tacos available around Mexico and California—but there's a principle Macias wants to uphold.
"We're trying to get rid of the stigma that Mexican food has to be cheap. There is a way to make the cheap food, but it compromises on the flavors and what the family recipes are," he said. "These plates were made for special occasions, so we did make them with higher-end ingredients.
"It is pricier than most locations for Mexican food, but it's home-cooked food." Δ
Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal is wolfing down birria tacos. Slow her roll at [email protected].
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