The restaurant was one of those fancy, local, organic Mexican restaurants, with many of the taco names in Spanish. We both got the pick three tacos option, and blue corn tortillas. I got two meat tacos, and one vegan taco with jackfruit on it. I've never eaten jackfruit in my life. I usually have sour cream and cheese on my tacos, but none of the ones I picked had either.
The Al Pastor One
Pork shoulder marinated in pureed onion and Guajillo Pepper with grilled pineapple, onions and cilantro. (I got this one for the pineapple. It was my favorite - slightly spicy, but not too much.)
According to the Pioneer Woman, "Al Pastor" means "shepherd style." This pork taco takes inspiration from Lebanese immigrants to central Mexico. Read more here
The Mole One
Puebla Pollo (chicken) with radishes, sesame seeds, and cilantro. Contains nuts. (This wasn't spicy. It was kinda bland, and my least favorite. My friend thought "mole" might mean it had chocolate, but it didn't taste like it.)
The Jackfruit One
Sauteed BBQ jackfruit with mango salsa, chipotle date yogurt and cilantro. (This was super spicy. I avoided all the tacos on the menu with a flame icon next to it, but this was the hottest of the three I tried. Keep in mind I'm not used to spicy food. I think it's the chipotle that brings the heat. Speaking of Chipotle, I usually get chicken there because it's the least spicy, and skip the salsa.)
When my order arrived, I could not tell which order was which. I was wishing I had photographed the menu, because after reading all the descriptions, they ran together in my brain. Lets see there's the pineapple meat one, the mole one and uh... they all look and taste like they have meat on them. That's odd. If one has mango and another has pineapple, wheres the jackfruit? I was expecting something sweet.
Later, I looked up jackfruit and turns out it has stringy flesh that vegans love to barbecue as a meat replacement. I could not tell the difference! Note that jackfruit has less protein than meat.
(If you couldn't tell yet, I listed the taco descriptions first to last in the order they are in the photo left to right.)
My friend got the the Carne Asada One: roast (grilled marinated flank steak, onion, cilantro, and cotija cheese [cow's milk hard cheese]), the Cauliflower One (veggie: roasted blackened cauliflower topped with avocado slices + red cabbage + guacamole salsa), and the Tinga One (spicy chipotle, crema and micro greens)
Local friends: Vivir Modern Mexican has reopened with limited hours and menu due to COVID-19 according to their Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/eatvivir/ May 15 2020.
