Last weekend, I had a very fortunate encounter with a taco truck in my neighborhood called El Ojo de Agua. I didn’t understand why or how this was an appropriate name until after I enjoyed their famous tortas. So you can understand how awesome this place is, here is a picture of the of the truck via their yelp page. I must also point out that this tropical motif (less the truck and plus a beach scene) is gracefully painted on the side of the building that houses this wonder.
taco truck extraordinaire
This was an unplanned encounter, and although I had mixed feelings about eating a grease bomb before the beer, instead of hours after, I was entirely satisfied in my decision for the following reasons
- The food. Sometimes torta’s are gross and too smooshy gushy for my taste, but this one had perfected the textural condition. Crunchy jalapenos, lettuce, and onions, and fresh carne asada with a nice chunk of fresh-made cheese! The fresh cheese + above average pickled jalapenos (although i ate too large a chunk of one and had to remove the rest from my sandy) really made me go “wow.”
- Absence of gringo treatment prevelant at so many fine taco establishments around the bay and beyond. Also, the owners were excited to help me pick something new and exciting to try (and I’m sure I reciprocated the relationship by entertaining them with my attempts to translate the menu for billy).
- Thoughtful and not-wasteful attitude. As we were departing the god of the truck started yelling at us to come back- there was some extra smoothy in the blender from our order that he didn’t want to throw away! Yes! The major league gut bomb that hit me for the rest of the night was defiantly worth it.
After leaving this place we ventured over to the humble above of 3 lovely friends of Jingletown. The smell wafting from the kitchen had me hooked from on the ground floor. What was cooking? More mexican food! I had just consumed this massive torta/strawberry smoothy combo and my stomach was bursting at the seams, but the smell…oh the smell was so potent! I was so upset that I couldn’t indulge in this treat, that yesterday I went out and got all the makin’s for none other than:
Spicy Boiled Chicken Tacos
For the meat:
- 12 chicken thighs- bone in skin off
- 1 green bell pepper
- 1/3 cup diced onion
- 6-10 garlic cloves, whole, crushed
- 16 oz can of diced tomatoes- or 1-2 large chopped fresh tomatoes
- cumin
- paprika
- salt & pepper
- oregano
- water
For Serving
- lettuce
- Cilantro
- onions
- chopped tomato
- sliced jalepenos
- limes- if you have them
Method
- Start by chopping the onion and pepper and throwing into your pot of choice. Get the heat high, and start softening the veggies.
- Add the skinned- but in-bone thighs (I’m sure you could also use breasts or whole parts of the chicken and it would be…more delicious.
- Brown on both sides of meat and pour in tomato
- add spices- as much or as little as you want- I recommend using more than 1 t of each, more of cumin
- add water at first to cover the meat up to 1 inch. As the water boils add more water as necessary to prevent total evaporation.
- Remove the meat from the bones when it becomes easy to do so, and continue to boil until the meat almost shreds itself, and the sauce has reduced to a thick and delicious entity which takes anywhere from 1.5 to 3 hours, depending on your time restraints and love of sauce-y sauce.
Assemble and Serve
- I made tacos using soft shells heated up with a fine layer of Parm cheese between them. Then I layered the lettuce (unconventional but yummy) meat, cilantro, tomatoes, jalapenos and some sour cream. You could also toast up the taco shells- or just buy tortilla chips and make a nice salad! The meat alone would also make a yummy soup with some black beans and corn
