Best of 2006

Tacos La Fonda trifecta - carnitas, asada, al pastor

Well my friends another year is behind us. It's almost 2007. I can't believe it. Where have the years gone? What have I done with my life? Well enough of the self pity it's time for the best of 06. I've just asked myself and the votes are in! it's a sweep by tacos el korita! Best taco truck! , best pastor!, best carnitas!, best salsa roja! Best carne asada? Almost! but that award goes to La Taquiza.

Holy crap you say.."Bandini how much does tacos El Korita pay you?...are you on the take?" No! I'm not on the take and I'm insulted by the accusation. I just love this taco truck! I'm not sure if it's the tortillas hechas a mano or the spicy king taco inspired salsas (roja and verde) or the the crunchy seasoned carnitas or the way the grumpy taquero treats me. There is just something about Tacos El Korita that brings me back to the taco mecca that is east olympic blvd where the 710 and 5 cross in east LA.

so without further ado..the second annual taco awards.(can someone come up with a good name for these?)

Best Taco Truck-Tacos El Korita (2005 winner El Matador)
in a perfect world El Korita and El Matador park next to each other for the great taco face-off.

Best TaqueriaCarnitas Michoacan (2005 winner King Taco)
the dark salsa is addicting..so is the charred asada and al pastor. I havn't even tried the carnitas yet.This was a close call with La Taquiza but the salsa was the deciding factor.

Best Carne Asada La Taquiza(2005 winner El Parian)
char grilled flank steak with the taste of the grill in every bite on top of tortillas hechas a mano

Best Al Pastor-Tacos El Korita(2005 winner Outlaw taco cart)
cut from the vertical spit, charred at the tips, moist in the middle and delicious seasoning.

Best Carnitas-Tacos El Korita(2005 winner Casa Diaz)
crunchy seasoned carnitas topped with an amazing salsa verde

Best Cabeza-Tacos Chatos
very soft beef(cow cheek)with a tasty avocado sauce. If you've held out on trying cabeza this is the place to try.

Best Suadero-Tacos Jeesy's
the soft tender strips of rib meat melt on your tongue and will change the way you view suadero

Best Salsa Roja-Tacos El Korita
brings the heat without overwhelming the rest of the taco. A spicy chile mixture that reminds one of King Taco's famous salsa roja

Best Salsa Verde=Garcia Bros
serrano pepper mixture with a hint of avocado.This spicy salsa will burn your tonque if you aren't careful. Have a cold beverage handy.

Best Tortillas- Tacos La Fonda
Tough call, could have gone La Taquiza here. Both make excellent tortillas hechas a mano.

Best Valley Taco Truck- Tacos La Fonda
excellent homemade tortillas, the salsa is smokey and spicy and the meats are skillfully prepared

Best Westside Taco Truck- Rudy's Tacos
when these are on they are on. Pastor is saucy and oniony, asada finely chopped. Avoid getting them to go since they don't take well to being stacked in tin foil.

Best Westside Taqueria-El Super Taco(2005 winner Tacos Por Favor)
El Super Taco is quickly becoming my favorite local. I still need to try the ensenada style fish tacos

Best condiment - crisp onions from Tacos La Fonda (2005 winner marinated carrots Taqueria Estilo Mexico)
yeah I'm a TLF fan boy. Dip these little bad boys in the salsa roja and chug down a bottle of jarritos.

Thanks for all your recommendations and for those I havn't gotten to yet 2007 looks to be another good taco year. I've added a new poll for taco trucks. I've tried to include some from each neighborhood and some of the most recommended trucks. The winner at the end of 2007 will win the Peoples Choice Award which is really the most important award anyway. Because who am I? I'm just one man, your humble taco correspondent and unofficial taco laureate of Los Angeles.

Happy New Year, drive safely and don't forget to tip your local taco truck.

Bienvenidos a Tacos El Gavilan

It's South Central Los Angeles and I'm on the taco hunt. I get a vague description via email with vague coordinates. All hell could break loose at any moment.

I'm looking for the neon lights, the flashing taco signs but the streets look cold and dark and when I see a pitbull chase a car down Florence Ave I give up and get back on the 110. On the radio it's Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture and I feel like Napoleon's La Grande Armée retreating out of Russia. The cannons fire and my stomach rumbles.



Back on the surface streets I turn on to Central Ave and see a familiar sign,Tacos El Gavilan. My last visit to Tacos El Gavilan was at the beginning of my taco journey. Back then I thought I could get by with some bullshit camera my friend Kiwi Simmons gave me. It was such a piece of shit I think I just tossed it out the window. But Kiwi thinks it's the camera I currently use and credits herself with helping to jump start my taco blogging. I don't have it in me to tell her that her camera is probably at the bottom of some freeway underpass.

El Gavilan was happening this night. A full parking lot and two lines two order as well as a line at the salsa "bar".

"Three of your best tacos!" I said to the girl at the window.
"What kind you want?"
"Carnitas, al pastor, asada..one of each..I'm a taco reporter, a taco critic"
"Yeah ok whateva,anything to drink?"
"Your finest tamarindo!"
By this time she was rolling her eyes at me and said something to a taquero.I paid and was handed my ticket. Order #92.

When an order is ready it is announced over a speaker system by the taquero that has prepared your order.The first time the order goes over the speaker it's usually in spanish and if noone answers then it goes over in english. Sometimes people are just oblivious and they have kids with them that are distracting or they are just being stupid and they aren't paying attention. If noone has claimed the order it goes over in spanish and english again and then just in english until eventually someone picks up their order or the taquero gives up and moves on to preparing another order. That process can take a few minutes though and it's valuable time for the taquero because the longer he has to wait for the unclaimed order the longer it takes him to getting to the next order.

Basically if you don't pay attention and pick up your order in a timely fashion you are fucking it up for the next guy.

I was prepared though. When noventa y dos went over the speaker I would get up for my order . I wouldn't wait for the english translation. I would get up to show the taquero that I understood and that I wasn't some desperate gabacho out for some taco kicks. I was a serious taco reporter. What kind of swine would report on tacos but not understand how to count to one hundred in spanish ?

Something odd happened though. When my order was ready the taquero just looked at me and motioned the plate to me and didn't announce my order number over the speaker system! hah! what is this? I was caught off guard but then I realized that she probably told him that I was a taco reporter.



There is a good selection of salsas at el gavilan. I didn't take photos of these tins because,well for one ,there's a line where you load up your tacos and if you take too long you disrupt the flow and also noone wants to see someone take pictures of all the tins. They will probably think you work with the health department or something worse, that you're part of the media.

I took my tacos to a table on the back side of the restaurant but everytime I turned around there was the same guy leaning up against a pole looking at me. I didn't say anything to him though cuz he may have just been one of those guys that likes to lean up against poles...but I wanted to say "hey...did she tell you I'm a taco reporter too?" I didn't say anything though.

The tortillas at El Gavilan are done very well. They glisten. And the meats surprised me. The al pastor has a cinnamon flavor..very different and very good. The asada and carnitas are rustic and lean.Oh and the salsa roja has that firey kick..better have yourself a cold beverage handy.

Walking back to my car I heard it " numero ciento y uno, 101" "numero ciento y uno " number 101! your order ready" "numero ciento y uno, ciento y uno 101! 101! 101! " and the longer it went on I could hear in the taquero's voice the fatigue, desperation, and the utter disgust for the son of a bitch that wouldn't claim his order because he knew as did I that somewhere in the crowd there was some degenerate with that #101 ticket.



TACOS EL GAVILAN 1900 S Central Ave Los Angeles. Tacos #1

Mariela's Taco

Jesus es dios, Lea La Biblia. Jesus is God, read the bible.

They love Jesus at Mariela's taco. There are literally a hundred Jesus stickers on the walls and the glass partition separating you from the kitchen. Many of them are the same sticker. When staring at them it feels like you've been Jesus spammed.



Depending what time you go a seat may be hard to come by. During peak hours it's sometimes standing room only and on the weekends it's a family atmosphere and a somewhat of a madhouse.


asada and al pastor


carnitas

I ordered carnitas, asada, al pastor. The asada, very beefy and salted just right, the al pastor shredded with caramelized onions. The carnitas is by the books here, nothing fancy.


al pastor

The al pastor is quite saucy and the texture is like carnitas. I probably wouldn't order the carnitas again and just double up on pastor since it's very similar only more flavorful. The asada is the real deal though. Very finely chopped and has a bake like quality, and when the grease and the salsa swim together it's poetry. A plate of these could cure any hangover.


carne asada

I took each of them in my palm and with the salsa roja devoured them. They were quintessential LA tacos. They were a bit sloppy, a bit greasy but oh so delicious and in two bites they were gone.



Mariela's Taco 3662 W 3rd St
Los Angeles,90020
Tacos $1

LAX Tacos: Redux

Sometimes I get feedback

like the time i got this email

"LAX tacos rules! you suck bandini!"

Out of all the reviews I've done I've got more email about LAX taco than any other.

My last report on LAX tacos wasn't flattering enough for the LAX taco fan club.

So I checked my report on LAX and they may have had a point. Turns out I went through the drive-thru and got my tacos to go wrapped in foil. Any taco hound will tell you that foil can ruin the greatest of tacos. It makes the tortillas sweat, the salsa warms..etc etc.

So I went back to LAX taco and ordered three tacos- adobada, carnitas, carne asada.

My tacos came with onions, cilantro, and a mild salsa roja. Carrots, radishes and limes for garnish.

Something wasn't right about the radishes though. They looked like they had just been plucked out of the garden. I swear...they still had dirt on them. I wouldn't make this up my friends.



First up was the carnitas. Nice and crisp in parts with a roast like flavor. This was a good taco, not great. The tortillas were too dry and the salsa too mild to make it great.

I liked the adobada. It was shredded with alot of seasoning. Yeah it was very salty and I really wish I had a cold corona to counter all the saltyness but it was also juicy with alot of bold flavors and ultimately it was satisfying. If too much salt is not your thing I'd avoid this taco however.

The carne asada was awful. Somewhere during the cooking process the beef had all the flavor zapped out of it.And there was gristle, oh was there gristle. You know when you bite into a taco and you get more beef in your bite than you expected because there is fat connecting the beef in your bite to the remaining beef in the taco? that's what it was like. It was like a frickin yoshinoya taco.

Sooooo...the 2 1/2 taco rating has been confirmed. Stop emailing me LAX taco fanboys!!!!



LAX tacos is at 543 W Arbor Vitae St, Inglewood. Tacos $1.25

El Super Taco

Well the mystery is solved as it pertains to what happened to Tacos El Rey aka Tortas a la plancha. As reported on these pages back in 05 the taco wagon that parked in front of the now out of business Mi T Mart(santa monica blvd and westgate) made a kick ass carne asada taco.

Then one day they were gone, just like Kaiser Soze.

But alas they are back and they havn't gone far(just across the street). Turns out this whole time the el rey crew was hard at work putting in motion a plan to go from taco wagon to taqueria. They call themselves El Super Taco. Generic name yes but what's in a name? you could call yourself the crazy taco for all I care as long as you make good tacos. Hmm the crazy taco...that's actually a cool name. El Crazy Taco.

I ordered the trifecta - asada, pastor, carnitas and a tamarindo. There's an all you can drink soda and juice fountain(pina colada, orange bang, tamarindo, orchata) and an impressive selection of meats to apply to burrito, torta, quesadilla, sopes or tacos.(asada, al pastor, suadero, pollo, lengua, cabeza,chorizo, carnitas, buche, and tripas.)Tacos are $1 Burritos $3.50.



The asada was just as I remembered it.The beef was a little salty(which I like), a little greasy(which I like) and very tender. Add well oiled tortillas and a salsa roja with some kick to it and you have one excellent taco.

The carnitas was great as well. Nice and crisp at the edges and soft in the middle. Not too porky as to overwhelm the whole taco.

Nothing beats al pastor de trompo(from the spit) but this was pretty close. The tender bits of pork had a strong spice rub that brought alot of flavor. As good is it can get sans a rotating spit.

A nice touch are the grilled onions that come on your plate. These onions aren't just for show, they are quite tasty.

The salsa bar is top notch as well with a salsa roja, salsa verde, pico de gallo and carrots and jalapenos.I loved having the all you can drink tamarindo fountain considering that the roja brought the heat.



The tacos were so good I got two for the road. Next time I'll try the ensenada style fish tacos($2) and maybe the tripas?!!??

Westsiders rejoice. El Super Taco has put the westside on the taco map.



El Super Taco 11923 Santa Monica Blvd 90025 (310)312-6260 tacos $1 tripas $1.50

Rubio's

A reader recently asked me why I put Rubio's on notice.



Well it's not because their fish tacos taste like van de kamps fish sticks or that their corn tortillas taste like a catchers mitt or that the salsas at the salsa bar taste like glorified ketchup.


fish taco and carnitas taco

no..the reason Rubio's was put on notice was because they put lettuce and a cheese medley on my carnitas taco.



Rubio's Fresh Mexican Grill

Angelica

Chances are if you see a taco truck on the westside during the day it's actually a Cemita truck. These trucks specialize in the cemita poblana, a sandwhich served on a sesame domed roll with choice of meat, panela cheese, avocado, onions, salsa and sometimes a chipotle pepper.

Cemita trucks will also make a taco. Some make good tacos but for some it's just an afterthought.

These trucks can get quite crowded during the lunch hour with workers from nearby business and construction workers who are in the know. Angelica, a cemita truck that parks in front of the Smart and Final on Venice blvd in Culver City by all accounts makes a great cemita but I was curious how much thought went into the tacos.



I ordered the al pastor and asada.
The al pastor had a saucy blend of carmelized onions and crumbled soft pork. The asada, medium sized cuts of greasy flank steak. Both topped with onions, cilantro and a tasty salsa roja. The salsa here is a thick tomatillo/tomato hybrid with some spice to it. It's different from your usual taqueria salsa and has a charred smokey flavor to it.



If you're curious about cemitas try the cemita poblana de milenesa. The beef is pounded thin and breaded and when done right they are excellent.

The tacos here are dependable and won't disapoint. If you have that taco craving go see Angelica.



Angelica 10113 Venice Blvd, Culver City, Daytime only . Tacos $1