[dropcap size=big]B[/dropcap]oyle Heights’ famous taco-row on Olympic Boulevard couldn’t possibly get any better, right? You can already find some of L.A.’s best shrimp tacos, tacos de canasta, birria, and burritos on this half mile stretch of Boyle Heights.
Well here comes Carnitas Los Dos Chingones, the boulevard’s first carnitas pop-up to join and improve the taco scene. They found a space across the street from Mariscos Jalisco and outside of the right-field fence of the Lou Costello Jr. Recreational Center. The creators may not realize it, but with its crispy chilaquiles, egg, juicy carnitas, queso fresco, and refried beans, Carnitas Los Dos Chingones is primed to compete in L.A.’s breakfast burrito wars.
It’s another pandemic origin story of a restaurant cook who got his hours cut and decided to start a pop-up to supplement their income.
But Carlos Escobar had hidden talent; he grew up making carnitas in his hometown of Teocaltiche in Los Altos de Jalisco, Mexico. As a kid, Escobar’s grandpa put him to work butchering livestock and preparing carnitas every day for his carnicería. Escobar still keeps his grandpa’s old hand-made copper pot as a keepsake. “It’s too old and busted to use, but I still keep it. My family gave it to me,” he tells us in Spanish.
The carnitas are prepared in newer copper pots, the preferred pot to obtain optimal carnitas due to copper’s ability to maintain a consistent heat as the pork is slow-cooked in oil or lard all night. The different pork meats they offer are maciza, buche, cuerito, costilla, and mixta. You can enjoy them a number of ways offered on the menu including tortas, mulitas, tacos, or with freshly prepared crisp chilaquiles rojos or verdes.
The real move here though is to order a chilaquiles burrito with mixta. The mixed carnitas with its variety of textures from smooth cuerito to meaty maciza combined with the crunchy chilaquiles and partially mashed beans will make every bite feel like a complete chewing experience. The great Jalisco style spicy sauce on the chilaquiles adds all the flavor and heat for an instant must-take-another-bite addiction. A little queso fresco and eggs the way you like them complete the symphony of taste and feels. It has all the right components and flavors to make it on every breakfast burrito cults’ lists.
Escobar admits that he felt scared about going out to vend in the street. “Pues da miedo,” he tells L.A. Taco. “I’m used to working in kitchens, away from customers and strangers.” Despite that initial fear, Escobar, with his cousin Pedro Escobar and his daughter Monce Escobar,have slowly grown comfortable with their new pop-up. He tells us in Spanish, “I’m really enjoying chit-chatting with customers all day, it’s different from working in the kitchen and I’ve grown to love spending my day this way.”
Los Dos Chingones pops up every day except Friday, from 8:30 am to 3:00 pm on the corner of South Decotah Street and East Olympic Boulevard
