Driving down pico blvd during lunch hour I decided I'd grab a few tacos from the King Taco on Pico and Alvarado. But out of the corner of my eye I saw a sign read "El Parian" and remembered all the praise it had recieved and how much I had read about it. Change of plans, King Taco can wait it's El Parian time.
From the outside it looked divey: smoke stains on the wall, remnants of graffiti, and bars on the windows and door. Could this be the El Parian I had heard so much about? I opened the door and walked in. The inside no less divey but comforting. There were quite a few patrons seated and a friendly hispanic woman greeted me at the counter with a smile. "hola....tres tacos asada...para llavar" I said after a quick glance of the menu.
The cook heard me and I watched as he took a thick slice of raw meat and splashed it on the hot grill. Shhhhhhaaa!!! What a heavenly sound.
A few feet away a lady formed masa into discs to be pressed in a tortilla maker and then tossed the tortillas on to the grill.
When I got back to work I opened the tin foil that my tacos were wrapped in and stared in awe as the thick juicy cuts of carne asada looked back at me.
I was expecting small diced up bits of meat but what I had before me was thick strips of juicy meat naked on top of fresh soft tortillas. You could almost taste the grill on the thick charred meat and the flavor was unmatched by any carne asada I have had before . Simply put this is the best carne asada in the history of mankind. With meat this good all you need is some fresh pico de gallo to compliment it
There's nothing left to say my friends, get down to El Parian ASAP and try the carne asada.
5/5
El Parian is at 1528 Pico Blvd. Tacos are $2.25 each(and worth every penny)