Kitchen Chick

Taqueria Tour 2008: El Rey del Pollo

Stop #3: The King of Chicken

Joe spotted these guys grilling outside along Vernor Hwy, and said "we've got to check this out." It turns out that they were grilling chicken, and selling it by the half or whole chicken. Since eating half a chicken would have (a) been a departure from our taco theme, and (b) taken us out of the game for the rest of the day, we took the griller's advice and went into the attached restaurant for some tacos de pollo made with the pollo they were cooking on the grill.

A word of warning here:  yes, the restaurant is kind of run down. There's broken stuff, it's dark, and the tables don't match. The booth where we were sitting used to be a hood; we realized after a few minutes that we were surrounded by stainless steel and had fire suppression nozzles pointing down at us. This is not a tourist spot like Xochimilco's or Los Galanes, or even a more upscale authentic place like El Comal or Arandas. But it's clean (even the bathroom was immaculate), and when the tacos came out, we were stunned:

Huge, gorgeous, loaded with juicy red-sauced hunks of that grilled chicken, and so hot we couldn't even pick them up at first. The salsa was great too — spicy and way better than the table salsa they gave us — but the chicken!  The chicken was the real star. Moist, flavorful, not as spicy as it looks by a long shot (some of that red color is achiote, not chilies). We also had a chorizo taco:  equally huge, with a lot of spicy chorizo, and the same sauce.

While we were eating it, the guy on the grill (who may well have been Armando himself) leaned through the sliding window beside our table and asked what we thought. When Joe told him (in Spanish) how good it was, he passed us some chicken pieces straight from the grill as a free sample.  Heaven!

Highly, highly recommended. We'd also recommend you park your car where the grill guys (or you) can keep an eye on it, because there were some folks hanging out in the area drinking.

Armando, the king of chicken, is out there grilling most (all?) of the year. Just drive along Vernor Hwy and look his roadside tents between Lansing and Ferdinand St. in the Mexican Town.

Taqueria Tour 2008: Tacos El Primo

Stop #2: Tacos El Primo, the taco truck

"Hey, I've always wanted to check out that truck!"

One U-turn later, and we were parked across the street from Tacos El Primo. The menu is painted on the board. You give your order to one of the cooks through a small window, and minutes later they pass back tacos hot off the grill.

It was a bright hot summer day, and they must have been roasting inside their silver taco cart, but they sure were enthusiastic as they handed us our tacos. 

We all ordered tacos al pastor, and they were huge! and utterly amazing.  My favorite al pastor of the day, even if not the traditional trompo-style. They have a small table set up with traditional garnishes of radishes, roasted jalapeños and quartered limes. They offered me a small seared onion and told Joe in Spanish that I should squeeze lime juice over it. Oh my! That was delicious!

Across the street a church ceremony of some sort (a wedding? we weren't 100% certain) was just ending, and the guys in their suits and ties started trickling across to load up on tacos. This is clearly a locals' hangout, and it definitely helps to know a bit of Spanish, but if you don't speak any Spanish beyond "al pastor," don't let that stop you from trying their tacos.

The Tacos El Primo truck is located on a small parking lot on Junction St and just across the street from a large church, visible from Vernor if you are heading toward downtown. I don't know if the truck moves or if this is its permanent location, but look for them. They are worth checking out!

Rating:  awesome!

Taqueria Tour 2008: First Stop, Arandas

One Saturday afternoon
Three empty stomachs
Four taquerias in Detroit's Mexican Town

Ah, yes, it's the Taqueria Tour of 2008.

Most local Ann Arborites who have been to Detroit Mexican Town are familiar with what I think of as the "tourista" area on Bagely street, where you can find a mix of restaurants serving up Americanized fare with big margaritas and a few authentic places tucked inbetween, such as Taqueria Lupita, one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. But Mexican Town is far larger than just the short stretch on Bagley street, and it was time to branch out and try the other places we've seen up and down Vernor Hwy. Our first stop was Taqueria Arandas, located at what I think of as the far end of Mexican Town, at the intersection of Vernor and Livernois. We walked inside the door and after making our way past the grill, where the al pastor was on its spit, and were stunned to find a very very large sit down restaurant. (This place is bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside.) Arandas is a full service restaurant with an extensive menu. If you need to seat a large group, this is the place to go.

We were sticking with tacos, but the rest of the menu is definitely worth checking out. They have a variety of dinner plates and Mexican soups. Here's our rundown on the tacos we tried.

Winners:
pollo — very simple and surprisingly flavorful chicken, with nice lime notes
al pastor — quite nice, and made using a real trompo (the spit that you stack meat on and grill it). Joe like this version of pastor more than I did, but we both agree it's good.
goat — not bad

Not so great:
chorizo & egg — a bit bland to our tastes. I doused mine with salsa.

Taqueria Arandas
1807 Livernois Ave
Detroit, MI
(313) 297-7533