Oakland - El Novillo Taco Truck?

[rworange]

I’ve been in the Oakland area especially near Nieves Cinco De Mayo. Despite years of reading about the Oakland taco trucks, haven’t tried much. There’s always advice to ‘search the boards’, but yikes … picking out the food recs can be a challenge. Actually my Chowhound SF Guide has been a big help since it highlights the best of some of these places.

Anyway, I thought I’d sum up this truck so I’m ready for my next visit … do I have it right? Anything I’m missing? Anything not mentioned to avoid? This is mainly cut and pastes from posts and some might be outdated.

Don’t miss: carnitas, tripas

Also good: chicarrones, al pastor, beef tongue, carne asada

Skip: tortas

Carnitas - Very nicely moist on the inside, but grilled on the outside to add a bit of crunch. It is flavorful, with the distinctly delicious flavor of roasted/fried pork, not too salty, very tender. Ask for it with the green salsa.

Tripas tacos are excellent, even if you don't usually like tripe. Crisp and caramelized on the outside it was like slightly chewy, chopped up bacon.

Chicarrones - This truck also sells pork rinds for a buck a bag. Bet you can't eat just one.
The fat is nicely browned and crisped and turns creamy in the mouth. There are also bits of crunchy meat attached.

Al Pastor (spicy pork) - The pork was spicy and sophisticated, not too salty, with maybe a little allspice. Absolutely excellent.

Carne asada was crisped a bit at the edges and very beefy and made to order though sometimes it can be really chewy.

Make sure you get all the extras in your bag - radishes, the little bag of pickled carrots and jalapenos, and a nice bunch of raw green onions

Their red sauce is very earthy tasting and their radishes always sweet.

Homemade corn tortilla, nice corn flavor, not overpowering, slightly greasy, not crumbly, excellent.

The bread used for tortas is terrible like a deli sandwich roll.

Tips:
Open until 2 am
The guys at night make a better burrito than the crew during the day

Thanks so much to Ruth Lafler who over the years has been invaluable in reporting about the Fruitvale eats.

More info ... though there seems to be a new feature in Places where when you add a new place it picks up on every mention on the board ... kind of cool the way it is working with new topics followed by the old posts.
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/20383
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/21431
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/36239#166918
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/36494
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/45308
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/318193
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/25171

[Lori SF]

I like their Al Pastor. great report!

[Ruth Lafler]

Some one told me recently that El Novillo was no longer selling tripas -- which if true is a sad development indeed!

[chocolatetartguy]

I believe that I had tripas there as recently as last Spring and certainly at the first of the year.

[Lillian Hsu]

Yeah, the last time I ate there was around Memorial Day, and the tripas was definitely still going strong. Delish!

[chocolatetartguy]

Reports of its demise were not exaggerated. Tripas, no mas.

Fortunately my goto taco meat there is carne asada, which was a beefy as ever; the chicharones had the same artery-clogging, fatty goodness (with pieces of crunchy, dessicated pork); big pink radishes sweet as ever; red sauce as earthy as ever.

[Ruth Lafler]

The tripas is back on the menu -- I asked to make sure, and he said yes, but gave no explanation for the disappearance/reappearance.

[Fig Newton]

personally, I'd put their el pastor in "don't miss". I would say it's my favorite el pastor in the bay area. one additional hint about this taco truck: i often take a ball jar and ask them for some salsa to take home. they charge varying amounts for this, but it's usually really dang cheap. (haven't done this in about a year, i hope they still do it)

I think I initially learned that tip from Ruth.

[Ruth Lafler]

I was just passing on what I learned from Melanie! It's been a while, but I think they usually charged me a dollar for a pint jar.

[Lillian Hsu]

another tip my friend and I got from a regular: If you're looking for a place to sit down with your tacos, you can take the food from El Novillo into Guadalajara restaurant to eat at one of their front tables. When we did it, they were super nice about it.

[DezzerSF]

I went today and tried cabeza, carnitas, and al pastor. I liked the cabeza the best, juicy and beefy. The shredded carnitas was a tad on the dry side, but had good flavor. Al pastor was heavy on the allspice, I prefer subtle seasoning on al pastor, or maybe well balanced spices that all meld together.

I like their salsas, the green one is pretty spicy, and the red is nice and smoky, both very cuminy.