El Azadero

I’ll never forget the first time I ate brains. I’d recently gotten my driver’s license and was spending most of my time driving around town aimlessly with my friends. We were of meager funds, and looking for food on the fast and on the cheap. And that’s when we saw it.

Between Third and Fourth streets along Marine Drive – across from the Burger King where we may well have gone otherwise – stood a long, shiny bus with a few people gathered at the window. As we pulled in, we noticed unusual, elusive aromas competing with the dominant odors of “flame-broiled” familiarity. It was the first time I’d had a real taco: two small, steamed corn tortillas with meat, onion, cilantro and a little squeeze of lime. Of the many meat options before me, I settled on the most exotic, calf’s brains.

Until that day, I was ignorant of traditional tacos. I’d always considered a taco to be a crunchy yellow shell filled with seasoned ground beef, lettuce, shredded cheddar and salsa. What a sheltered, middle-class, small-town American kid I was indeed. That particular taco truck moved on a few years later. I hadn’t seen another around these parts for quite some time. Now Astoria has two taco trucks, one in Uniontown and one in Uppertown, each relatively new, but established enough for me to review.

Formerly a gutted-out Texaco food mart and empty lot, El Azadero has quickly gained a loyal fanbase with its fresh, delicious food and drive-in style car-window service. You can also eat at one of the picnic tables or inside the little building that used to house the gas clerk’s counter and food mart. They now sell to-go beer, candy, fruit drinks, horchata and even Spanish CDs in there, but I don’t like eating under fluorescent lights, so I just get it to go.

Most people go to El Azadero for the burritos, which are mammoth-sized, all-inclusive (meat, beans, cheese, rice, onions, cilantro, lettuce, sour cream) and a great deal at $5.50. Tacos are $1.50 apiece, and are available with all the same meats as the burritos – mix and match. No brains here, but with beef, spicy beef, beef tongue, pork, spicy pork and chicken, there’s something for everyone (though I’d like to see some fish). And for everyone else, there’s the Vegetariana, which includes everything but the meat, plus avocados, mushrooms, bell peppers, zucchini and more.

El Azadero also has several entree-like items for $9 each, which include beans, rice, and soft tortillas. Alambre is a choice of meat plus bacon, ham, onions, peppers and cheese. Ya Vaz is the same, with the addition of tomato and avocado. Fortachon is beef, chorizo sausage and cheese, and Gabacha is just spicy pork and cheese. I tried all of these, but prefer tacos and burritos. I found most of these dishes to be salty, cheese-bound piles of meat, which I would then essentially turn into tacos myself.

The housemade condiments are great. The green sauce isn’t too bold and has a cooling quality to it. The reddish sauce is hotter, but not mouth-burning fiery. The pico de gallo is fresh and boasts bright flavors of lime juice, raw yellow onion and cilantro.

One of the best things about El Azadero is the Mexican Coke. Glass bottled and made with cane sugar, you really can taste the difference. Other potables include a variety of Jarritos fruit-flavored soft drinks, Jumex nectars, horchata (a sweet, rice-milk drink), and Rock Star energy beverages. Warm, friendly service and consistently great burritos and tacos at reasonable prices keep people coming back to El Azadero.

Lyden Nyman grabs a taco for lunch from El Azadero, the Mexican cuisine cart near the Astoria roundabout. Photo by Alex Pajunas, Coast Weekend

Taqueria Mexicana El Charro Negro

What can I say about this place? Not one redeeming quality. I was so excited to eat here based on the menu. Tripe, pozole, menudo, goat – I love that stuff! And El Azadero doesn’t have it.

My first visit was hindered by limited availability of the menu. The only meats not 86-ed were pork, beef and chicken. Borrrrrring. No tamales either. Pozole and menudo soups are only available on weekends. I ordered one burrito ($5) of each meat and two tacos ($1.25) of each, along with sides of beans and rice, every sauce they offer, and pickled jalapenos.

The foul smell of an uncovered garbage can wafted dangerously close to my comfort zone as I was informed by the adolescent inside that there was just enough rice and beans for the burritos and no sides. Fine. I paid, and as I waited for one of his friends to go into the gas station to make change, I noticed that I was charged for the little cups of sauce, and that they were all the same thing, canned salsa verde. The pickled jalapenos were not the whole peppers with onions and carrots that I’m used to at such venues, but just sliced rings.

After I got the food home, we discovered that the pork burrito and tacos were inedible. Tough, overcooked and smelling spoiled, we had to throw it all away. The beef and chicken wraps were safe to eat, but incredibly salty and disappointing.

I did return two weeks later, but as they were out of everything but the items I tried before, I wrote them off forever.

– The Mouth