44 San Diego Reader December 15, 2016
Goat is my game
I try a bleat or two. “Bir-ria. Bi-rr-ia. Oh. Yeah. Oh, yeah.”
‘S
e habla English!!” That’s what it says on the menu I’m checking out, here in National
City. It also says “Birrio de Chivo, Guadalajara-style, per- fected in Tijuana and imported into the USA.” Perfect. Because tonight, goat
is my game. ’Course, gamey’s the taste when it comes to goat, but I still love it. And ever since I lucked out on a $1.50 beef birria taco last week, I started obsessing on the need to find real goat birria. Now, about seven, I’ve ended up right where
Highland meets 24th Street and — jackpot! Premio gordo! Strip mall called National Plaza has this sign: “Birrias, Chivos & Cheves.” Uh, dictionary? Birrias: spicy stews originally from Jalisco,
most often goat or borrego, mutton. But also beef, chicken. Marinated in adobo spices and specially in paprika. Chivos: goats. Cheves: Slang for cerveza. Beer. Like chela. So, “Stews, Goats, and Beers,” right? It’s a modest place, but clean and kinda prosperous-looking. Has lime-green skirting, cream upper walls mostly covered by picture after picture of Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata, and other Mexican revolutionaries. Plus photos of TJ back in the day. And TJ bullfight posters. The dozen tables are pine. So are the
saddleback chairs that weigh nothing when you lift them. They sorta slip over the reddy-brown six-inch floor tiles. This gal Teresa says sit any- where, so I grab a chair beneath a famous poster that Pancho Villa published back in January of 1915.
“Atención Gringo. For Gold & Glory! Come
South of the Border and Ride with Pancho Villa, El Liberator of Mexico! Weekly Payments in Gold to Dynamiters, Machine Gunners, Railroaders.”
The place is busy. Couple of families eat
away, plus younger guys slurp down mostly Clamatos or Micheladas — “levanta muer- tos” — bring-you-back-from- the-dead hangover cures. “That’s what they say about
ED BEDFORD
birria, too, especially goat birria,” says Teresa when she comes over with the menu. “You should see us on Sunday morn- ing. The fathers are all having
goat birria.” The glossy menu has everything from “quesabirria frita” ($5.95), a deep-fried empa- nada with shredded beef and a sesame sauce; to Huarache Azteca (Aztec “sandal,” an oval corn masa tortilla with meats, beans, $7.25). But the thing I’m really glad to see is that they do all-day breakfast. Dishes like chilaquiles ($8.25), machaca, and eggs ($8.95). Regular menu includes menudo ($7.50);
pork in green sauce ($8.50); drowned tortas (tortas ahogadas) with swiss-style chicken and cream, which sounds pretty delish or with carne asada (each $6.75); or “fritangas” like asada fries ($7.25); or, natch, tacos, mostly $1.99. But, no. This time it’s the birria de chivo
for me. Costs $10.50 (or $8.50 for half an order). Comes with a small birria broth and corn tortillas. I get a bowl of chips and two salsas ($2.50)
and a cheva — Negra Modelo ($3.95) — while I wait.
What comes is an oval plate with four large
chunks of meat and bone. Each has a couple of sawn-off ribs sticking out. They sit in a lake of dark broth. Behind, the covered bowl of corn tortillas and bowls of chopped cilantro, limes, onions join with two hot sauce bottles, one red, one the color of peanut butter. And beside that, a cup filled with the birria consommé. First surprise: the consommé’s filled with
beans. Really sabroso. So, I grab one of the tortillas, pick off some meat (and it picks off beautifully after six hours’
Breakfast Free
Purchase 1 entrée and 2 beverages, get 1 entrée of equal or lesser value free! Valid Mon–Fri, 7–10am. Excludes Acai and Pitaya Bowls.
No online or photocopied coupons accepted.
109 Jamacha Rd. El Cajon
619-373-1725
Goat stew gives you strange powers
Teresa
slow cooking, says Teresa), load up with the cilantro and onions, and have at it. Question: How come this
Pancho Villa’s call to gringo arms 101 years ago
Flan dessert, $3.25
meat is not gamey like average chivo meat? It has the taste, but not that nostril-attacking goat whiff you usually get with each mouthful. “The reason is the goat comes from
New Zealand,” says this guy doing a tour of the tables. The owner, turns out. Arturo. “Organic. The goat are taken from the wild. Much purer meat. Nothing added. So no smell. Not greasy.” Arturo says his wife Elena is the chef. “Her mother-in-law is from Guadalajara. She taught her everything. You should try the brown hot sauce on your goat. It is her creation. Sesame sauce. Salsa de ajonjoli. Her secret recipe.” Ah. Guadalajara. Jalisco state. Home of
birria. That explains a lot. I squirt some of the brown hot sauce on, and — oh, yes. Nutty, hot. Matches perfectly with the goat taste. Slurp in some white beans and consommé. What a combo. And filling? Believe it. Arturo’s from Tijuana. Graduated from the
Instituto Tecnológico down there. Started working at the Hotel del Coronado as a busboy, became a captain, stayed 28
years. Met everyone from the president of Mexico to movie stars such as Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. Became manager at Mr. A’s. Worked at the US Grant. Then he and Elena started this ten years ago, in 2007. “That was the worst year we could have
picked. The recession,” he says. “But this was the first real birrieria in town. Elena had the truest recipes, from Guadalajara. And birria is a celebration dish. Quinceañeras, weddings, Christmas. So we survived.” Hmm... Christmas around the corner, Carla
would really dig this place. Guess we’re coming back.
One thing’s been nagging me. “Why ‘birria’? Why that word, for a stew?” “Well, perhaps if you imitate a baby kid goat,
that will tell you,” says Arturo. I try a bleat or two. “‘Bir-ria. Bi-rr-ia.’ Oh.
Yeah. Oh, yeah,” I say. “Goats teaching us to speak Spanish. That is very cool.”
■
The Place: Birrias Chivos & Cheves, 2401 Highland Avenue, suite 104, in National Plaza strip mall, National City, 619-477-7660 Hours: 9 a.m.–8 p.m. daily (till 9 p.m., Thursday, Friday, Saturday) Prices: All-day breakfast dishes include machaca, eggs, $8.95; chilaquiles, $8.25; general menu includes pork in green sauce ($8.50); drowned tortas (tortas ahogadas) with chicken or carne asada, $6.75; menudo, $7.50; asada fries, $7.25; birrias taco, $1.99; birria de chivo (goat, broth, tortillas), $10.50 ($8.50 half order); quesab- irria frita (deep-fried empanada, shredded beef), $5.95; Huarache Azteca (oval tortilla, meats, beans), $7.25; cahuamanta soup (shrimp, fish, tuna fin, stingray in bouillabaise), $9.95; flan dessert, $1.99; Check for $1.50 tenth anniversary taco deals Buses: 929, 961 Nearest bus stops: Highland at E 24th Street (929); D Avenue at E 24th Street (961) Trolley: Blue Line Nearest Trolley Stop: 24th Street Transit Center (506 W. 22nd Street, National City)
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