Tacos Nayarit [Fresno]
Spied this place a few weeks ago in a failed attempt to grab lunch at a nearby Vietnamese place that I'd heard about. It's a husband/wife operation that's only been open a couple of months, interior is brightly painted but bare bones, the menu board is a leftover plastic letter Pepsi one from the previous operation and lists just the basic items. Daily special is written on a small whiteboard with any additional offerings hand written on a sheet of paper taped to the wall or counter. Located in a typical ugly strip mall on Blackstone, the only eye-catching feature was "handmade tortillas" on the sign with their name.
On each visit I've had a chance to talk with the owner (sorry, blanking on his name at the moment) who is very friendly and accomodating. He tells me everything is made fresh daily, including the corn and flour tortillas. As a result on any given day, not all items on the menu may be available. On my first visit I had to try the tacos al pastor, these were good but the flavor came mostly from saucing and not the spit roasting we've come to love at Don Pepe's.
Stopped in a couple of weeks ago hoping for a breakfast burrito, walked out with a very tasty huevos, chorizo and queso for 3.00. Was told they plan to offer breakfasts in the near future.
This last visit I wanted to try the cabeza, but it wasn't available so went with a carne asada and a lengua taco, and a chile verde quesadilla. No Tamarindo was available that day, only horchata (or the limited selection of bottled drinks) so opted for iced-tea from the Pepsi machine. Both the asada and the lengua were in the top renditions offered any where in our area, simply dressed with onion and cilantro on single thin tasty corn tortillas and a pale orange hot sauce with great flavor, be sure and ask for extra on the side. The quesadilla was the largest diameter flour tortilla I've seen and the thinnest as well, the small charred spots imparting a wonderful toasty flavor. It came sliced into wedges, drizzled with crema, and a bowl of the orange sauce for dipping, The meat was very tender but the flavor somewhat masked by the cheese, grilled tortilla and sauce. Will have to try a verde taco next time as well.
Tacos are 1.00 ea, quesadillas are 3.00, 4.00 with meat. I've forgotten the price of the tortas and other items on the menu, hopefully he'll have his printed menus available next visit.
Cash only.
Tacos Nayarit
1375 N. Blackstone (W side, south of McKinley)
PolarBear
Sep 23, 2007 09:38AM
Glad you found this place and glad you've been able to sample a number of different items. I stopped in here about a month ago and had a breakfast burrito. I, too, saw the "homemade tortillas" sign, but when I spoke with the owner (clearly the same guy you talked to) he said they weren't making homemade tortillas yet, but that they would in about a week. I haven't been back yet to check on his promise, but would like to try the tacos.
My burrito was also $3.00, and he put in just about every meat he had in the store. I think I asked for bacon (my usual) but he told me he'd add sausage as well, and I think maybe some ham. The burrito was basically just egg, cheese, and breakfast meat in a tortilla. This is the kind of burrito I think of as an American omelet wrapped up in a tortilla--not particularly "authentic" but can be tasty if you're in the mood for that kind of thing.
The surroundings were indeed austere, and I can't say I was too impressed with the apparent cleanliness of the place, but nonetheless I would like (as I mentioned earlier) to return and try their tacos at lunch.
Thanks for the report: now I've been reminded to return and I'm better armed to know what to expect.
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Went back for lunch today for some tacos. Cabeza wasn't available again, so went with a lengua, a chile verde, and two asada since I was so impressed with the first one I tried. The lengua seems to be consistently (so far) excellent and the verde was nicely spiced and tender. The asada, on the other hand, seemed dry and over cooked, hopefully it was just an off day for it. I watched the fellow at the next table devour one of the tortas that looked really good, it was on a good size round roll, not the the deflated football shaped one that I'm accustomed to (name escapes me at the moment, botilla?).
Alan, I seem to be in a rut with breakfast burritos, think I need to break away from the standard chorizo, huevos, queso. What are your criterea for being the most authentic or at least the most flavorful and exciting?
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Well...let me start with the caveat that I use the word "authentic" to mean something other than authentic since I don't really know what authentic is (if that makes sense). That's why I put it in quotation marks a lot.
The breakfast burrito that I label "American" is the one I described above: egg, cheese, and meat rolled up in a tortilla. This is the kind of burrito I fix at home for breakfast, with a liberal dose of hot sauce or salsa thrown in. At the risk of over-generalizing: this is the kind of breakfast burrito you get at American-style diners & coffee shops & quik-e-marts. Basically it's an American breakfast rolled up in a tortilla.
When I think of "authentic" I think of burritos (& other foods) that have uncommon ingredients. So a more exciting breakfast burrito is one that has stuff you can't get at a coffee shop--something more than eggs, cheese, and bacon/ham/sausage.
Chorizo kind of fits into that category, though I understand that chorizo is fairly common and you are possibly looking for something even more avant garde.
I suppose the one element that I associate with "authentic" would be sauces--salsas for one (esp. cooked salsas), but more likely saucy dishes like chile verde or chile colorado or mole or ???. Any Mexican foods mixed with eggs would be interesting: lengua and eggs, pastor and eggs, nopales and eggs (that's one I've seen around here and there), ropa vieja and eggs, and so forth. I have no idea if people in Mexico or Latin America, or people from Latino cultures who live in the U.S., eat things like that, but I think all of those would make good and interesting breakfast burritos.
And although I'm a big fan of the breakfast burrito (been eating them since I was a kid), I'm been trying out tacos for breakfast as a way to mix things up. As far as I know breakfast tacos aren't readily available around town (in restaurants & taco stands) but I've been fixing them at home and experimenting with different meats and fillings. I think I'm falling in love with grilled corn tortillas. I think of breakfast tacos as a variation of breakfast dishes like huevos rancheros packed to go (put the huevos rancheros inside the tortilla instead of on top of them).
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Thanks PB...haven't heard of this place so I will check it out too.
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Had lunch here yesterday. Tried three tacos: one pollo, one al pastor, & one adobada. All were good, none were absolutely fabulous, some were better than others.
The adobada was a lot like carne asada. Sauce was thin & not very flavorful. Some of the meat was rather chewy. I'm used to adobada being a fairly rich red sauce, but I get the impression that that's one of those foods that "everybody's got their own version" so you can get widely different versions at different places.
Agree with PB's assessment of the al pastor: most of the flavor was from the sauce, which was a good sauce but, again, not a fabulous sauce. As already mentioned, meat was chopped & not from a spit.
My favorite was a toss-up between the al pastor & the pollo. Chicken was seasoned nicely with a thin reddish-orange sauce & flavorful meat. I was kind of surprised how much I enjoyed the pollo taco.
Their style here seems to be "finely chopped." They go to town on the meat with their knives; & the cilantro & cabbage dressing was pretty finely chopped, too. The salsa, too, is not a chunky variety (though it is not pureed, either).
And finally: you can't expect too much food for a buck, but these tacos were pretty good size for a dollar. They were pretty busy at lunch time (about 12:15) so they took about 5 minutes for my order. They were very friendly. They weren't really interested in my money until after I had ordered, helped myself to a soda, & finished eating; so on this day at least it was eat first pay later.
I'll be back.
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