Taco Wednesday: Tacos de carnitas

If you should be poking around the industrial byways of Montebello, looking for a stray lonchera or tamale cart on a weekday afternoon, you may run across Sergio’s Tacos, one of a small Eastside chain whose best-known outlet is probably the one near Steven’s Steakhouse in Commerce. And should you find yourself inside, you may marvel at one of the great taqueria murals anywhere, which seems to incorporate pretty much every conceivable totem of Mexicanismo, from the vision at El Tepeyac to the pretty girls tending cazuelas; vast cathedrals, handsome ranchitos, and Sombrero Guy dozing against a cactus. My favorite is of Cantinflas contemplating a chile pepper, as serene as Wordsworth with a daffodil.

As far as the tacos – Sergio’s is unambitious but really good, which is to say that you will find the full component of organ meats, drowned burritos if you’re not into the taco thing, carne asada that is not the specialist kind, and menudo even when it doesn’t happen to be Sunday. So you get a few tacos de carnitas – just regular carnitas – and a lot of smoky red salsa, and you buzzsaw through them within a few seconds of them hitting the table, and then you lean back and look at Cantinflas and his chile. The horchata is sweet and cold. You are happy.

308 S. Vail Ave., Montebello, (323) 888-9159.

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