Samuel C.
Yelp
Carnitas El Guero is an absolutely uncompromising place.
There is no place in Austin that serves when they've got.
But you've got to be ready for what they've got.
* * *
Carnitas El Guero serves one and only dish only.
Carnitas in the Michoacoan style.
This means super super super fatty
And super super super greasy.
This is not a cooking fault or any mark of using inferior ingredients.
The ingredients are selected by careful choice.
And all-out fatty, all-out greasy is the precise effect they are trying to achieve.
Oh- I forgot to note a side dish that they have, dourados or mini-beef empanadas. These are also designed to have their share of grease.
* * *
Why in the world would someone intentionally make a dish as fatty and greasy as possible?
Three Reasons - none of which apply to me but many of which apply to other people who live elsewhere in the world.
a) If you don't get meat very often .
Say you are living on a diet of rice and beans .
You are going to want to make the most of the occasional meat serving you do get.
Notably a diet of starches or legumes will not have a lot of fat - and the body sometimes needs fat.
If this is going to be your one meal with fat for the week or the one meal with fat for the month - you want to go all out.
This condition applies to a lot of poor people in the Global South. I saw a lot of this in the Brazilian Northeast.
b) You are going to be working all day with little access to food.
You need your one big meal in the morning to hold you.
This does not apply to most Latin American populations where somehow, someway, they find a way to bring lunch out to the farmers or workers.
A lumberjack in the Canadian Northwest may need a big breakfast because he is going to be out in the woods. Breakfast is all he is going to get until sunset.
c) People in very very cold climates.
Think Eskimos/Inuit before Global Warming.
Think people who live on the Mongolian steppes during the winter.
If your body needs massive amounts of fat to insulate yourself against winds blowing at minus thirty degrees,
Then a super-fatty diet is what you need.
Eskimos eat seal and whale, both of which have a lot of blubber.
Mongolians eat mutton, especially fatty parts like jowls.
* * *
I am a Yuppie American living in Austin.
Austin is a grocery and restaurant paradise.
I have constant access to meat, fried food and other oily treats.
My house is filled with food for snacking and grazing.
Whenever I go out, food is available everywhere - much of which I have reviewed on Yelp.
Austin is a hot hot place (not counting once-a-century arctic blasts.)
So there is no good reason for me to eat giant tacos that are intentionally 40% fat.
And there are plenty of health reasons why I should not do so.
* * *
That said, if you want the real deal Michoacan uncompromising carnitas,
Carnitas Guero has them.
Mexicans and Central Americans come pouring through the door to get their carnitas.
Carnitas Guero has the total vote of the people.
The carnitas taste good.
Their tortillas are excellent.
(Their particular style is to make the tortillas taste like cornbread.
I think that is a first rate idea.)
Instead of raw onions for a garnish they offer a marinated semi-pickled onion.
Those pickled onions are just fine.
* * *
Yuppies like me like to think that all of the food in the world is really for them.
But there are boundaries between what some people eat and what other people eat.
In Brazil, I learned that there are some restaurants and some cafes where I should really never go.
There were designed for people who can eat and digest things I can't.
(In Brazil, the question was low quality poorly inspected meat.)
At Carnitas Guero, the objective quality of the meat is excellent.
But you have to ask yourself if you have the lifestyle that can tolerate the fat-intensive food they have to offer.
This is food designed for the Spartans.
Most Yuppie Americans are not Spartans.
