I was very fortunate to spend the last week of the year and a few days of the first year in El Paso, which is my hometown. The Border is my favorite place, it’s hard to explain what it feels like to others not from there. El Paso is changing rapidly. The sprawl has gotten to a point where the traffic is now bad almost at all times of the day. But, there’s also more culinary variety than ever before and the jump of food from Juarez to El Paso is perhaps more alive than ever. The home cooked meals highlighting the specificity of the region are still my favorite, but the non region specific things that stick and shift to conform to El Paso I think also say plenty about this place. What we talk about when we talk about the Border are many things, food is just one of them. This food diary is only a small view into what it’s like to be there. What follows is a breakdown of some of my favorite things I ate during the holiday period in chronological order.
Tamales, Doña Lupita Tamales
There was a time when we’d make our own tamales. It was fun, but it also sucked. It’s a lot of work. Especially when you don’t have one of those stand mixers to amasar. Which my parents don’t own to this day. The big difference in what separates a good tamal from a mediocre or bad one is the masa. You have to avoid Maseca, or anything that has maseca. It’s yellower and tastes weird, gives your tamales a weird texture. Gotta find masa, straight, preferably from a tortilleria. Most places around El Paso usually sell them “preparada” or not. Preparada just means they already mixed some lard in there, and should be good to go. Still even if you get it that way you may have to still add some fat and mix it in some more. The test to tell if masa is ready or not is to take a little pinch roll it in a ball and drop it in a glass of water, it should float. Other places around Dallas sell masa already mixed with chile colorado…which I’m not a fan of.
This year we didn’t make our own tamales.
My parents over the last few weeks took a tamal tour of El Paso hitting up bakeries and tamalerias looking for what would be good. A shocking amount of them had maseca masa, others were either too skimpy on the filling, or the filling was just not good. The winning spot ended up being less than one mile from home in the lower valley of El Paso.
Doña Lupita’s tamales were a good size, perfectly cooked. PLenty of meat, good level of spice and exceptional masa. Really solid tamales. I ate three immediately..then two more. We reheated them using a steaming pot and they tasted and felt fresh, but my favorite is always on a comal. Tamales are a christmas staple in El Paso, but are eaten year round. Still, they go extra hard on christmas when it’s (supposed to be) cold. These were the first thing I had and continued to be eaten throughout the trip. It wasn’t really cold the whole trip, now that I’m back in DFW it’s freezing and I’m craving tamales.
Barbacoa, Barbacoa El Güero
Traditionally Barbacoa is a weekend thing. The Borderland is dotted with businesses that just sell this one meat, by the pound with tortillas or bolillos, onion, cilantro, a little bit of lime, and red salsa. I say one meat but it’s really a mix of all kinds of part of the cow’s head. Slow cooked and shredded. It’s super flavorful and soft, but it can get a little greasy which is why El Güero was so good. It was a very clean barbacoa. We got about 3 lbs and I lost count at how many tacos I had like the one above. One thing, Barbacoa at least here in the border, pairs best with Coke. Mexican coca cola. From a glass bottle.
While tacos and lonches are the most popular at places like these where you order Barbacoa by the pound, my favorite barbacoa delivery method is actually in a burrito and with a little bit of pinto beans in there. Burritos Crisostomo in El Paso is my favorite burrito de barbacoa.
This was our Christmas Eve breakfast and we had it there in the store, looking out the window at the crowded parking lot and people lining up for the bakery a few doors down picking up their tamal order. I sort of hope this becomes a traditional Christmas Eve breakfast.
Discada de mi Papa, Buche
On the 25th we forewent a traditional Christmas meal in favor of something simpler and definitely more delicious. Two types of tacos Discada, and Buche.
Discada originated in Northern Mexico and is traditionally cooked in discos a sort of cast iron wok originally made from busted up plows. Every single family that makes discada has their own recipe and honestly a lot of them suck. I have some tacos on what does or doesn’t belong on a discada, but I’ll just say get your stupid green onions outta there. I also once got invited to one that had potatoes. I almost left the place. Anyway, ours is simple, it's all meat. It has cubed beef, pork, chorizo, bacon, bologna, ham, and winnies. Because the quantity was small it wasn’t made in a disco but indoors in a cast iron pan. It still hits. It’s one of my favorite things my dad cooks and I like it with Guacamole, and a liiiiiiitle bit of lime. Not pictured here is Green jalapeño salsa but I don’t add it on all of them. The top two are discada.
Buche, aka pork stomach, these are popular all over Mexico. The texture on these is great, the chunks of stomach are first boiled then cut up an seasoned. We bought the buche prepared already from Food City and then just added a little bit of Chorizo which is why it’s a bit darker. For Buche I also put on some pico de gallo and red salsa. It’s good, It’s the bottom one.
I like Buche, but I love discada. Something about the variety of meats, the saltiness the hits of bacon you get. It’s perfect. I love it. I had about 9 tacos total. Best Christmas meal.
Chilaquiles de mi Papa
Growing up, all of my dad’s cooking was done outside over an open flame. Carnes asadas, or discada, or tripas, even carnitas. Whatever, it was all outside. Over the last ten years my mom’s been hit with a number of chronic illnesses which has led to my dad moving most of his cooking to inside. He now cooks for both of them, and for us too when we go back. If you would have told me this would have been the case growing up I wouldn’t have believed you. His cooking has really been great in the last decade. His chilaquiles and beans are very good. I asked him where he got the recipe for them and he says they’re my mom’s recipe but I don’t really remember having much chilaquiles growing up. Maybe a handful of times. Tostadas, chile colorado, muenster cheese. Plenty of chile colorado you can see there’s no plain tostada color peeking through and pinto beans with eggs. There’s a sliiiight crispiness still left but honestly I think I like the mushier bits more. Especially because it helps sop up the egg yolk which I prefer runny.
Pizza, Peter Piper Pizza
There are 49 Peter Piper Pizza locations in the state of Texas, 16 of them are in the El Paso region. The DFW metroplex has 2. I joke alot about Peter Piper but it is an institution in El Paso. It’s been there my entire life. Growing up a Peter Piper Pizza birthday party was the coolest thing a kid could have, and I wanted one my whole life. I didn’t get it until my 30s. I never set foot in a chuck e cheese’s, however the parent company of Chuck E Cheese, CEC entertainment, owns both Chuck E Cheese and Peter Piper. Still, Peter Piper’s pizza unlike the mouse places, is actually decent pizza. On one of my many trips there I creeped on the ovens and saw what I think was a chunk of mesquite coal in there, I’ve never been able to confirm that it is in fact mesquite charcoal but Peter Piper pizzas always have a nice solid bottom, a little bit smokey, and they’re delicious through and through.
I went there twice in ten days. Once to the lunch buffet with my friends from highschool and another for a birthday party. It was on back to back days, and I did not mind. I almost went three times. I’m telling you, an institution.
Kettle Cooked Flaming Hot Lays
This is a brief intermission because this is technically not cooked or from a local restaurant but I tried this on this trip and they’re officially my second favorite hot chip after Extra Hot Hot Cheetos. Take the superior texture of a kettle cooked chip and dust it with Flaming Hot Dust and it’s just perfect. You’re crazy for this one Richard.
I’ve looked in three 7 elevens, Target, Walmart, and Albertsons near my place in DFW and I can’t find them here.
Tacos de Suadero, Taconeta
This was my first stop at the new “Uptown” part of El Paso. Located immediately north of I-10 near Montana and Kansas there was a surprising amount of development around there including an apartment building with a very stunning mural of The Virgin of Guadalupe. I had heard of Taconeta before but had never been there and I didn’t know that there was this whole plan for this whole area.
The suadero was clean and flavorful, the tortilla was good, and the guacamole and salsa were perfect. A very satisfying taco, in a very cool place. Maybe a decade ago a place like this wouldn’t exist in El Paso and people would talk instead about how what El Paso needs is a Torchy’s Tacos and a Cheesecake Factory. Well, they still say that but I’m glad a place like this exists. It’s stylish, the tacos are more expensive than chico’s (even though a double a chicos tacos is 8.88 now), the ingredients are high quality, and they’re trying interesting things with their menu.
I also had a corn in a cup. Crucially the corn was white corn which is the superior corn for any and all elotes. Yellow corn is too sweet, texture too mushy. White corn handles everything better and has an immensely more satisfying bite.
Another plus to this meal es que me la picharon, shout out Roberto.
Menudo De mi Papa con Bolillo
The first meal of 2025 was a great one. Menudo, home made. There’s a couple of key distinctions of El Paso/Juarez style menudo from the rest of the Menudo of Mexico. For starters aside from the normal pansita meat, there’s also hominy in the soup. Secondly, and realistically the best difference is that rather than accompanying the menudo with a tortilla we do it with a toasted and buttered boillo or french bread. This combo is amazing, superior, the best thing you could possibly pair with a menudo.
Menudo is sold all over the borderland, especially on the weekend. I’d also say that’s true for mostly anywhere you’d find Mexicans. The way my dad makes it places a heavy emphasis on cleaning the cubed chunks of cow stomach multiple times. It can honestly be a stinky cooking process that no amount of bay leaves can cover up if you don’t do that. We don’t make it very spicy, but plenty savory. Add crushed oregano, diced fresh onions, and lime. The combination of the broth, soft cow stomach meat, bit of hominy and that soft buttery bread in every bite. Soups don’t get much better than this. Juarez style menudo is probably gonna be served in heaven.
Flautas, El Cometa
El Cometa is a Juarez taqueria/flauteria(?) that crossed over to El Paso a couple of years ago. It’s since opened 4 locations in the borderland. They sell tacos al pastor and de carne asada as well as sincronizadas and quesadillas all of them are solid. The tacos al pastor specifically aren’t really from a trompo, they’re just marinated pork straight on the griddle but they’re decent.
The real stars of the place are the flautas though. El Paso has it’s iconic flauta in Chico’s but Juarez also has one in La Pila. They’re single tortilla flautas, rolled and fried with shredded beef. Topped with a chile salsa and a side salad also traditionally paired with an apple soda. They’ve been around for more than 70 years and are THE Juarez Flauta.
El Cometa is like a maximalist version of the Juarez flauta. For starters, they’re bigger, you can easily down a Pila flauta in two bites, El Cometa’s are at least a 5 bite affair. Not only that but instead of just a chile salsa on top El Cometa has a cacophony of toppings on their flutas. Mexican crema all over them, heaps of requeson (think a creamier ricotta), Long thin slices of fresh onion and tomato. If that wasn’t enough the salsa bar at El Cometa also has Guacamole and green and red chile, lettuce, and cucumbers which you can also put on them and many do. I just go with Guacamole and Green chile. After all that is on the flautas, you’re gonna need a fork to eat them. I suspect that the flauta tortillas are thicker than normal because even with al lthe toppings you see above they keep their bite. I of course paired them with an apple soda.
El Cometa, and Juarez flautas in general are delicious.
Crispy Teriyaki Bowl, Mirai Bowl
On my last day in El Paso I decided to go for some nostalgia food and eat one of the dishes that got me through college. The Japanese food scene in El Paso isn’t exactly big, the Asian food scene in general isn’t that large however there are some good restaurants. Back in the late 20 naughts, Mirai Bowl served Japanese food fast in a number of locations around the city. The one near UTEP and the one on Montana were the ones I would go to. I remember feeling tha they were the real deal because the owners were Japanese, and they’d even a greeting as you walked in.
Mirai bowl had sushi rolls, Udon soup, bento boxes, but the student special was a teriyaki bowl and white or brown rice for 5 bucks, upcharge of I think 2 bucks if you got crispy chicken. I loved that lightly breaded crispy, almost karaage-like chicken. It had some soy based sauce that they would lighty spray on it as it topped the perfect rice cooker rice, just mix in a little of chilli garlic and I was in heaven. And it was cheap!
This time when I walked in there was no Japanese greeting, the employee at the front was some señora. The dude cooking was some señor. The Crispy chicken teriyaki was 12 bucks, the soda was 3. The menu no longer had udon noodles or bento boxes. Needless to say I wasn’t feeling the nostalgia. Until the bowl was presented to me and the smell hit my nostrils. It was the same, exactly as I remembered. Even better, cus I had forgotten the little bit of sesame seeds they’d top it with. Lighty breaded, hot, beautiful white rice, chilli garlic. I just wish it was 5 bucks still.