One of the great things about our Mexican food joints is that they embrace the most important meal of the day. Classic Mexican breakfasts like huevos rancheros or chorizo con huevo are good enough but my favorite blurs temporal meal boundaries.

Machacado con huevo has a bit of an identity crisis. It is served any time, which makes it a good end around to defeat those annoying 11 a.m. breakfast last calls that are so darn common. It is usually accompanied by more p.m.-style sides than typical almuerzos, even more so than those weekend brunch warriors barbacoa and menudo.
Machacado rolled in a fresh tortilla.: Katherine Hook photo
Versatility should never be underrated. Machacado is usually labeled as dried beef, although there’s a bit more to it. In addition to the drying process, the beef is shredded and pounded so that it is in small pieces. It’s like minced beef jerky, without all the seasoning.

My infatuation with dried, pounded beef mixed into scrambled eggs started many years ago in the small village of Monte Alto down in the Rio Grande Valley. I was guiding waterfowl hunters in the area and, when the hunt was over, I had some seriously ravenous clients. Mague’s Café was our oasis.

The cook in that tiny four table shack on the side of the road out in the middle of nowhere built unbelievable machacado con huevo served with extravagantly thick homemade corn tortillas. Accompanied by her fresh salsas, the meals were memorable. I had clients return as much or more for her post-hunt breakfasts than the world class duck hunting.

Unfortunately, both the hunting and Mague’s evaporated back in the 80’s and are only memories. Changing land use ran off the birds and corporate farming trends dried up Monte Alto. I’m not sure what became of Mague, but I sure do miss her machacado.

My winding tour through Houston’s unpretentious Mexican cafes has yielded worthy machacado though. Of the number that I’ve tried, Spanish Flowers on Main at Airline won’t disappoint and La Tapatia’s Richmond at Chimney Rock location will please you with their machacado as well. There is some covert ordering involved at both places. I’m not sure why, but machacado is frequently an off-the-menu item. Maybe they do that to keep the good stuff for in-the-know regulars, but for whatever reason, it is commonly cloaked.

Spanish Flowers usually has it listed as a featured breakfast on their blackboard as you enter the restaurant, but it’s a small and easily overlooked listing. La Tapatia doesn’t even give you that. Don’t be shy, just ask for it.

One of the most popular variations is to serve it a la Mexicana, which is just regular machacado con huevo with diced onion, tomato and jalapeno or Serrano peppers blended in during cooking. This can be a very good option, if you have a good tolerance for heat. You never know just how many Scoville units that you’re going to get with those peppers so it’s a bit of a roulette wheel spin to order it that way.

I prefer to add my own salsa at the table like Mague taught me. That way I can customize my machacado to my own peculiar tastes. I know that I’m going against tradition here, but I would rather go with a fresh salsa like pico de gallo as opposed to cooked ranchero sauce, but that’s just me. It’s good either way.

The next time that you’re wanting some adventure for breakfast instead of the same old stuff, or you’re sitting down to order at 11:20, give machacado con huevo a chance. I’m sure that Mague would be pleased.