El Pariente

Located across from Holy Redeemer Church in a little parking lot, El Pariente was the last stop of my inaugural taco truck crawl. I’m glad we didn’t skip this one!
After some tiny mini-​tacos at Los Dos Amigos (
), I made the mistake of ordering two more tacos at El Pariente. These were pretty big. I don’t know what it is, but these $ 1.25 tacos are significantly bigger. (EDIT: Forgot to note that 3 – 4 of these would be enough for a meal.)
There were fewer meat choices here, so I went with two tacos al pastor. These tacos had a lot of meat in them! (UGH. «That’s what she said» keeps repeating itself in my head as I write these damn taco truck reviews. I give up. Too tired to try to reword that sentence.) The tacos also contained chopped raw onions and cilantro and came with grilled onions and, if you want, a whole grilled jalapeño (as opposed to a half grilled jalapeño at El Paisa
).
On the side of the truck were squeeze bottles of red and green salsa, lime wedges, and whole radishes. I liked the red salsa here better (also the case at El Paisa. Am I really a red salsa person?! And here I’d always thought I was on Team Verde).
Like Dil F., I had tortillas that fell apart. I don’t know if they had just been covered with piping hot toppings for too long, or if I had piled on too much salsa, but I wished I had a fork because these tacos were really tasty and flavorful. Maybe I’ll actually bring a fork next time :)
Oddly enough, the whole jalapeño was much hotter than the half jalapeño at El Paisa. (EDIT: Turns out most of the heat in a chili pepper is in the inside spines. This explains a lot. Thanks, Lorna E.!)
We sat in the shade of a nearby building as we ate and also saw a girl celebrating her Quinceñera. Her dress was hot pink!

El Pariente is now one of my favorites. They have a limited menu selection, but what they do is great.
Excellent large tortillas and loads of fillings. No matter what your choice, they load up the taco, add some onions and cilantro and then if you want they smother it in fried onions and add a nice large roasted jalapeño to your plate.
On my most recent visit, I loaded up with some Al Pastor. The tacos must have at least ¼ pound of meat each; two seems to fill you nicely, three and you’re stuffed. The grilled onions on top are the kicker, it just gives the dish a totally different flavor and presentation. Being the brave guy that I am and unfazed by the bite off the tip of the jalapeño, I took a large bite, felt my esophagus go into convulsions, my nose begin to run and I cried like a baby. Good Stuff!!!
After this the cook ventured out to use with a metal pan filled with red onions that were marinate in oil and habanero peppers. I could only manage one bite of this until I cried «uncle».
The guys that work here are beyond nice and accommodating and really want you back again and again.

Fluffy Tortillas, Big Heapings of Meat, Grilled Onions
I’ve been eyeing this truck, parked across from Holy Redeemer Church on Junction just south of Vernor, for a few weeks now, and finally visited this newcomer (? — or at least new to the location) for dinner. The menu is smaller than the other two trucks I’ve visited, but the tacos are better if judged by certain criteria.
For starters, the tortillas used here are super delicious, golden yellow, fluffy, and notably bigger than the tortillas at El Taquito. Of course, with bigger tortillas comes bigger piles of meat. I ordered a cabeza and the al pastor. Served not just with diced raw onion and cilantro, these two tacos also came with a generous pile of grilled onions that were dark brown in color and radiating sweet onion smells and flavors. I’d been so disappointed at the disappearance of the grilled onions at El Taquito since my first visit there, so it was nothing short of exuberant delight to re-​discover them here at El Pariente.
Also, the cabeza meat was the best I’ve had in town so far… it was full of tender cuts of beef and also small velvety cubes of fat, really exemplary melt-​in-​your-​mouth fat. The flavor was all the more rich for it. Delicious. And the al pastor was pretty good too, served in a heavy marinade that wasn’t fiery (thankfully for me) but was definitely full of kick.
The only curiosity was that the tortillas, having been warmed on the grill for perhaps a few seconds too long, were 1) too hot to handle for a couple of minutes and 2) falling apart halfway through each taco because they’d been overheated. I managed just fine, but the performance was a little indelicate and messy. Good thing there is a large roll of paper towels at your disposal. Limes and radishes (which are whole instead of sliced) are served on a help-​yerself basis, alongside two or three salsas and an onion-​pepper slaw/​topping. A cooler of canned pop, buried in ice, is also there for your thirst-​quenching. Finally, if you’re there on the hour or half-​hour, you get the pleasure of listening to the intricate and melodic church bells up above.
*CASH only* — — — – * CLOSED on Wed.*