“We will have to fill up on tacos before we go any farther.”
When someone asks me, “What is a birria taco?” I answer with three words: el gran sabor, the great flavor. You can learn what birria is by reading below, then visit Montes Cafe in Seaside Heights to see what we do with it.
What birria is
Birria is meat, usually beef, marinated in dried chiles and simmered for hours. What comes out is tender enough to pull apart with a fork, swimming in a deep red broth — the consomé, a word Spanish took from the French consommé.
We braise the meat in the fat it rendered during the long cook. We fill a corn tortilla with that gran sabor and set a cup of the beef and its consomé beside it. You dip the taco into the broth that made it, you eat, and you love it.
Eat one birria taco dipped in its consomé and it is all you think about the next time somebody says tacos.
Birria began with goats in Jalisco. The Spanish brought the animals, found the meat tough and strong-smelling, and left it to everyone else — the name birria is usually explained as their word for something worthless. Cooks simmered it for hours to soften it and draw out the gamey taste.
The beef came later, and this is the part of the story I like. In 1950, a man named Guadalupe Zárate opened the first birria taco stand in Tijuana. He had come north from Coatzingo, in Puebla — the same state my family is from. Goat was dear and lean, so he used beef instead, and he served it with a cup of its own broth. That is the birria most people in this country have eaten, and Puebla is the reason.
We make ours with beef too, and we take it one step further: birria tacos with Maruchan ramen.
How we make it
Simmered low and slow, for hours, from scratch, with ingredients we import from Mexico — the way my wife’s grandmother made it, and hers before that. We hold it at a very low heat the whole way, so that when the beef, the consomé, and the tortilla reach your table together, they change what you thought a taco was.
Out of one pot of el gran sabor come seven dishes on our menu:
- Tacos de Birria — three to an order, with beef, cheese, cilantro and birria consomé
- QuesaBirria, on a twelve-inch flour tortilla or on two handmade corn tortillas
- Birria Burrito and Birria Chimichanga — the chimichanga deep-fried, both with rice, refried beans, cilantro and onions
- Birria Nachos
- Birria Tacos with Ramen Maruchan — the one that is hard to picture until you have eaten it
Seven ways to eat el gran sabor, and the same pot behind all of them. The consomé comes with them — you do not have to ask for it. And if one cup is not enough, ask for another; we will bring it.
How to order it
Eating with us. Ask about the birria, and we will tell you what goes into it. We will probably point you to the tacos de birria — three to an order, consomé on the side, and the right place to start if birria is new to you. Ask for a second consomé while you are at it. You will not find it printed on the menu, but we will bring you one. Plenty of people do, and no one has ever complained they had too much consomé to take home with them.
Pickup or delivery. Order here. Delivery is free on orders of $20 or more within two miles of 609 Boulevard.
A table. Reserve one on our contact page, or call (732) 250-4101 — we will hold a seat and take your order at once.
BYOB. Bring the beer or the bottle of wine you like. We never charge corkage. We would not charge our own family to open a bottle, and we will not charge you.
Where to find us
We are at 609 Boulevard, a block off the boardwalk in Seaside Heights — indoor and outdoor seating, three minutes from the boards or less.
