Machaca, Me Like

Machaca, Me Like

Eggs are perhaps the prototypical breakfast food. Consequently, they’re frequently as boring as bread: usually just fine, though frequently unworthy of comment.

So I’m always eager to find ways of making eggs interesting.

Last week in Todos Santos, Baja California, a small town about 90 minutes north of Cabo St. Lucas, I had what was called on the menu a “burrito.” This burrito was a small plug of eggs, with onions, tomato sauce and …machaca.

Machaca, as many reading this post are no doubt aware, is dried beef (it’s also called “carne seca”), and it’s very common in the northern states of Mexico where there’s more cattle. Drying the beef to a jerky-like consistency makes it safer to store without refrigeration, and the drying process also removes water and concentrates the flavor of the meat. It’s wonderful when a food safety necessity yields a culinary advantage.



The burrito contained shreds of the dried beef, rehydrated and mixed through the egg mixture. I was told that the way to eat this burrito was to deconstruct it (i.e., mush it all around the plate), add black beans, and eat the whole thing in a flour tortilla (flour tortillas being more common than corn tortillas in Northern Mexico). There was also a dark-red-almost-black salsa that was terrific over the relatively mild tasting egg and bean mixture.



I’d never had eggs this way before and so, for just one morning, eggs were interesting again.

Lovely post! You may already know this, but incase you don't..Claudia Roden has an interesting chapter on eggs in her book The New Book of Middle Eastern Food.

Interesting burrito presentation. Me like machaca too. One of my favorite breakfasts in recent memory was a plate of machaca con huevos at La Placita de Durango (on Kedzie, before their move to 51st).



Eating this breakfast wasn't a casual undertaking; it required some real work to chew the large pieces of machaca. I tried it again at La Placita's new location and it wasn't nearly so rugged (but still very good).

La Placita de Durango
2423 W 51st St
Chicago
773-434-3711

Funny, I misread the thread subject line and thought David was saying he was beef jerky-like.

I had what seems to be a kissing cousin of this dish this morning at La Guerrerense, a little spot at Fullerton and Cicero we like to visit now and then. Called aporreado, this dish was a mix of cecina and scrambled eggs with salsa verde, served with corn tortillas, rice, and beans. It was pretty awesome, although the physical presentation on the plate was more plebeian (i.e., just slopped on the plate) than the stacked and compressed souffle-like creation David illustrates, above. Best thing I have eaten in days. Dried beef (not jerky, just thin, non-fatty beef) and scrambled eggs are a very fine combination.

La Guerrerense
4758 W Fullerton Ave
Chicago, IL 60639

(Note: A search of LTH for aporreado shows that Antonius enjoyed a plate of this dish at La Casa de Samuel in 2005. So, I guess I am late to the game, but I really enjoyed this dish and recommend northsiders try it at the spot indicated above.)

Inspired by the topic, brunch today is another kissing cousin:

soujouk & eggs