The social media craze for quesabirria tacos is completely justified as its mouthwatering spices and juicy meat had my taste buds craving for more after the first bite.
Third Street Birria, located at Third and Santa Clara streets, is a local Mexican food pop-up shop that opens every Sunday at noon and runs until it sells out of food.
The pop-up shop is located inside Mexico Bakery, which offers a traditional dessert menu ranging from pan dulce, sweet Mexican bread, to its popular tortas de asada. However, Sundays are reserved for the
pop-up birria vendor.
The quesabirria was adapted by combining a regular quesadilla and birria tacos. It is served with consomé on the side for one to dip the quesabirria.
Birria is a traditional goat or lamb stew, but the dish varies between Mexican states.
Third Street Birria’s tacos are made Michoacán style, a western state which uses beef rather than goat. The dish is time consuming and labor intensive to make and worth the $4 per taco for the savory roller coaster ride in
each bite.
Depending on the quantity of the meat it can take several hours to prepare. The goal is for the meat to boil in the various spices and become tender enough to fall right off the bone. This recipe takes patience and love to produce a flavorful dish to enjoy.
Birria originates from the state of Jalisco and the meat is commonly served with consomé, a rich, thickened broth made from meat stock and dried roasted peppers and topped with onion and cilantro.
The consomé is sold separately, but is highly recommended to purchase in order to fully enjoy the quesataco experience.
My housemates and I were excited to try a new location of birria cuisine on Sunday afternoon. We joked in the short line about how the dish would be perfect “para la cruda,” meaning “for the hangover,” in Spanish.
Sundays are known as recovery days in many Latinx cultures and birria is perfect for this because of its strong flavors and rich broth.
There were two people ahead of us but the line kept growing behind us as we waited for our orders to be taken.
The pop-up only takes cash or Venmo payments. With every purchase, the “cha-ching” of the Venmo notification briefly interrupted Los Tigres del Norte music as I heard the mouthwatering sizzle of the grill as the gooey cheese from the quesabirria dripped on the sides of each red tortilla.
Even though the bakery was small, it felt spacious and well sanitized. The strong savory smell of birria and the ambiance of the traditional Mexican music blasting in the shop took me back to childhood Mexican parties as I was served a plate of birria with a side of beans, rice and nopales.
When I got my order, it was difficult to hold myself back from immediately devouring the aromatic quesabirria, but I patiently waited to get home to relish its rich flavors.
According to an article published by Vallarta Eats, a food tour website for Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, birria’s gastronomic definition is “exquisite savory dish, full of culture and tradition.”
The taste of the quesabirria on its own is amazing but I added their green spicy salsa and finely chopped onions and cilantro, creating a perfect balance between fresh ingredients and the hot meat and cheese.
The first dip into the consomé broth was both a visual and flavorful treat. I added lime juice which made the broth more tangy. Each bite was savory and the broth perfectly soaked the tortilla, giving it a deeper red tint that slowly marinated with the cheese upon every dip.
You can tell a lot about a Mexican business based on its aguas frescas, or traditional refreshments because there is nothing worse than grainy horchata. If not filtered properly, the drink becomes granulated and chalky.
However, Third Street’s horchata was creamy and milky and it had me sipping through a sweet cinnamon sensation.
Third Street Birria separates itself from other similar style food businesses as its crispy tortilla’s hold together perfectly seasoned shreds of meat glued together by gooey cheese.
The crunchy golden tortilla is crispy enough to make it difficult for your taco to become soggy when dipped into the flavorful consomé.
Even after finishing my quesa-tacos, I ate the consomé as a soup.
Third Street Birrias’ authenticity shined through with its remarkable Michoacán take on quesabirria tacos. This quickly became a new favorite food spot of mine and I would love to see it be established into a permanent business with an expanded menu.
