The barbecue and aguachile at 'El Pialadero' in Guadalajara are finger-licking good

Guadalajara sounds like mariachi, tastes like tequila and drowned cakes, and smells like “pure wet land,” says a song by Pepe Guizar. In recent years, in the capital of Jalisco it has rained less and the heat has become unbearable, however its cuisine continues to be one of the tastiest in the country.

The drowned cake is the best-known appetizer, followed by delicacies such as red pozole, meat in its juice and birria, among others. In Mexico City, a few steps from Chapultepec Park, there is a corner where you eat as if you were in the so-called “Pearl of the West.”

“We ultimately aim for a meal as if you were at home,” says the owners' daughter, Jazel García, sitting in a dining room surrounded by objects that could be found in any Tapatío home: clay and pewter tableware, colorful pots and photographs of charros. Beyond the decoration, the food does indeed taste like home; They are not sophisticated recipes, they are the snacks that any Tapatio—like me—consumes on a daily basis, from golden tacos to dipped lunches.

The Jalisquilla gastronomic class begins. The dipped lonches are not drowned cakes, they are shredded leg meat and are served dipped in a spicy tomato sauce. The drowned cake is made with salty birote—made with sourdough—stuffed with pork carnitas and bathed in two sauces: one with tomato and the other with Yahualica tree chili, a variety native to Yahualica, Jalisco. Both preparations are very good.

Another classic at

El Pialadero

are the golden potato and bean tacos bathed in sauce with carnitas and cabbage, which reset your brain during a hangover. “We open at 10 in the morning, you can come to cure the hangover from the night before or have a delicious breakfast of a pancake as is customary in Guadalajara,” says García. Here the chilango includes this cake at meal time and consumes it with gloves, a mortal sin for any Tapatío.

“The gloves came about because at first our most frequent customers were the office workers in the area and they asked how they ate it. At first we gave them spoons but, no matter how good they were, they bent," says Jazel García, and the fact is that the birote has a hard crumb, which is why it is ideal for dipping it with sauce, it takes time to disintegrate... "So, I don't know how , my dad came up with the glove and people were very happy.”

She knows Tapatia customs because she was born and raised in Guadalajara, she is the youngest of three siblings. Her parents were not Jalisquillos: “My mother, Polly, is from Sinaloa, and my father was from Zacatecas.” They both moved to Guadalajara and started a family, until the economic crisis of 1994 forced them to emigrate again. “My dad lived here when he was young and always had the idea of ​​returning to Mexico… We came and in 1998

El Pialadero

opened there,” he says, and points to a small establishment on Hamburgo Street, right in front of where he is currently located. the restaurant.

Don Aarón García, who died a few years ago, started his family business selling pancakes and barbecue, and little by little he increased the menu and his clientele, until he moved to this corner of Lieja and Hamburg, on the edge of the Juárez .

García was a Jalisco native by adoption, he carried with him his taste for charrería and named his place

Pialadero

, in honor of the charros who catch cattle with a pial or lasso. He also brought the birotes and the scraped tostadas, corn toasts that are scraped on mats, that gives them their special texture. They taste exquisite with a serving of aguachile negro: raw shrimp seasoned with a mixture of black and lemon sauces, with cucumber and sliced ​​red onion, a dish that is not suitable for those who are not good at chili. It makes you cry with happiness and spiciness. “We have a seafood supplier from Culiacán,” says the daughter, which is why the shrimp are so fresh, and I dare say that the one from

Pialadero

is one of the best aguachiles in the capital.

Nayarit and Sinaloa style seafood is part of the gastronomy of Jalisco, it may be the proximity to the Pacific or the many Nayarits and Sinaloans who reside in that city, but in the “pearl of Tapatia” it is very common to cook at home or eat in restaurants and street stalls offer seafood cocktails, ceviches and aguachiles, which is why they are all on the

Pialadero

menu , as well as jericallas, the signature dessert of Jalisco.

Jazel García says that they make typical dishes, with the exception of barbecue: “It's my mother's recipe.” Barbecue is different depending on where in Mexico it is prepared. The most famous is Hidalgo, made with lamb, in an earthen oven wrapped in maguey leaves. “The one from Guadalajara is beef with a red marinade,” he clarifies, although his mother's is without marinade and is closer to the Monterrey one. At

El Pialadero

they sell both, natural and red.

On a visit it is mandatory to try the barbacoa tacos, the most popular is in corn tortilla. I have my favorite, I don't know if it occurred to me or someone else, it's not on the menu and I order it like this: flour tortilla covered with refried beans and natural barbecue, I add a little cilantro and onion, tomato sauce Tatem green and a little lemon... to salivate.

The sauces are another success of the restaurant, there are four: yahualica chili, red tomato, the green tomato that I already mentioned and a jalapeño one for the meat in its juice; a broth made with beef cooked in its juice, bacon, a mixture of green tomato and green chili, and served with beans from the pot.

At

Pialadero

it is possible to satisfy any craving: broths, seafood, tacos or cakes, accompanied by a michelada or a refreshing horchata water. It is not only for people from Guadalajara, it is ideal for those who want to eat very delicious, comfortable and at a good price a few steps from Paseo de la Reforma (it has branches in Santa Fe and Lomas de Chapultepec).

Guadalajara's obsession with drowning everything in sauce - taco, cake or toast - is as important as our defense of panela and birote, the fury of bringing a mariachi to any type of celebration and as strong as the loyalty of the fans of the Atlas. Enjoying a barbacoa taco and an aguachile tostada from

Pialadero

, sitting in a equipal with an ice-cold beer in the heart of Mexico City, is a luxury for anyone who likes to lick their fingers after finishing eating.

The Pialadero of Guadalajara

Category: Mexican

Address: Calle Hamburgo 332, Colonia Juárez, Mexico City

Price: 200 to 300 pesos