So, I was sufficiently hungover last sunday to finally try the eyeball tacos at my local hole in the wall taco stand. I had the ojos, labio, and tripa tacos which are eyeball, cow lip, and tripe (cow stomach) tacos respectively. I was a little disappointed in the tacos de ojos. I expected a big ol’ pair of cow eyeballs staring at me out of a soft corn tortilla, but alas, it really just sort of looked like bits of meat and tendony type shit. No chucks of white sclera, no crunchy lens bits, just a sort of gamey bunch of suspicious meaty bits.
As it turns out, the name of the taco stand is Lilly’s not Lucy’s so the name is not as fitting as I thought. Apparently St. Lucy was quite the martyr.
You can get tacos de ojo at the Sunday Maxwell St. Market in Chicago. I’m blanking on the name of the stand that serves them but have seen them frequently. I tried it once, it was ok but nothing to go back for. I’ll take chicharron, cecina, or tripas if I’m in the mood for a off the beaten path protein.
Yeah, I’ve had those before years ago at the Maxwell Street market here in Chicago. I was so excited when I found them, because I had been semi-actively looking for them, just to give them a shot. I was a bit surprised, as the one served to me wasn’t really chopped up or anything–just a couple of eyeballs surrounded by some goat meat. For only the second time in my life, I took pause before eating something new. (The first was with surstromming.)
It tasted–well, not really offensive. There was a generic offal-ness about it, but nothing too strong. However, the squishy gelatinous texture was slightly off-putting. I’d eat them again, but I’m not going to get cravings for it any time soon. Since then, I’ve found a few more taquerias that serve eyeball tacos in my neighborhood.
See, this is more what I was expecting, although I’m kinda glad they didn’t come that way. I was told that they stick a cow’s head in a huge steamer and steam the hell out of it. Then they separate the various parts of the head (brains, eyeballs, lips) into bins and then season it or something.
Does anyone know how they actually make this stuff? I’ve made lengua, but that’s really just boiling the tongue in some bay leaves, oregano and garlic.
See, I totally was not expecting that. I thought I was gonna get chopped up eyeballs that were bare recognizable. It was the experience of the food looking back at me that gave me pause. Oh, and the particular eyeball tacos I had wasn’t cow, if that makes a difference. I made a mistake when I said it was goat. It was lamb or mutton.
