Av. Benito Juarez is not only the main street in Tecate, but also the route that Mexico's busy Highway 2 takes, on it's east-west journey through the town.  At the busy corner of Av. Benito Juarez and Av. Eufraco Santana, there is a large, very busy taqueria, called "Taqueria La Cuerta" and they do tacos, and they do tacos right.

 

Left:  Taqueria La Cuerta.  Right:  Looking in the dining room and the kitchen.

By Mexican standards, this place is huge, as it occupies the whole downstairs of the building that it is located in. The upstairs appear to be apartments, very common in Mexico, but are inaccessible from the restaurant.  As per the norm, this is a family operation, run by a mother and her children.  As in many Mexican restaurants, the facade of the business is open to the street and when the business is closed, roll-down doors are in place that can be lowered and padlocked, to keep the place safe.  Not that burglary is a problem in Mexico, as property crime, and crimes in general, are far lower than north of the border.

 

Left:  Cutting up vegetables.  Right:  The mother, who runs the place, and her daughter behind the counter in the kitchen.

The layout of the place is typical of the myriad of taquerias found in northern Mexico.  Order counter/kitchen to the left, dining room to the right.  Wait a minute, where's the grab-your-beer-cooler?  Where are the self-serve condiments?  Remember, I said this is a huge operation, by Mexican standards.  You go to the counter, you order what you want, they fix it for you and then you eat/drink it.  Most important:  You enjoy!  Even though they sport a cash register, you pay at the end of your meal, as no "menu tickets" are issued, as per Mexican culture.  Yes they have a cash register, but it's still on the honor system.  You simply tell them what you ate and drank, they ring it up, and you pay.  Ring it up?  Gee... I guess I'm lost in the '70's, as they have a digital cash register.  Since they are such a big operation, they don't use the small, plastic tables commonly found in smaller restaurants.  Instead Taqueria La Cuerta allows guest to dine at aluminum picnic tables, seating six folks.  If larger groups are present, the friendly staff will be glad to push tables together.

 

Left:  The mother heats freshly-made corn tortillas on her large griddle.  Right:  Cutting vegetables.

Mom runs the place, her son slices meat and works the grill, a daughter works the cash register (you know they are a big operation!), and two other daughters cut up veggies, bus tables, clean the place and do whatever else is needed to keep the business going.  I asked Mom if her kids were pretty much interchangeable into their roles in the family business, and she enthusiastically replied "Si, senor."  They also hire part-time help that when things get really busy.  Despite the fact that La Cuerta is open to the street, the place is spotlessly clean; a testament to the dedication of the staff.

The menu?  What menu?  Heck, in Mexico, it's just easier to ask and if they have the ingredients in stock, they'll fix it for you.  I love the can-do attitude!  However, by looking at Taqueria La Cuerta, you just know that their specialty is tacos and tortas, and you can probably be assured that posole and menudo are included on weekend menus.  

 

Photos:  Cooking carne asada.  Not the open flame on the vertical roaster, and the large piece of meat cooking for carne asada tacos.

All of the tortillas are made in-house by the mother.  You can see her mixing the masa with water, putting the mixture into a large bowl, kneading it by hand, and pressing the tortillas flat on a tortilla press.  You can watch her remove the tortillas from the press and place them on the griddle.  You know your tortillas are fresh, as you're watching them being made.  No machines, just good old-fashioned labor, the way things should be.  

After ordering my taco, the cook immediately put the tripe on the grill, and grabbed a couple of freshly-made, cd-sized corn tortillas and put them on the griddle to heat.  Taqueria La Cuerta cooks most of their meat over a mesquite-fired grill, as there is a constant plume of smoke arising from the chimney.  Yes, you read that right, real mesquite wood is used to fire the grill.   However their beef that is used for carne asada is cooked over a vertical gas grill, with a pineapple on top.  They take a cleaver to the meat and slice off a piece of it, along with a small piece of pineapple, and wrap it in a couple of corn tortillas. Tacos could not get better.

 

Left:  Meat for carne asada tacos are cut from this large, vertically-roasted, piece of beef.  Right:  My tripe taco, with lots of guacamole, lines and radishes to nibble on.

However, my mission wasn't a carne asada taco, as I was hungry for a taco de tripa.  So I walked up to the counter, and asked the friendly girl if they had tacos de tripa.  She said she'd check with the cook, who to supplement his cooking duties, apparently keeps inventory.  The answer was: "Yes."  My answer was "Un taco de tripa, por favor, con todo."  (I only ordered 1 taco, as I'd already eaten a couple of tacos at El Vagabundo...)   When asked what I wanted on my taco, I requested that they put everything on it, especially guacamole.  I was rewarded with a huge topping of guacamole on my tripe taco, along with onions, cilantro, radishes and the obligatory slices of key limes.   I wasn't disappointed, as in a couple of minutes I was munching on a delicious tripe taco, grilled over mesquite coals.

If you're looking for delicious tacos of just about any type, grilled over mesquite, Taqueria La Cuerta can't be beat!