You've got your pork carnitas, green chile pork and all manner of crunchy, meaty and slurpy chicharron. But my new obsession is a saucier style from the Mayan heartland of the Yucatán: cochinita pibil. Hit with tangy citrus, rubbed in earthy red achiote seed powder and slow roasted in banana leaves, it's a powerhouse of pig.
And here it is, over at La Hacienda restaurant on Fort Lowell and Swan. They stew their cochinita in the leaves with pineapple and orange juices, leaving the meat in plump chunks with spoonfuls of rich maroon sauce. Pickled red onions add an extra acidic punch, which is rounded out by a fat slab of buttery avocado. The tacos come three a bunch in a diagonal line, with rice and tostada cup filled with whole black beans on each side. Artful.
Weird fact: The restaurant's real specialty is the piña rellena, a pineapple split in half lengthwise and then stuffed with creamy shrimps and other seafoods.
Location: 3225 N. Swan Road, but they also have an Oro Valley location at 11931 N. First Ave., Suite 101
Phone: 520-327-1097
Hours: 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays
Payment: accepts debit and credit
