West coast quesabirria tacos come to DC

The restaurant collaboration of my dreams

Sep 23, 2024

Hola people, is everyone hungry today? I know you will be after you read this, because I’m going to tell you all about an amazing collaboration between two of my favorite places! As you might remember, at China Poblano in Las Vegas we combine the cuisines of Mexico and China, and at Oyamel (in Washington, D.C.), we celebrate the regional flavors of Mexico. So of course it would make sense for these two incredible places to come together!

Recently, one of my R&D chefs, Claudio Foschi (you might remember Claudio from my MasterClass series, or the 100th anniversary celebration of Caesar salad!) took over the kitchen at Oyamel. Claudio is a forever student who loves learning about new dishes and cuisines, so China Poblano’s chefs Carlos Cruz and Laura Vargas came to D.C. to work with Claudio on Mexican recipes and cooking techniques. While they were in D.C., Carlos and Laura introduced a few new items from the China Poblano menu to the Oyamel kitchen, including two new tacos: a quesabirria taco and a pulpo taco!

Guys, I’m so excited—have you ever had a quesabirria taco? Birria is a Mexican stew of braised meat—traditionally goat or lamb, but it can really be made with any meat—and lots of spices, herbs and chiles. Then it’s often served with tortillas and a side of the broth that the meat is cooked in, called consomé. It’s served all over Mexico, but it’s thought that it originally came from Jalisco.

Quesabirria tacos are what happens when you take one amazing thing…birria…and make it even better by folding the birria into a tortilla with cheese and cooking it until it melts, and then serving it with the consomé. Even better if you coat the tortilla with some of the fat from the meat before cooking it! This amazing culinary phenomenon started pretty recently in Tijuana and eventually made its way up to Southern California before becoming more widely known around the country.

So of course I asked Carlos and Laura to create a quesabirria for China Poblano, and people, these are INCREDIBLE. The recipe is inspired by Laura’s cousin’s recipe…her framily is from Magallenes, a small town in Mexico about two and a half hours east of Guadalajara. Birria is so popular there that their town does a birria cookoff, and this recipe won the cookoff! Her cousin makes it with goat, cooking it underground with vegetables and water, covered in agave leaves and sealed with wet dirt to cook for hours, slowly braising the meat until it falls apart and absorbs all the flavors from the vegetables and spices.

At China Poblano—and now Oyamel, for the next two weeks!—we use both beef short rib and lamb shoulder, pasilla, arból and guajillo chiles, Mexican cinnamon, oregano, coriander, cumin, garlic and onion. Laura likes to use blue corn tortillas (using masa from Masienda, of course) for her quesabirria tacos at China Poblano…she originally created it as a special but it was so popular that it’s now one of the top selling dishes at the restaurant. They go through 140 pounds worth of beef and lamb every few days!

Start by dipping the tacos in the consommé…

Ok, people, I’m getting so distracted by the thought of quesabirria that I almost forgot to tell you about the other taco that Claudio learned from Carlos and Laura. This would be a pulpo, or an octopus taco, which will be served with a salsa macha (do you remember a couple of weeks ago when we talked about the different salsas of Mexico, including salsa macha?) Salsa macha is a little different than what you might think about when it comes to salsa…it’s a little bit more like a chili oil, and it’s traditionally made with nuts and sesame seeds. The salsa macha for this pulpo taco is based on Chef Carlos’ mom’s recipe, but he also adds honey and rice wine vinegar for a really smooth macha. Everyone at China Poblano really love the pulpo taco, so it’s been on the menu for two years, and I can’t wait to share it with our guests at Oyamel!

So if that’s not enough to convince you to come to Oyamel, I might have to just take you there myself! This is a really special collaboration and I’m so proud of Claudio, Laura, and Carlos for bringing these amazing specials to D.C. I can’t wait to hear what you think of them!