“When they slice it off the trompo straight into the taco, that’s the pinnacle,” says Taco Truck Throwdown co-founder and Fresno Street Eats proprietor Mike Osegueda (“Mike Oz,” as many know him).
Osegueda is playing guide this week, as he so often does, in this case on a street food crawl of his favorite places to get “real” tacos al pastor. Which is to say, the kind from a trompo.
“Trompo” (“spinning top”) refers to a vertical grill, a spit onto which horizontal flaps of marinated meat (in this case, pork) are stacked, to then be slowly cooked as the spit rotates next to a heat source. The meat is then sliced off the spit vertically again – preferably directly into a waiting fresh tortilla, in Mike’s eyes.
“Al pastor off the trompo has gone from, maybe for the last 10 years, a small handful of places that would do it sometimes, to, in the last two or three years, probably 500% of what it was before,” says Osegueda, who keeps tabs on Fresno’s taco trucks better than most.
If a trompo looks like shawarma or döner kebab, it’s not just a coincidence. Many food historians trace the trompo back to Lebanese immigrants to Pueblo, Mexico in the early 20th century. They brought their vertically grilled lamb with them (credited in turn to a Turkish butcher named Iskender in the 1800s), which the Pueblans started using for their adobo marinated pork – which they sold as “Tacos Árabes.” At that point, interestingly, tacos árabes were being served on modified pita that had evolved into something like a flour tortilla. (At every local place we sampled, the standard taco tortilla is corn).
When tacos árabes caught on in Mexico City soon after, they were rechristened “tacos al pastor,” literally “shepherd’s tacos,” “after the idea that the Lebanese were predominantly pastoral workers and that the spit was used by shepherds in the fields.”
This was also the point at which al pastor picked up citrus, achiote, and warming spices like cinnamon, along with the convention of putting a pineapple on top of the spit and an onion at the bottom. The pineapple juices (which contain an enzyme that tenderizes meat) are meant to run down the meat, while the aromatics from the onion steam up, flavoring it from below (which is basically also how smashburgers work).
You can eat the grilled pineapple as a taco topping, like I do, or pick it off the top and have it as an appetizer, as Osegueda prefers. Whatever the case, I do recommend, however, sampling a morsel of al pastor meat on its own before covering it with toppings. It’s rare to find an al pastor spot in Fresno that doesn’t have at least three salsas available (alongside onions, grilled onions, cabbage, cilantro, maybe even beans, and more, depending on the taqueria). It’s easy to go fixin’ crazy, which is encouraged, but so much effort goes into the meat itself that it behooves one, in this writer’s opinion, to at least try a nibble of it plain before you proceed to garnishes.
The ideal al pastor meat is a textural symphony, combining crispy edges and a little hard char from the flames, with moist, juicy marinated meat – which also takes on a sticky glaze from the combination of rendering fat and juices and dripping pineapple. A great al pastor can be kind of like a boneless barbecue rib that self-sauces. When sliced just right, the meat has visible layers like the pyramids.
“I like the meat when it’s really kind of thin and tender. I think that’s generally what you’re getting out of the trompo,” Osegueda says. “I mean, al pastor is probably my favorite type of taco to begin with. So if it’s like, hey, there’s this whole other way that people do it, and it’s harder to find, of course I’m going to be like, let me find that.”
Exclusivity always adds a little something, in tacos as in anything else.
For me, a good al pastor is about as good as it gets, whereas a mediocre one will probably make you wish you’d ordered asada or carnitas. Al pastor is more finicky, with a higher ceiling and lower floor, tougher to nail than, say, the quesabirria. Quesabirria-style tacos certainly had a moment, getting so trendy in recent years that they even showed up as a special menu at El Pollo Loco for a time. They’re still the most common submission to Osegueda’s Taco Truck Throwdown every year.
Quesabirria tacos are pretty much never bad, but I can also whip up a fairly passable version myself at home. Good luck doing that with al pastor. I’d risk divorce just acquiring the necessary equipment.
Fresno’s taqueros (trompadores?) are understandably proud of this extra effort, which may be why you pretty much never see an al pastor stand around here using the little meat shaving gadget that shawarma places often do. It’s always carefully, skillfully carved with a knife, almost like a working man’s jamón ibérico. The theatricality and inherent drama of the process is part of the appeal.
“I don’t know if al pastor has gotten to be trendier, necessarily,” says Osegueda. “Though I think it is, in the social media era, one of the more photogenic, content-y things you can get from a taco stand. You’re not watching somebody carve up a piece of steak to make you a taco, necessarily. I do think there is a teppanyaki experience to it, to some degree. It’s dinner and a show.”
He’s right, of course, which is a funny thing to say about something that you’re paying $3 for being served next to a gas station. The al pastor slicer might not be able to make an onion volcano, but he might flip you an extra pineapple chunk if you’re nice. Is al pastor just outdoor Mexican teppanyaki that you usually eat standing up?
Possibly. All I know is that if there’s one truism to Fresno, it’s that if you see someone cutting meat off of a trompo in the parking lot of a service station or next to a sign advertising something completely different, like used tires, it’s quite possible that you’re about to have the best tacos of your life. I would also look for someone nearby hand-pressing fresh tortillas, another tell-tale sign of quality.
Here are some great places for al pastor on a trompo, listed in order of my favorites first. Be advised, some of these places don’t update their hours or social media very often. Around these parts, we usually describe our favorite taco trucks by the intersection where they’re normally parked.
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Tacos Puebla
Usual location: Clinton and Marks.
Hours: The most recent Yelp reviews note “They open up around 5pm and close about 10/11pm,” and “it’s a bummer this place is only open at night.”
So… night time.
Notes: Single tortilla, shaped and cooked to order. Crunchy, charred, crispy meat, more sweet than spicy, and oh-so-delicate. You do not want to wrap these to go, which would probably ruin the texture. That’s the best thing about them – crunchy, juicy meat inside a soft fresh tortilla. Wow, yes. I’m ready to call this one of the best tacos I’ve ever had.
Tacos El Poblano
Usual Location: First and McKinley
Hours: 6:30 pm – 12:30 am, seven days a week.
Notes: Al pastor is sweeter and glazed looking, with an amazing sticky tender texture. Not as crunchy as Tacos Puebla, but the sticky glaze and juicy meat almost make up for it.
They also have a carne asada taco that’s very good, tender with lots of smoky char. This one is also attached to a creperia, so you can get dessert with your tacos. The location is right along a canal. This is riverfront dining, Fresno-style.
Taqueria Arely’s
Usual Location: 4897 E. Kings Canyon (at Kings Canyon and Winery, next to the Arco station across from a McDonald’s).
Other locations: 1237 B St., near Chinatown,
247-299 E. Mountain View Ave in Caruthers (at Mountain View and 41).
Hours: Seven days a week
3 pm – 11 pm (Kings Canyon and B St locations)
6 pm – 1 am (Mountain View location)
Notes: More tender, less crunchy than some of the others, with a very flavorful marinade. Probably the most reminiscent of shawarma. The pineapple adds a lot to this one. They also have a habanero salsa that is delicious but dangerous – it’s spicy as hell! Made me sweat through my hat, but worth it.
Taqueria Tres Hermanos
Usual Location: Blackstone and Barstow, in the Allard’s parking lot.
Hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 5 pm to midnight.
Notes: Juicy, charred, and sweet, but not too spicy. Great selection of salsas, which are plenty spicy. Didn’t see them making the tortillas to order here. Also served on a double tortilla, which messes up the ratio a bit, in my mind.
Tacos El Misshoo
Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 6 pm – Midnight.
Usual Location: 5687 E Kings Canyon Rd, Kings Canyon and S. Phillip Ave, next to a different Arco station.
Notes: Happened across this one while looking for Arely’s. The al pastor is just OK, though they also have carnitas with all the trimmings cooked in a big vat of fat, suadero/confit style, which is better. The tortillas are excellent. They also set up about 10 feet from an Indian stand called the “Spice King” serving gol gappe. You can sample both while pumping some gas.
Chuy’s Tacos Y Taquizas
Usual Location: 365 W. Bedford Suite 105, Fresno (off El Paso, just west of River Park).
Hours: Monday – Friday, 10 am – 6 pm.
Notes: We tried to visit this one three times before we went to press and weren’t able to catch it open. Allegedly it has a trompo. Maybe check it out for us and report back?
Usual Location: 4796 E. Shields (Shields and Chestnut)
Hours: 5:30 pm – 1:30 am, seven days a week. (Open until 2:30 am Fridays and Saturdays).
Notes: This one doesn’t actually have a trompo and we weren’t able to visit for this article, so you could make a case that it shouldn’t be included. However, when I visited in 2022 for this article, it was some of the best al pastor I’d ever tasted, trompo or no. It’s also located in the parking lot of a Lube Plus, which is perfect Fresniana.
