The buche

The carnivore paradise that is the Telefónica food-truck park had one stall that served vegan food when I last visited in July. That place is gone and has been replaced with a food truck named El Porkon.

Vegetarian choices still abound. Mexican-cuisine restaurant Carmelita serves cauliflower tacos and Asian fusion, and Mr. Ramen has corn on the cob and vegetarian ramen. After poking my head in several of the food trucks, I came back around to where the old vegan place stood.

The taquero cutting pork

The sandwich in the kitchen, next to a big piece of maciza

“My father-in-law has a carnitas stand in Mariano Matamoros named La Tzararacua,” says Paola Guedea, owner of El Porkon. “After working with his father for seven years, my husband decided it was time for his own carnitas stand. The tacos over there are different. Here we give it a new spin.”

There are nine kinds of pork to choose from, and you can have it several ways — in a taco, quesadilla, sandwich, Aztec pizza (a giant sope), or a full order of meat.

The guy preparing the tacos asked me which part of the pig I prefer: maciza, polita, costillas, cachete, nana, tripa, cuerito, or buche y surtido.

Tacos de costillas y buche

I bought two tacos for $1.10 each, one of buche (stomach) and one of costillas (ribs). The tacos came with big chunks of meat, and instead of chopped cilantro and onions they had a full cilantro leaf and red cabbage. They were served on a wood board instead of the usual plastic plate wrapped in a bag.

The buche was surprisingly good, while the costillas was your standard carnitas. The tomato salsa had no chile kick to it and went well with the tacos.

The sandwich for $3.50 had pesto sauce in a ciabatta, unusual for a greasy pork stand. Feeling semi-adventurous, I asked for half of it to be surtido (a mix of all the meats) and half of maciza (the most common choice in carnitas — lean, boneless, skinless pork meat).

Pork with pesto in a ciabatta

The surtido mixture of meats had no defined texture. Between chewy and crunchy, all I could taste was that it was salty. The other half with maciza was more straightforward carnitas. On Paola’s recommendation, I poured on the mango/habanero salsa (with a touch of orange juice), giving the sandwich a nice touch of sweet and spicy.