My Happy Accident. Stumbling into Con Sabor A Mexico: Carnitas Estilo Michoacán

To paraphrase the Burgerbeast: You know what’s really good? Finding a better restaurant around the corner when you discover the joint you made planes to dine at is closed.

Yesterday, I had a meeting with Greg Clark, a jack of all trades who balances careers as a man of finance and a photographer/documentarian. As a side gig, Greg shoots high end food for Ocean Drive magazine. So to see what his foodie mojo was made of, I arranged to meet him at El Carnal 2 in Little Havana, a dumpy, but delicious taqueria on SW 8th st.

I pulled up 15 minutes late. When I got out, Greg let me know that El Carnal was closed for the holidays. He had however, discovered via his smart phone that there was another, possibly better, taqueria around the corner. So I fed the meter, and we began a culinary adventure.

We found Con Sabor A Mexico, by locating the Mexican flag painted on its tiny building.

The place consists of an open air taco bar with 5 seats, one sidewalk table and three menu placards advertising their 9 varieties of tacos – the first 8 being a tour of porky goodness: Maciza (Solid), Cuerito (Skin), Campechano (Chorizo & Solid), Buche (Stomach), Oreja (Ear), Tripa (Intestines), Lengua (Tongue) and Surtida (Mixed). They also have Bisteak (Beef) and Pollo (Chicken).

I immediately sensed that Greg had led us to Taco heaven. The only hiccup was that Greg needed a cash machine, so we bounded off to tour a few mini-marts in the area, before finding one with an ATM machine hidden behind some avocados. Greg wondered aloud about the safety of his PIN. I told him not to worry, because his bank would cover the roof being built in Juarez with his financial information. Then we came back and discovered they didn’t have beer – but were cool with us drinking some there. So we went to another mini-mart, bought a six pack of Modelo for six bucks, and came back to the first round of tacos.

To say that these three bite, $1.75 slices of heaven were delicious, is merely proof that we need more adjectives to describe such matters. The two of us went through the whole menu, shoving perfectly cooked pork into our mouths like porcine cannibals. If cookie monster had suddenly switched his love from cookies to carnitas – you might get an idea of what our eating habits were like in this joint. The Surtida tacos in particular were incredible. They were a perfect mix of the crunchy (Cuerito) and the moist (Maciza, Lengua) and the weird (Oreja, Tripa).

Even when Greg found a minor fault in the Tripa tacos, because he wasn’t sure of the texture – he made his point while inhaling his taco. And as in all matters, the Modelo made everything taste better. The Bisteak taco was perfectly slow cooked and wonderful in its own right, but compared to the exotica found in the pork section of the menu almost seemed pointless. Con Sabor A Mexico is a pork palace. Pure and simple. They have been open for two years, and if you love Mexican food like I do, every meal you are eating in another local establishment that claims to be Mexican in heritage, is a meal you should be having at Con Sabor A Mexico. Roll over El Carnal 2, and tell Rosa Mexicana the news.

So To Recap:

Maciza Taco: 5 noses
Cuerito Taco: 5 noses
Campechano Taco: 5 noses
Lengua Taco: 5 noses
Surtida Taco: 5 noses
Oreja Taco: 4 noses
Bisteck Taco: 4 noses
Tripa Taco: 3 noses
Pollo Taco: 3 noses
Buche Taco: 4 noses

Overall: 4 1/2 noses

Check out:

Con Sabor a Mexico: Carnitas Estilo Michoacan
542 SW 12th Ave., Miami
786-267-3526