Jump to content
Chapala.com Webboard

Cabrito


rafterbr

Recommended Posts

I can never understand why when people talk about showing visitors real Mexican food, they never mention cabrito.  Monterrey is famous for cabrito and Jalisco for cabrito birria.  Some of the best I have found  is in Jocotepec.  In the Jocotepec plaza there are several restaurants on the south side and two on the east side.  The best is on the east side I don't remember seeing a name at the restaurant but  it will be the one where all the mexican's are eating.  There is usually an older man sitting outside the door who I assume is the owner.  The only thing they serve is cabrito  in a soup/sauce or as a cabrito taco.  Everyone eats the cabrito  soup.  The soup/sauce is so good  I noticed many Mexicans coming with tins just to take the soup/sauce home.  They fill your bowl with the soup than chop cabrito and put it in the bowl so the serving is fresh.  They give you a bowl of fresh chopped onions, limes and tortillas.  To drink is soft drinks.  They only have metal tables and chairs on the sidewalk but it is shaded and you have a good view of the plaza.  Total price for two was 220 pesos.  If you want dessert there is an ice cream shop a few doors down.  I like to eat here at least once every two weeks.  If you are not familiar with Jocotepec , Thursday is market day with prices a lot better than Ajijic's.  Just south of the church are many shoe shops with very good values. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I much prefer the little birria place on the north side of that plaza. And we don't refer to it as cabrito here. It's just birria in everyday conversation. But that could be a local thing: for example, you can get a compechano here at any taco stand; outside of lakeside, it's a quesadilla.

And you may be surprised at how many people turn up their nose at goat. I'm also not sure all goat birria around here is goat kid.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, rafterbr said:

I can never understand why when people talk about showing visitors real Mexican food, they never mention cabrito.  Monterrey is famous for cabrito and Jalisco for cabrito birria.  Some of the best I have found  is in Jocotepec.  In the Jocotepec plaza there are several restaurants on the south side and two on the east side.  The best is on the east side I don't remember seeing a name at the restaurant but  it will be the one where all the mexican's are eating.  There is usually an older man sitting outside the door who I assume is the owner.  The only thing they serve is cabrito  in a soup/sauce or as a cabrito taco.  Everyone eats the cabrito  soup.  The soup/sauce is so good  I noticed many Mexicans coming with tins just to take the soup/sauce home.  They fill your bowl with the soup than chop cabrito and put it in the bowl so the serving is fresh.  They give you a bowl of fresh chopped onions, limes and tortillas.  To drink is soft drinks.  They only have metal tables and chairs on the sidewalk but it is shaded and you have a good view of the plaza.  Total price for two was 220 pesos.  If you want dessert there is an ice cream shop a few doors down.  I like to eat here at least once every two weeks.  If you are not familiar with Jocotepec , Thursday is market day with prices a lot better than Ajijic's.  Just south of the church are many shoe shops with very good values. 

If you would have done a Search at the the top of this web page for "birria", you would have gotten 92 results (postings). I think it has been mentioned.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎2‎/‎26‎/‎2019 at 9:46 PM, rafterbr said:

The best is on the east side I don't remember seeing a name at the restaurant but  it will be the one where all the mexican's are eating.  There is usually an older man sitting outside the door who I assume is the owner.  The only thing they serve is cabrito  in a soup/sauce or as a cabrito taco.  Everyone eats the cabrito  soup. 

The name of the place is Birria Tartamudo (The Stutterer). The old man is Margarito, a torero in his youth (as you may notice from the logo on the wall). He is not a tartamudo, but perhaps his father, the founder, was.  It's not called soup. It's birria, a regional (Jalisco) dish. Cloves are a principal flavor. It is served in two sizes, plato chico and plato grande. They also serve it with beef. The tortillas are made at the moment and served hot. The meat is roasted right there in large ovens. Tapatios love to go there. Birria Rosa, almost next to Birria Tartamudo, is also good. And there is also a new place on the curva coming into town called Birria Arturo. Haven't tried it yet, but have heard good things.  Oh, and if you don't want to travel all the way to Joco, a birreria opened in San Juan Cosalá just before the traffic signal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is the best birria (soup) I have had anywhere.  Once when I went there all the chairs were taken.  Two of the workers in the cafe were just finishing eating and Margarito had them get up and give us their seats.  I headlined this article as cabrito  as I like it in my birria not beef or rabbit.  When I was there I never saw anyone get anything but cabrito birria, some got cabrito tacos to go,  I did not even know they had beef.  Thanks EL Bizco for the information on the birria,  I like the Birria Tartamudo so well I am not tempted to try the other places.    

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Birria is stew, rafterbr. Unless otherwise announced on a sign or menu, it is always goat. I am waiting for MoreLiana to check out this thread and tell me if the majority of places actually use baby goat, which I kinda doubt, but she will know. Meantime, I think it is simply referred to as birria de chivo.

One place you might want to try is Birriería El Chololo, which for me and many others is the pinnacle of birria restaurants. It's on the way to the airport.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, ComputerGuy said:

Birria is stew, rafterbr. Unless otherwise announced on a sign or menu, it is always goat. I am waiting for MoreLiana to check out this thread and tell me if the majority of places actually use baby goat, which I kinda doubt, but she will know. Meantime, I think it is simply referred to as birria de chivo.

One place you might want to try is Birriería El Chololo, which for me and many others is the pinnacle of birria restaurants. It's on the way to the airport.

Just east of the Food Container in Riberas is a nice little Mexican restaurant.  I got birria there and I don't remember it saying so on the menu but they told me it was cow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/27/2019 at 10:32 PM, El Bizco said:

The name of the place is Birria Tartamudo (The Stutterer). The old man is Margarito, a torero in his youth (as you may notice from the logo on the wall). He is not a tartamudo, but perhaps his father, the founder, was.  It's not called soup. It's birria, a regional (Jalisco) dish. Cloves are a principal flavor. It is served in two sizes, plato chico and plato grande. They also serve it with beef. The tortillas are made at the moment and served hot. The meat is roasted right there in large ovens. Tapatios love to go there. Birria Rosa, almost next to Birria Tartamudo, is also good. And there is also a new place on the curva coming into town called Birria Arturo. Haven't tried it yet, but have heard good things.  Oh, and if you don't want to travel all the way to Joco, a birreria opened in San Juan Cosalá just before the traffic signal.

El Bizco, are you certain of the name of your favorite birria place?  Everywhere I've been, it's birria tatemada--tatemado(a) is a cooking term that means "slightly charred over an open flame", and much of Jalisco's birria begins by lightly charring the goat meat for both texture and added flavor.  Please check it out and report back.

About cabrito: as has been mentioned here, it's a very young goat--a kid--splayed out and roasted on spikes (the spikes in Angus MacTavish's excellent photo are made of rebar) over an open fire.  When I've eaten it, the flesh has been dried out and tough; I believe that I have eaten it in the wrong places.  The last time I had it I was in Tepotzotlán, Estado de México, and it was really bad.  IMHO, most regional food doesn't travel very well and I need to go to Monterrey to eat the real deal.

The over-the-top best birria I've eaten to date is at Restaurante Chololo Campestre, the 90+--year-old huge green-domed restaurant on the right side of the Chapala/Guadalajara highway as you head south, past the airport and just before the El Salto exit.  Chololo seats 1000 people (yes, really) and on Sundays they seat as many as 5000 diners.  They raise their own goats from insemination to slaughter, under extremely healthy and sanitary conditions.  The birria is cooked in huge pots for 14 hours in clay ovens, simmering in what becomes its consomé--consomé being the 'soup' several posters have mentioned.  The goat meat is removed from the consomé and served to you on a platter after having been glazed under a salamander (cooking term, sort of a broiler).  You can then put some of the goat meat into your bowl of consomé (free refills, the wait staff will keep filling your bowl till you holler uncle) or make your own tacos with their incredible tortillas. 

ALL they serve at Chololo is magnificent birria, refried beans, quesadillas, a salsa of their own concoction, and marvelous house-made tortillas, plus anything you want to drink.  If you haven't been, it's a must-do in Jalisco, and right there in your back patio!  Get a group together and go on a Sunday, when mariachis play all day, whole families are everywhere, the restaurant spirit is muy alegre, and it's a really fabulous experience of Mexico at its best.  I miss it a lot.

https://mexicocooks.typepad.com/mexico_cooks/2008/07/mexico-cooks-and-el-mural-at-birriería-el-chololo.html 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Agreed. First time I went, I was taken on a Sunday. This was 15 years ago, and it kinda blew my mind. The place was packed, and it's so big there were two wandering mariachi bands playing. There was certainly more food than I could eat. It is served quite differently than any other birria place I have attended; that is, as MoreLiana says, the meat and the broth are separate at your table. So you can actually see the plate of crisped goat meat before it enters the broth and taste it straight if you want.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎2‎/‎28‎/‎2019 at 8:27 AM, ComputerGuy said:

... if the majority of places actually use baby goat, which I kinda doubt

 

I was eating at Tartamudo once when a rancher stopped his truck right in front, He was pulling a trailer full of goats, which a woman from the kitchen briefly inspected. These were not cabritos. But maybe she rejected them. I don't know.

Moreliana, yes it is definitely called Tartamudo (after the founder), not tatemada (after the process ). They have several places in Jocotepec. My tapatia girlfriend who has eaten there since she was a little girl,  just confirmed that.  Re restaurante Cholo Campestre, I have eaten there and I like the birria very much. However, we much prefer eating birria on the edge of Joco plaza and looking out at the activity than to eating by the airport with a 1000 others, so we go there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...