A hole-in-the-wall taqueria is among the first restaurants in Mexico to be awarded a star by the Michelin Guide — an accomplishment its owner credits to “love and effort.”
El Califa de Leon is one of 18 restaurants given either one or two stars in the inaugural Michelin Guide Mexico unveiled on Tuesday.
The longstanding family business specializes in just four types of tacos and has room for only a few customers at a time in Mexico City’s San Rafael District.
Photo: AFP
“This taqueria may be bare bones with just enough room for a handful of diners to stand at the counter, but its creation, the Gaonera taco, is exceptional,” the Michelin Guide said on its Web site.
“Thinly sliced beef filet is expertly cooked to order, seasoned with only salt and a squeeze of lime. At the same time, a second cook prepares the excellent corn tortillas alongside. The resulting combination is elemental and pure,” it said.
The Gaonera — which costs a little over US$4 — was created in honor of the celebrated Mexican bullfighter Rodolfo Gaona, whose nickname in the ring was “El Califa de Leon.”
Photo: AFP
The restaurant was founded more than 50 years ago by the parents of current owner Mario Hernandez.
“My father said: ‘Do you want me to tell you the secret of the meat?’ There is no secret,” only “love and effort,” the 66-year-old said outside, his voice full of emotion.
Hernandez said his father taught him to always take care of quality, customer service and prices, because “life is a wheel of fortune with high times and low times.”
On Wednesday, the usual office workers and other regulars were outnumbered by dozens of journalists and gastronomy experts attracted by the Michelin star.
The tacos “are really delicious,” 19-year-old gastronomy student Hector Lancastre said, adding that the international recognition was “well deserved.”
Two more upmarket Mexico City restaurants were each awarded two stars.
Michelin praised Quintonil for “an enticing melding of excellent local product, impressive execution and great creativity to produce refined compositions” and Pujol for a place where “tradition and invention go hand-in-hand in the likes of scallop ceviche with egg salad or grilled Baja coast rockfish with butternut squash puree and sherry foam.”
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a
RSS