cachete / ca-CHET-ay / cheek
cabeza / ca-BAY-za / head
As America gets into this whole “nose-to-tail” cooking mindset, it’s not uncommon to see cheeks on the menu — in fact, H and I had them as a starter course when we went to Old Major the first time.
But “nose-to-tail” butchering is less of a hipster trend and more of a necessity in Mexico — and it’s not uncommon to see more “questionable” cuts of meat and offal in the taco menus on street stands, usually all simmering together in a giant vat of beef or pork fat, that will then get chopped up and put into a taco.
I wanted to specifically call out cachete because, in my experience, pork cheeks are tender and yummy, and I could see that being a “safe” choice at a taco stand full of iffy looking cuts of meat. Cabeza is a mix of all the different head options, chopped up together.
Some other “head” options to single out:
ojo (eye)
molleja (sweetbread)
trompa (snout)
sesos (brain)
lengua (tongue)
labio (lips)
oreja (ear)
tripa (intestine)
pescuezo (neck)