We Put 14 Cameras In A Busy Mexico City-Style Taqueria | Bon Appétit

this is what a busy summer Friday night looks like a Taqueria Ramirez is a Mexico City Style Taqueria in Brooklyn where we'll have 600 customers passed through our 400 square foot restaurant my name is Tania apolinar my husband partner's name is Giovanni Cervantes we are selling 50 to 100 Tacos on a busy day we don't really have a break in our service everything has to be working perfectly so we can really serve the demand we have six type of tacos al pastor suadero longanisa campechano de tripa and Taco de nopales this location used to be a coffee shop our kitchen is quite small as much as we wanted to add more options to the menu we are also very limited in our space so we wanted to have the classics we have four people turtle in the kitchen the registered person then we have Carlos in the chorizera Ricardo on the tortillas and assembling and we also have a pastor person Bernardino or Gerardo the first Taco we're making is the al pastor taco probably the most classic from Mexico City we inherited from Middle Eastern cultures in Mexico the pastor takes two days of work every Tuesday we do the adobo the marinade for the week it takes half a day on the morning the next day we will marinate the meat at the beginning of the day it's usually 100 to 200 pounds of meat so all that amount of meat takes around two hours in the morning only to marinade our recipe for our adobo is a secret Ramirez recipe but I can tell you it has a lot of spices dried chilies and achiote which gives it a more reddish color the marinade also has vinegar which makes the meat last throughout the day with the indirect fire contact the process to Mountain at pastor we need a stool that can go high enough and that can handle all the weight we have a cast iron base then we have to put the speed on the middle Bernardino can start putting layers of meat so he will start with a small piece of meat and go bigger and bigger he will start turning the base so it's balanced enough and in between he would also add onion and pineapple that gives it a lot of flavor the pineapple it really balance out the flavor with the chilies the pork the fully billed al pastor on the speed is called a trumpo which is the Spanish word for top like the spinning children's toy in order for it to be cooked more evenly and faster he needs to shape the trample on the busiest days the trumpo will weigh around 200 pounds we had to build custom made the base where we put the speed we also had to build custom handles to be able to move the thrombo from the base to the Appliance it takes three people to lift the thrombo right now we're on the process of building a machine that is able to leave the thrombo and move it into the appliance the appliance for the trompo it has five burners actually which can be controlled individually they are vertical burners it does have a mortar to spin by itself we only use it the moments that someone cannot attend the thrombo so in order to shave the pastor perfectly you need a very sharp knife it has to be long enough Bernardo has a particular angle in order to get those perfect slices in the attack so swadero is muscle that is between the belly and the leg of the cow is mostly used for ground meat in United States it's a very hard muscle Mexicans invented this slow cooking process in the chorizer it is salted before and we actually make a crisscross with a knife after that it's thrown directly to the chorizer once the steak is ready to be served Carlos will touch it he already knows how does it feel when it's ready to go and then he puts it in the Butcher Block and he chops it he adds that to the basket that is also inside the chorizera the chopped meat will stay hydrated and then he will serve it directly from there the chorizera is pretty much a pot that has a little bump on the center the bump is usually to warm tortillas in classic Mexico City Style taquerias since we have a lot of the man we just feel the chorizer with meat it's a slow cooking process it starts with lard and with water the lard is very important in the process of cooking because it adds all the flavor to the meats we start cooking in the morning the first we need to put in there is the tripa because it's the one that takes longer it takes around four hours to be fully cooked after that the swadero will be added it takes around three hours for the swadero to be fully cooked and then the last meat we add in there is the longanisa that takes around an hour or so the paquero's responsibilities to see and calculate how much meat he's gonna put each hour because we keep adding meat as the day goes by and then he pretty much chops the meats beforehand so we have a batch ready to serve and he will keep doing that throughout the day the meats that are ready he will move them clockwise it's like a cue so he knows which meats are fully cooked and which are gonna take a little longer the next taco is longanisa longanisa is pork it is very classic in Mexico City it has a little more fat than chorizo once it's fully cooked it's also chopped the next taco is tripa or beef small intestines I haven't seen trippa tacos in many places in New York City a lot of people are scared to try the tripa but it has gotten its reputation slowly it's one of the favorite tacos at the Taqueria the people that are willing to try it they always live surprise in Mexico City it's fried the blow torch is actually not traditional at all that's gonna give it a little crispy texture on the top of it anyway we're also a little smoky flavor to the tripa people really feel very attracted to fire I guess in general and that's what we like in our kitchen too the next taco is nopales takes a lot of time because first of all is a cactus you have to really clean it well to be able to serve it it could be slimy it has to be boiled and then cool down people have a misconception that is not tasty but I think we have been changing people's minds once we give our guests the tacos they will go to the topping section which has all the veggies and the salsas cilantro onion lime salsa Roja salsa verde one is more mild the other is more spicy people go through the salsa were there faster because it's less spicy it is a very classic salsa because of the tomatillo and we decided to add avocado to it a lot of people think it's guacamole and they put a lot of it but it's also spicy and tonight Carolina is our runner which is the person who is mostly on the back being a runner is uh you really have to be on top of everything it's only a small entrance on the bottom of the register so sodas have to be passed through there and every time there's something that's needed if we're going through sodas really fast we will be calling them or if the tortillas are done we will need that person to come and just squeeze pretty much squeezing where there's room they will pass you everything it's actually a position that we implemented this summer because when the host is taking care of running around it's a lot of work a lot of chaos with people like you don't have someone to tell them what to do in that moment they will just go for their tax ones nothing matters except getting in there I'm really proud of the culture we have been exposing here people are starting to get more familiar with the different kinds of Mexican food getting out of their comfort zone and try different things I'm just really proud of all the work we've put into this project and just the right way to make people happy with food foreign

Channel: Bon Appétit

Views: 159,969

Keywords: behind the scenes, best restaurant in the world, best restaurants, best tacos, bon appetit, bon appetit behind the scenes, bon appetit the pass, bon appétit, brooklyn, brooklyn taqueria, food, full service restaurant kitchen, kitchen behind the scenes, new york restaurant, professional tacos, real taqueria, restaurant, restaurant behind the scenes, restaurant kitchen, restaurant kitchen behind the scenes, restaurant life, taqueria ramirez, taqueria ramírez, the pass

Id: MX_8kaBydcU

Length: 9min 32sec (572 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 07 2023