Before quesabirria became a phenomenon in Portland proper, Birrieria La Plaza owner Oracio Hernandez and his family set up a lipstick-red food cart in a Stark Street lot, serving a chile-braised beef recipe passed down by the women in his family for generations. The birria recipe — which traveled from Los Espinos De Carreon, Jalisco to East Portland — relies on a bubbling pot of beef, guajillos, chile de arbol, and oranges, tenderizing and developing a remarkable depth of flavor. It lands in tortillas with cheese, spanning a variety of different preparations: folded into tortillas crisped in oil, tucked into something like a quesadilla. And Portland fell in love.
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