A friend and I did a scouting trip for the proposed group crawl to the Coliseum Way food stalls. There were a couple of dozen stalls, but one man remarked there are usually more, especially on Sunday. Even though they are stalls, they are like mini-restaurants, with tables and table service. English varied from excellent to nonexistent, but everyone was friendly and helpful: our waitress at a pupusa stand asked one of the customers to speak to us. Fortunately my friend speaks some Spanish and my menu Spanish is pretty good. Did not see any other non-Latinos.
At first glance a lot of stalls look the same. However among the Mexican and Salvadoran offerings I saw stands with Colombian and Venezuelan.
Sometimes you have to tease the specialities out of a menu that looks like standard taco truck fare. There are also a couple of offstreet, I guess you could call them food courts, that look to be semi-permanent. Sadly, I did not see any fresh churros, although there were raspados and an ice cream (nievas) truck. Most stalls were serving handmade tortillas.
The pupusa I had came with surprisingly good curtido and salsa (my experience has been that the salsa served with pupusas resembles watered down tomato juice). The taco de borrego was juicy and delicious. Haven’t broken open the Colombian empanada (fried to order) yet. My guess is that with all the competition, unless a stall is either above-average or offering something special, it gets weeded out.
Where exactly are these food stalls? I have had tacos at the cheap gas station at the northern end, been to the flea only once or twice, and haven’t been to the actual coliseum in possibly two decades…
Tacos Al Pastor Estilo Puebla
SF Chronicle says they’re the best al pastor in the Bay Area. All I know is they are damn good. Tacos are $4 each. I saw lots of people getting the Gringa ($10), which looked really good (bigger flour tortilla, with al pastor, pineapple and cheese, but not an overwhelming amout of cheese that would put it into the quesadilla realm).
Barbacoa Tres Generaciones
Cabeza de Borrego - silky soft and rich lamb head. I was talking to the owner and he said he marinates the lamb overnight, then wraps it in agave leaves to cook it. Excellent horchata from the grilled chicken stall nearby.
Gringas from Tacos Al Pastor. I’m not usually big on flour tortillas but this could make me a convert. They grill it nicely so it’s not gummy at all. Pastor , pineapple, onion, cilantro and just the right amount of queso.
Carne asada tacos from El Tio Juan taco truck, 41st and Foothill. Flavorful meat with some char, nicely prepared. The truck is half ice cream half tacos.
Churros Mexicano, across from Fruitvale BART. Crispy hot churro filled with vanilla cream and strawberry (chocolate and caramel also available). Both good but I preferred the vanilla cream.
From what I’ve seen Saturday or Sunday are equally fine. They seem to be peak at lunch, but I’ve never been too late so I could be wrong. I think they roll into dinner but I don’t know how late
