Brain Food!

By Neil Schloesser
Contributing Writer

The air is warm and without a trace of coolness. A breeze offers small degrees of relief when it could be felt between the throng of people who walk up and down Las Vegas Boulevard looking for something, mouths open like zombies searching for brains. This zombie found some brains and partook, only to gag and almost waste a meal of good Mexican tacos.

Tacos el Gordo is a Mexican-based chain restaurant with a few locations in the Southwest. Their entire menu is in Spanish with some English subtitles. It includes items seldomly (if ever) found in an American taco restaurant. These include tacos de lengua (beef tongue), tacos de sesos (beef brain), taco de cabeza (beef head), taco de tripa (beef stomach), and taco de buche (pork stomach). The one thing the restaurant did not have was ground beef, a staple of American Mexican food.

My mouth is slack-jawed as I seek out brains. Tripe is chewy and not on my menu. Tongue is GREAT but I’ve already fallen in love with it, so it is not on my menu. I am there for brain and head. I’m not sure how head meat is harvested, but if it is anything like headcheese, it has likely been boiled off the skull of the cow, pre or post removal of the brain is unknown. Oy, and how is the brain removed? The thought haunts me as I try to eat my tacos.

The tacos are made in front of the waiting customer and they are small finger food tacos, unrecognizable to anyone but Mexicans. Tacos are finger food, so the large gut-busting tacos that Americans know are a perversion. I’ve been to Mexico, and what Tacos el Gordo serves was exactly what I was served by street vendors all over Mexico, right down to the cilantro and green or red sauce they offer. So before I even taste the tacos, they pass the authenticity test.
I order beef brain, beef head, and a beef shoulder tostada. The tostada is two small, fried corn shells with the ingredients between the shells. There is an abundance of tender meat, cilantro, onion, and green sauce. It was excellent and I eat this first because my next two options are brain and head.

I look at the two tacos, sitting there, small, alone, full of food that other people eat without problem. I need to be brave, be strong, and put a piece of brain in my mouth. The brain is white and is in big slices and tiny crumb size pieces. The thought of what part of cow brain is all crumbled up like blue cheese repulses me. With this thought in mind I grab the corn taco that was cooked on a griddle in front of me and take a big bite and chew and chew and pause. The texture is creamy and light like goose liver. I don’t taste much else because I swallow quickly.  The thought of a hand-held buzz saw cutting open the skull to retrieve the brain circles in my head.

I examine the head taco and the meat is brown and in small pieces. This looks like “regular” meat so my hopes are high. I don’t hesitate long and bite into the head taco. The meat sort of tastes like beef but it looks like the dark meat of a chicken. It isn’t bad, mostly because it isn’t brain. I’m still uneasy about eating the meat off the skull of a cow but I quickly finish the taco. That leaves me with the brain taco. One giant bite missing, the rest waits for me. I look and examine it and wonder again how the brain was removed. I open the taco and examine the meat. I grabbed a large piece of brain and squeeze it between my fingers. I put it back and take another bite. I taste the cilantro this time and this pleases me so I am surprised when I gag and it comes back out almost as quickly as I suddenly decided to have another bite.

I expel the bite onto the rest of the taco with a lot of saliva. Thankfully nothing from my stomach makes it way up and out, too. An older woman employee smiles as me as she collects trays from the outdoor seating. She may have seen my attempt at conquering brain or she may just be smiling. My mustache is growing in so she could be internally laughing at me.

The gagging and evacuation of the bite ended my attempt at eating brain. I got one bite down and kept it down. I now know brain has a creamy, light texture and that head is brown with a mild flavor. Also, on the plus side, their fountain drinks are Mexican, so I was able to have a coconut-pineapple creamy fountain drink that was awesome.

Be aware that this location is near the Encore hotel which is on the other end of the strip from the MGM Grand, Luxor, New York New York, and the Motel 6. So if you are down in that area, you are in for one heck of walk, which should be okay because if you are out on the strip at 1 a.m., you’re probably looking for brains anyways. Don’t let a walk get in your way of finding bliss.

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