EL PASTOR

6–7A Stoney Street, SE1; tacoselpastor.co.uk

Before we ever tasted tacos

al pastór, we published a 4,000-word piece about it. The story, an Esquire profile of the Hart brothers Sam and Eddie, London’s most influential restaurateurs, was an intriguing tale of obsession. Sam and his friend Crispin Somerville had fallen in love with the

pastór — a LebaneseMexican shawarma, made from pork not lamb in a corn tortilla — while living in Mexico City in the Nineties. Back in London, they wanted to reverseengineer and perfect it. It was a relief then that, when we finally tasted

tacos al pastór, it turned out to be rather good. The meat is pork shoulder, marinated for 24 hours, and it is served with caramelised pineapple, guacamole taquero, white onion and coriander. The hardest thing to get right though for Hart and Somerville was the tortilla. When you go to El Pastór, in an arch beside Borough Market, there is an entire mezzanine given over to its production, featuring a handmade grinder that pushes criollo corn through huge volcanic stone rocks. On one level, it’s an act of madness to go to that much effort to make a sandwich — but then you taste it and it kind of makes sense. The rest of the offering at El Pastór is similarly authentic. The menu is short, nothing costs more than £8.50, and when you’ve overdone it (which you will) there is no finer digestif on earth than a glass of mezcal.

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WHAT TO EAT: Tacos al

pastór — obsession on a plate and just £2.50. —

WHAT TO DRINK: Probably the biggest selection of mezcals this side of the Atlantic. Del Maguey Mezcal Iberico is distilled with a piece of Ibérico ham.