For the last few months we’ve been obsessed with finding the best tacos de guisado in Mexico City. This is not an easy task because these types of tacos are abundant in a city where people are always on the lookout for inexpensive and fast eats. We have tried some amazing tacos de guisado throughout the years, but we keep finding new and delicious places in a city that never fails to impress us.
A few months ago we started going to the Saturday Sullivan market for just one reason: eating breakfast at Los Barriles, a booth that sells between eight and 10 different types of tacos de guisado – usually ready-made stews served atop a tortilla – at a time. The first few times we were there we didn’t give it a lot of thought. We sat down (when possible because they always seem to be busy) and ordered two or three different tacos and a bottled juice.
However, after a number of visits, we realized we were hooked on what might just be the best tacos de guisado in the city and decided to learn more about who ran the show. It turns out that Los Barriles has been serving tacos at the Sullivan market for just a little over a year, but they’ve been selling at the Narvarte tianguis on Sundays for 15 years now.
Owner Alonso Perez told us that selling at the street markets on the weekends is not all they do. They also cater parties of 50 people and more all over the city. His wife, Isaura Gonzalez, is the cook and brains of the operation. She makes all the guisados at home and gets them ready to be taken to the street markets and catering locations. Although we didn’t meet her (she mostly stays home making the food for the next event), we can only imagine that she’s a formidable woman. Every guisado we have tried at Los Barriles was perfectly cooked and seasoned.
Some of the extremely tasty guisados we’ve had were lengua en salsa de morita, delicious and tender beef tongue in morita pepper sauce; suadero a la diabla, beef shank in a spicy red sauce; chicharrón en salsa verde, pork cracklings in green sauce; rajas con crema, julienned poblano peppers in a creamy sauce; and chiles rellenos, cuaresmeño peppers stuffed with cheese and deep fried, among many others.
Although everything we’ve eaten at Los Barriles has been delicious, our all-time favorite dish there is cochinita pibil, the most representative dish of the Yucatán peninsula. Los Barriles’ cochinita – pulled pit-cooked pork – is tender and perfectly seasoned. Because this dish is their specialty, they make it every weekend, and we never fail to order at least one cochinita taco.
All tacos at Los Barriles are served with your choice of rice or black beans, which makes them generous and filling; one or two tacos would be enough for most people, while three or four would satsify expert eaters such as ourselves. Los Barriles is definitely on our list of top five tacos de guisado in the city. That said, we plan to continue our search for more of these pockets of inexpensive deliciousness.
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