'Survivor' and Birria Tacos
Two cheesy treats!
Welcome to the Double Feature! Each week I write one thing about entertainment and one thing about food. They’re not related, unless for some reason you think they are, in which case it was definitely on purpose.
I watched: Survivor
The 42nd season of Survivor started last night on CBS and I cannot recommend it highly enough. A few years ago, I was living with my best friends and one of them, Jon, was excited for the new Survivor season to start. I didn’t understand. “Survivor? The pre-9/11 relic about weirdos volunteering to live on an island and play games from elementary school field day for money?” Jon insisted that we all watch the new season as a house, and I obliged, figuring I’d at least have something to make fun of.
Turns out I was wrong! Which shouldn’t have surprised me, because I’m wrong all the time. Survivor is truly excellent television. It is the peak of the televisual medium. Prestige dramas like Succession or Yellowstone about cutthroat characters vying for fortune and power, doing anything they can to lie and cheat their way to the top? Survivor has been doing that for 22 years.
More of a sports fan than a scripted television fan? Survivor is actually, no joke, a deeply strategic game with shocking upsets, come from behind wins, and evenly matched slugfests. And I’m not talking about the challenges! That’s the thing I didn’t realize when I laughed off Jon, thinking it was people playing children’s games in a tropical setting. Watching groups of adults race along obstacle courses can be fun, but it’s arguably the least compelling part of the show. The challenges aren’t the game, the whole thing is the game. The lies, the deceit, players forging deep alliances with each other while simultaneously stabbing each other in the back: all of it is incredible.
But also it is all deeply silly! People earnestly say wacky shit like “I have a target on my back” every six minutes. Challenges can be slapstick masterclasses. Players are either not aware or way too aware that they’re on television, but good news: both levels of awareness make for great television.
Jon: I’m sorry I doubted you. Everyone else: this show rules, you gotta watch it.
I ate: Birria tacos from Birria x Godz
Birria, a Mexican dish of braised meat often served in tacos alongside its braising liquid as a soup-like side, has blown up in the US over the past couple years. Lucky us, because birria tastes amazing. Done properly, the meat is tender and juicy, and paired with the consommé, it absolutely bursts with flavor.
Birria x Godz, a local LA birrieria run by Ashley Rodriguez, makes excellent brisket birria. Rodriguez runs the restaurant as a pop up with a slate of locations announced weekly on their Instagram, but they regularly appear on Saturdays at Verdugo Bar in Glassell Park. Birria x Godz use their brisket birria in quesabirria tacos and quesadillas, both of which simply rip. The tacos are constructed on the flat top, tortilla first, then cheese and brisket, making the tortillas super crispy by the time they’re ready to be served. The crisp tortilla contrasts wonderfully with the soft melted cheese and brisket, even staying crisp after dipping in the rich consommé. They also make a house salsa, a creamy red that makes the tacos truly sing.
Their quesadillas are monstrously big, made with large flour tortillas griddled much the same way as the tacos, but they stay softer with just a touch of crispness. Also there’s much more cheese, which makes sense—they’re quesadillas, after all. They taste great, but for me the tacos were the star.
Like any birria place, the consommé is the unsung hero of the operation. Birria x Godz’ consommé is rich and flavorful, warmly spiced, and a true savior on a sub-50 degree early spring Saturday night.
Good news: I live very close to Verdugo Bar and I’m gonna get these tacos all the time now.
Thanks for reading The Double Feature! Sorry the delay this week, I’m shifting these to release later in the week so they don’t conflict with Dinner With Pop.
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