The first place of business to add pineapple is said to be El Tizoncito in Mexico City. No one’s sure how pineapple came into play, but adding fruit to pork dishes for a sweet and sour tang is traditional in Mexican cooking culture. As Tacopedia points out, the biggest changes in the product were the meat itself-which switched from lamb to heavily marinated pork in adobo (never mind that they’re still named “shepherd’s tacos”)-and the addition of cilantro and onion. To this day there’s a handful of businesses in Puebla that claim to be the original source of Arab tacos, with two of them, Antigua Taqueria La Oriental and Tacos Árabes Bagdad, going as far back as 1933. In Chicago one has to look no further than the Anteliz family to find tacos árabe-both Cemitas Puebla in Logan Square and Cemitas Zurita in Little Village can set you up with some, while further west, in Aurora, so can Las Cemitas Poblanas (no relation except in inspiration).Īs tacos árabe made their way elsewhere in Mexico, they quickly morphed into something else completely, and that’s where tacos al pastor begin. This is the best thing for me.Shortly thereafter the taco árabe was born, spit-roasted meat served on either pitas or corn tortillas. "It doesn’t matter what they look like or where they come from. “I like it when I cook and people eat my food.” Torres says. Torres plans to open up a separate dining room in the space next door this summer, and another location by Banner Health on McDowell Road and 12th Sstreet (near the south side of the neighborhood) later this year. Tacos Huicho has become a place, in the age of social media, that draws a crowd looking for some of the city’s best al pastor tacos. Between the notoriety that comes with the awards and visitors from the hospital, there are sometimes not enough tables in the small restaurants on Taco Tuesdays and busy weekend days, the only times that the al pastor is spinning and available fresh sliced off the spit. Shelby Moore Huicho has done well at both the Arizona Taco Festival and New Times' Tacolandia, having won a handful of awards over the past few years. Many of their employees are teenagers and young adults that grew up in the neighborhood nearby. Today, Torres says, there are no more guns. She remembers days when they would witness rival gangs exchanging fire from the pedestrian bridge on the 51 down to their parking lot. Back then gang violence was a part of everyday life in midtown Phoenix. The neighborhood, she says, has come a long way since the days when they opened. Then, one opened up next to the liquor store. A cart can usually only offer two or three, so eventually they knew they had to consider a permanent space. Torres says that customers kept asking them to open seven days a week, and to carry more meat options. “We started with a lot of dreams and no money,” Torres says. Originally, they sold their tacos from a mobile food cart in the parking lot where they worked weekends for over five years. Shelby Moore Torres and Mena have been following this routine for over 10 years in this location. "And he says ‘I wanted tacos, and these are the best tacos in Phoenix.’” “They’ll say, ‘We’ll take you anywhere you want to go,’” Torres says, "but he’ll ask them to take him right around corner, to Tacos Huicho." She has heard that they often pull into the parking lot and turn to ask him, "Why do you want to come here?" One doctor, she says, will have people thanking him for his work, offering to take him to lunch. Maria Torres owns Tacos Huicho with her husband, Mauricio Mena, and she says she sees a lot of customers from the hospital, and that many of her regulars are doctors and nurses there. For hospital employees and anyone stuck circling the waiting rooms, Huicho is the closest option that isn’t the cafeteria. The fact that anyone has discovered it at all must be thanks in part to Yelp’s best function: listing out what’s nearby. The little taco shop and carnicería sits next to a Speedway Market liquor store on the corner of 20th and Oak streets, right next to the towering walls of State Route 51. Located on a neighborhood corner just a couple of short blocks from Phoenix Children’s Hospital, it’s sometimes uncertain circumstances that lead diners through the doors of Tacos Huicho. Style: Traditional al pastor roasted and carved from a vertical spit Taquería: Tacos Huicho, 1941 East Oak Street Over the next several weeks, we’ll be guiding you toward the Valley’s tastiest tacos, and the taquerías that serve them. In the hunt for the latest trendy restaurants, our spotlight often misses neighborhoods that are home to some of the Valley's best kitchens - including those making metro Phoenix's best tacos.
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