SETH: Rudy.

RUDY: Hi, Seth.

How are you?

SETH: Pretty good.

Nice to meet you.

RUDY: Welcome to El Papi Street Tacos.

SETH: Oh, well, thank you so much for having me, 'cause I love birria tacos.

But I hear you guys are putting your own kind of unique twist on it?

RUDY: Yeah, we do a Tijuana style with brisket, and we have a lot of surprises for you.

Why you don't follow me, and I show you how to do it?

SETH: Sounds great.

RUDY: Hey, Seth, these are my kids.

SETH: All right.

RUDY: Charlize and Aurton 'El Papi'.

SETH: Hey, you're El Papi, all right.

So we have a whole family operation going here, and now... RUDY: Yes.

SETH: And what are the kids doing right now?

RUDY: Okay, they're preparing the brisket.

Uh, this is the main ingredient.

SETH: So, Rudy, how many pounds of brisket are you guys slicing through in a week here?

RUDY: About 1,000 pounds from local sources.

SETH: 1,000 pounds of brisket a week.

RUDY: Every week.

SETH: That, that's a lot of slicing.

RUDY: Yeah.

SETH: And what's gonna happen after this is sliced up?

RUDY: After everything is cut, it's gonna be a stew for about six hours at least.

SETH: Six hours.

So this is gonna really break down and completely fall apart.

RUDY: It's gonna fall apart.

SETH: My mouth is watering just thinking about that.

RUDY: The other key, Seth, is making our consommé.

Why you don't follow me, and I show you how to do it?

SETH: Sounds great, let's check it out.

RUDY: Come on, Seth.

SETH: Okay.

RUDY: I'm gonna show you how to do the consommé.

SETH: Now the consommé.

This is what we're gonna be able to dip our birria in, correct?

RUDY: Many people used to dip the tacos, but, uh, you can try it as a soup.

SETH: Soup, dip.

(laughs).

I'm excited to try it no matter how it's being served, and these are a lot of ingredients here.

RUDY: 17 ingredients, plus magic powers.

SETH: Magic powers.

RUDY: First, we have to soften some of the chiles.

So while this is softening, gonna fry our banana leaves.

It's one of the secrets.

But I get this banana from Colombia.

SETH: So would banana leaves be in all birrias, or is this a, a Rudy invention?

RUDY: No, this is mine.

I gathered this from my stay in Cancun.

SETH: So you're really bringing in flavors from all over Mexico?

RUDY: Yeah, okay, now this is nice and brown, and we're gonna drop it into our chiles.

SETH: So many nice aromas coming out of this pot, and you still have, like, 15 ingredients left to go.

RUDY: All of them coming here.

Okay, then we gonna soften also these herbs.

And then these herbs.

So this is the achiote.

I also bring it from Yucatan.

Nobody use the achiote on the birria, but I do.

So now we gonna put some more ingredients.

Cinnamon.

SETH: Oh, nice.

RUDY: Black pepper, cloves.

SETH: So you almost have, like, a little sweetness, too, to go with the spiciness?

RUDY: Yeah, yeah, okay, now the last ingredients, I just put 'em all together.

Some more herbs.

SETH: Some more secrets?

RUDY: Some more secrets, and I won't talk about this, then this, this.

SETH: This is just a cauldron of flavors bubbling away right here.

RUDY: Yeah.

Now we have everything ready and bubbling, and we gonna set the temperature a little bit lower, so it's gonna simmer for about, uh, 10 minutes, and then we gonna blend it up, and we gonna do some birria tacos for you.

SETH: After Rudy finishes blending the ingredients, they're added to the leftover brisket broth to finish the consommé.

We'll then try the Rudy sampler, a collection of the taqueria's birria favorites.

RUDY: Okay, Seth, the consommé is ready to go.

SETH: Ah, wow, looks great.

RUDY: I want you to meet Patricia.

PATRICIA: Hi.

SETH: Hi, Patricia.

You're the, uh, you're the, you're the taco-making expert?

PATRICIA: Yes.

SETH: All right, so what are the secrets to grilling a great birria taco?

PATRICIA: Okay, first we're gonna put the oil.

Then you put the tortillas, and just a, like, little bit oil.

SETH: Okay, by the way, I love the, uh, Maryland apron, Patricia.

PATRICIA: Thank you.

Me, too.

SETH: That's a great touch.

PATRICIA: So when the tortillas is warm, we put the consommé.

SETH: I've always wondered how birria tacos get so red, and now I know.

(sizzle) PATRICIA: We put, uh, more consommé, just a little bit.

SETH: Oh, so now it's just swimming in the consommé.

PATRICIA: Mm-hmm.

SETH: Love it.

PATRICIA: So in, it's time to put the cheese.

SETH: So this is the queso birria?

PATRICIA: This is the queso birria.

SETH: Queso?

Okay.

PATRICIA: Mm-hmm, this is the, the birria and chicken.

SETH: All right.

PATRICIA: Okay, so we're gonna prepare the, the mulita.

The mulita is a flour tortilla with beans and this is cheese, brisket, and chicken.

SETH: Got it.

PATRICIA: So it's time to fold up the tortillas.

Okay, this is the Rudy sample.

We're gonna make, uh, some for the family.

We put onion and cilantro.

Ready.

SETH: Wow, Rudy, Patricia, you guys weren't kidding about having a family to feed here.

RUDY: Yeah, we got a, uh, big family.

Aurton, Charlize, Hennessy, my sister-in-law Esther, Kelly, my oldest daughter, and obviously, Patricia.

SETH: Well, uh, thank you for welcoming me into the El Papi family, and this Rudy sampler.

And do you want me to start with the one that's just, uh, that's just pure brisket?

RUDY: Brisket, yeah.

SETH: You guys...

Between that consommé, which definitely has a kick to it, and that melty cheese with the stewed meat, that's amazing.

RUDY: Thank you.

That, this is what we do every single day.

This is what we do.

SETH: All right, and I gotta try a little bit of this consommé just by itself, just to see what it's like.

KELLY: Actually, even after it's done cooking, my dad lets it sit for about five days just to, you know, get some more of that complexity from the consommé.

SETH: Oh, yeah, real depth of flavor.

That is delicious.

You know what I like about it, too?

Some of the consommé that I've had, just too salty.

You know, works as a nice dipping sauce, but you can't drink it, and that could be a soup right there.

RUDY: That's the best way to eat the consommé, just by itself.

Before the craze of the birria, that's the way we eat it.

And you know, we have to adapt.

SETH: It just permeates all the flavors.

RUDY: And the color, nobody can match it.

PATRICIA: It's important for us to, to have the right color.

SETH: It's such a dark red.

RUDY: Okay, Seth, now you can try the mulita.

The mulita, that's my creation.

Half chicken and half brisket on a flour tortilla.

SETH: All right, but still with a little bit of the consommé on it?

RUDY: Yeah, please.

SETH: All right.

RUDY: It also has some refried beans.

SETH: That is a good invention there.

Rudy, so are you going to, uh, are you passing the family secrets down to the next generation, too?

RUDY: Yeah, they have the secrets.

El Papi's gonna be the king of the birria.

SETH: You ready to be the next king of the birria, Erton?

ERTON: Yes.

SETH: I like your confidence.

It matches your dad's.

Well, thank you again to all of you guys for welcoming me in here, having this feast.

I cannot wait to devour the rest of this as soon as the cameras are off, 'cause this might just be the best birria I've ever had.

RUDY: You're welcome.