The LA Weekly magazine tells me it’s National Taco Day, and they list their 20 favorite tacos in Los Angeles. I’ve only had 7 of them – many of the establishments are trucks – but from what I can tell, these guys really know their tacos. Meanwhile, here are a few recent favorites of mine… unfortunately not in Los Angeles.
Here’s the LA Weekly link: http://blogs.laweekly.com/squidink/2013/10/tacos_los_angeles.php
Some years ago, I was telling a friend about my passion for the wonderful tacos I was discovering all over Los Angeles. When he told me he didn’t like tacos because he didn’t like the hard, toasted tortillas they came on, I was mystified. I had never heard of a taco with a hard shell. Later, I learned that some of the old-school taco places in LA serve them that way, to appeal to unsophisticated American tastes. I guess they’re tasty enough in their own right, but they are NOT the real thing.
Dave Miller recently did a piece on tacos in his great blog: Dave Miller’s Mexico. Here is his list of 5 ways you can tell if your taco isn’t really Mexican:
(The photos are from my favorite taquería in Tijuana, Tacos El Gordo… They are most definitely the real thing.)
1. If the beans on that combo plate you ordered are covered in triangles of yellow cheese or the grated four cheese blend you can get at your corner market, you won’t find it south of the border. I have never seen a Mexican variety of yellow cheese. Cheese in Mexico is usually white and if it is served on beans, tends to the crumbly queso fresco type.
2. If your tacos come with any of the following, ground beef, lettuce, tomato slices, grated cheese, yellow wax paper or even turkey, you are not in Mexico. Tacos come with onions and cilantro in Mexico. They are also made with steak and all the other parts of the cow or pig, but never have I seen a taco filled with ground beef.
3. If you can order shrimp, chicken, steak or any other type of fajitas, you won’t be finding that plate in too many taco stands or restaurants in Mexico. Sorry folks, as wonderful as fajitas can be, I’ve never seen fajitas in Mexico. I’m sure they are served somewhere in that great country, but this is a dish popularized by the Orange County restaurant chain El Torito in the 1980’s.
4. When you ask for salsa and the spiciest option you get is Amor or Tapatio bottled sauce, you certainly are not ordering your food in Guadalajara. In Mexico, we love our chiles. Habañeros, jalapeños, serranos and chiles de agua, we love them all, and expect to experience these tastes in, and on our food. Unfortunately, the American palette is not ready for this type of experience so we mostly get a tomato blend spiced up with a little bit of pepper.
5. Finally, when you walk in the door, if the first thing that greets you is a wall of sombreros or a chile in a beach chair, you can bet you’re gonna get a lot of that yellow cheese covered stuff. The derivative here is that if you see folks getting drunk wearing mariachi hats and dancing like loons, you are more likely in Papas-n-Beer or On the Border than a traditional Mexican restaurant.
Here’s a link to Dave’s blog: http://davemillersmexico.wordpress.com/2013/09/25/faux-mexican-five-ways-to-know-your-combo-plate-may-be-wonderful-but-not-available-in-mexico/
One of the highlights of the AltaMed East LA Meets Napa fundraiser in July was the shrimp in red salsa served by La Huasteca.
La Huasteca is one of my favorite Mexican restaurants, as you can see from some of my earlier entries in this blog. They are super-friendly and make some of the best moles I’ve ever tasted, and now I have an idea of the magic they can do with seafood. It’s really worth the trip to Lynwood.
Here’s the website: http://www.lahuasteca.com/
I was tired when I arrived in Guadalajara after a surprisingly long bus ride from Puerto Vallarta (they look so close on the map) so I guess my negotiating skills weren’t at their peak. All the internet reviews I saw for Hotel Casino Plaza were excellent, and I figured I could persuade them to come down on their rate, which was a bit higher than my budget called for. I used all my most persuasive techniques, but they just wouldn’t drop the rate. Rather than go to the trouble of finding another hotel, I gave in, and registered.
What I got was a lovely, modern room in a first class hotel for a little under $50.00… Great value!
The hotel is within easy walking distance of the famous cathedrals and parks in the downtown historic district, and the staff couldn’t have been more pleasant and helpful.
There’s no question that I’ll be staying here on my next visit to Guadalajara.
Yes, there’s a border between the U.S. and Mexico. And yes, there’s a fence along that border. Here’s what it looks like a couple of hours out of Tijuana.
Here’s one you don’t see every day… duck confit tacos.
Now that the East LA Meets Napa fundraising event for AltaMed is nearly 2 months ago, I can admit that this was the best thing I tasted that evening. I’m a fan of Armando De La Torre’s Boyle Heights and Silverlake restaurants, as you can see from my previous posts. Never shy to make tacos with unexpected ingredients, Armando outdid himself with this combination. Duck confit, cucumber chile, and duck chicharron (!) were balanced wonderfully with a reduction of jamaica (the hibiscus tea, not the island.)
It was a great night of food and wine, and these tacos stood out in a field of truly delicious dishes.
Here’s the website: http://www.guisados.co/
For years, I’ve kept a photo album on Facebook in which I document wildly dangerous sidewalk conditions in Mexico. These range from open manholes in the middle of busy sidewalks to unsegregated construction sites and situations of general disrepair. Some of the situations are so outrageous by U.S. standards that they are quite entertaining. I generally keep a sharp eye out for danger, and I suppose the local residents do the same… But on a recent trip to Guadalajara, one of the hazards got me … and it wasn’t even an especially obvious one.
Here are a few examples:
Here’s the one that got me – just a raised area in the middle of the asphalt, but the sun was shining in a way that I didn’t see the outline:
And here I am, with a banged-up face, scraped and twisted glasses, and a big scrape on my shoulder:
When I tripped, I took several steps, arms flailing like a windmill, hoping to regain my balance. When I finally, and very publicly fell, several people came to my rescue, and a young woman took me into the bar where she worked, and broke out the first-aid kit… It was embarrassing to explain to the tough-looking customers of the bar that I just tripped, and wasn’t in a fight.
So… watch your step!
I arrived in downtown Hermosillo in the evening, and the hotel staff weren’t very helpful when it came to restaurant recommendations. I struck out on my own in a nice residential area, and found a lovely park, one of many in Hermosillo, where the local families were eating. I reluctantly passed up a popular hotdog stand in favor of tacos at Taquería Michel.
Every place has its own versions of this popular dish. It’s always spicy marinated pork cooked like shawerma on a vertical grill, often with a piece of pineapple on top. But the variations go from there. At Taquería Michel, the tasty meat was sliced generously onto thick tortillas, and I even got slices of the warm, juicy pineapple. There was a self-service bar with a wide range of embellishments, but I try to stay away from unpeeled vegetables like tomato and lettuce when I’m traveling, so I just went for a couple of dollops of hot chile salsa. The spicy flavors, washed down with an orange Fanta soft drink were a perfect light meal on a hot night.
February, 2012
Mr. Lobster is a bright, cheerful place in an upscale area just a few blocks north of the Malecón.
As you may have gathered by now, I do enjoy ceviche. There was a choice of ceviches, and I went for the fish. I’ve never seen it served this way, minced with tomato, cucumber, carrots and onion, and it was a refreshing treat on a hot afternoon. Several bites in, I realized I was violating an important traveler’s rule by eating the unpeeled tomato, but I figured it was to late to change my mind, and went ahead and ate it with great pleasure. There was no problem in this case, but I still try to be careful.
Definitely a nice choice for authentic Sinaloa style seafood.
Bruce Critchley's Mexico Here and There 