Taco Sinaloa, Torrance, CA

Where have I been?  It's been the longest Tacoteering dry spell since I started this bad boy.  I've been busy, I've been working, running around, thinking about tacos, eating some, but hitting up spots I've written about.  I didn't need or want a break, just didn't write.  Well, Tacoteering is back.  Back to getting the information out to everyone.  I got up about 4am and went to San Diego to work this morning.  Knocked out all I needed to do and was driving back up to LA.  I stopped on my way back and did a conference call and then met up with my dad.  It seemed like a great day to get some tacos.  Wanted to try something new, somewhere different.  We hit a joint in Torrance.  Big following, not sure why.

Place was really disorganized.  It was one of the longest ordering processes I've ever been a part of.  It really was crazy.  I ended up having to help some other patrons as the gentleman on the register did not speak much English.  That part was fine, but he would start taking an order and just walk away to do other things and then would come back totally confused.  The place had the look, the place had the smell, the place had the feel, but that is where it stopped for me.  Menu is good.  It looks bigger than it is.  They stick to what they think they know.

Kitchen is pretty small, just right.  The guy that was working the register was working, but the other guy that was there was all over the place.  Dude was grilling, cooking, chopping, stocking, everything.  He was a horse!  Really was a machine getting everything done, making orders and was smiling the entire time.  He seemed as though he really did enjoy his job.  They serve some beer, I stuck with the delicious, LA's finest tap water.

The artwork in, on and around the building was awesome.  I really liked it.  The artist that did this is super talented.  Everything had great detail and was great to see.  Ambiance was the best part this place has to offer.  Even the artwork by the restrooms was cool.  Perfectly drawn mermaid and sea animals.  It was neat.

Salsa bar was kept pretty dirty.  Radishes were not really fresh, the jalapenos were just OK.  Limes were great, salsas were fine.  Nothing impressive about this bar, nothing that set it apart.  With that being said, lets get to it.

RATINGS:
ASADA: 3, not impressive, not bad, just alright.  Good char flavor, which I liked, but the quality of the meat itself was bad.  The seasoning was pretty non-existent.
CARNITAS: 2, it lacked flavor and excitement.  It was tender, but not great, like I said.
SESOS: 2, this was just weird. It was off in texture, had no flavor and did not even look tasty.
LENGUA: 2, the texture was on point, the flavor was not.  There was just no flavor to this thing.  Nothing exciting about it in anyway.
BUCHE: 2, again we were lacking flavor or excitement.  Really not very good at all.
PASTOR: 1, this was flat out horrid and a disgrace.  It was not good, so don't waste your time or your taste buds.
TACO DORADO: 2, this was a disappointment.  It had "guacamole" which was nasty.  Yeah, not bad, nasty.  You would think a crispy taco couldn't be that bad, but it was, very sad for my mouth.
SALSA ROJO: 3, pretty textbook.  It was nice and spicy, but lacked anything to make it any better than average.
SALSA VERDE: 3,  again, kind of what you expect for "average" salsa.

That is the picture of the spread.  Nothing too great, it looked good though.  The food overall lacked flavor.  It was nice that they didn't douse meat with salt, but needed some flavoring love.  I am so pissed about this "pastor."  I mean, come on people, this is a signature item.  It is one of the best things in the world and you have embarrassed yourselves with this lack of flavor and lack of seasoning.  I say don't go eat there only because they messed up pastor so bad and pastor is near and dear to my heart.  Damn I'm upset about this.

The artwork was cool, but the best part of the trip was getting a little bit of time with my dad.  We were able to just hang out, catch up about work, life and everything.  I use to love going to visit my dad at his work when I was younger and we would go get a burrito from Campos or somewhere around there in Santa Monica.  I love my dad and was really happy that we got some time together.  Today's gratutious photo is one of him and I on his birthday last March at Malibu Seafood.  It is sad, but my little brother Paul never took my dad out or did anything with him on his birthday this year.

Stay Excellent!

The Great San Diego Crawl of 2013 Part 4, the final part of this trip...

It is the last blog of the San Diego Excursion.  Four chapters sums a good part of the day, but cannot describe the great times that we had.  The pictures shown do no justice to all that we saw, did, experienced.  Yeah, good times.

Smiles like this, from Nate:

Bites like that, from Mike:

They just don't fully illustrate the story...

So, we are driving back up.  We get to Bucky's and Peck and Paul jumped in the Honda and shot towards LAX, or did they?  We have a "Whatsapp" for The Order of the Taco.  It is awesome.  We share messages, thoughts, stories, articles, everything.  It is a very entertaining thing.  I digress, yes, you should know this by now.  So Paul and Peck are in "such a rush to get to LAX."  I got the rest of the story from the pictures and from my dad.  They went to El Tarasco, an Order favorite.

I will say that it was great to have both of my little brothers there with us on this trip.  Paul was on round one, Peck was in town for round two and that made it better.  I mean, I don't cuddle with them like I do Brandon, or talk to them with the same fever I do Mike, but their presence was most excellent.  So yeah, they went to El Tarasco, if you haven't been, it's in Manhattan and a few in the surrounding area, please check it out.

While they are eating alone, without the group, we got cigars together, made sure the hot tub was ready and watched the sunset from Casa de Monstrosity:

Yes, we parked the Red Dragon so that it could face the sunset and watch...

Alright, so we regroup at Bucky's, have a couple of beers and decide we are going to get wings, things and of course, more tacos.  Where to go, where to go.  We weren't driving the exhausting six miles to the last two places on the list.  We did the impromptu thing we'd been doing all day and went to Tonlin's.  What is this place?  Taco place in a liquor store?  Umm, yes!  

If you ask me, I'll tell you that all those things on that sign are done in the same store, and you can sign me up for more.  The place is unique, really it is.  Their flavors are unique.  So here are some shots.
The store front:

The Menu:

The Wall between the Liquor Store and Taqueria:

The food was great.  Tripas were a 5, nothing else went below a 3.  Only warning that I have is that everything comes with pinto beans, I liked it.  I didn't think I would, but it was nice.  Their salsa bar is a 4:

What a spread.  It was all really good.  Nice flavors, spicy.  I dig it.  I enjoyed the whole thing.

So we get all the food back to the house.  The spread was second to none:

Yeah, we were ready to chow the heck down!  We did.  We enjoyed every bit of that food.  The tacos, wings, fries, everything.  It was so good.  I enjoyed every bite I had.  We went to the backyard, some smoked cigars, some got in the Jacuzzi.  It was a great way to unwind as we all told stories about the day, yelled at the TV, just enjoyed each other's company.  Were we done?

No!

We piled into the van and we went to this great dive bar.  The clientele was fantastic.  Pool tables, fake shuffle board, wood trim, you can close your eyes and imagine.  It had a "smoking section."  I loved this place.  The guys played a little shuffle board, I really just sat around watching people.

There was some great people in there if you hadn't caught the drift.  A couple in their late 40's were arguing, she says she is more orally inclined then her friend and wanted to show the guy.  We laughed listening.  Some girl who was disproportional just below her neck, pronounced just as much on the right and left side of her chest was all over the bar.  She was not attractive.  She still had "her old nose."  She was running around screaming how it was her birthday and nobody cared.  She was right, no one in the bar cared.  She was grinding on a support beam to the bar and thought it was a guy.  Really entertaining.  Nate and I caught up with some guy in an Alabama shirt as he was drowning the sorrows of the loss to Auburn.  Needless to say great end to the day.  Did it end right there, pretty much, though I will say that Nate sang us all to bed.  He is not the best singer, but I appreciate his efforts and moxy.

We went back to Bucky's, everyone picked a spot and went to sleep.  I had to take off my socks:

Yes, I wore those socks all day.  They are my taco socks, don't act like you're not impressed.

At the end of the day, I appreciate everyone on the trip and everyone who reads.  This thing is a ton of fun.  I'm glad we have a logo, coming to a shirt near you.  I thank everyone who has read, will read or is reading.  Please tell your friends, foes and acquaintences.  Extra special thanks to the dudes that went on the trip with me, Mike Phillips, Chris Randall, Nick Thomas, Nate Lee, James Anastasios, Mark Chan, Brandon Begley, Paul Zaferis and Andrew Zaferis.  

This is my thanks for reading face!

Stay Excellent Everyone!

The Great San Diego Crawl of 2013 Part 3

After I park the van, I walk up to the taqueria that I told you about in part 2.  The group is gathered around as I cross the street.  They all have a shit eating grin on their face.  You know the look.  Big smile, squinted eyes.  Yeah, borderline mischievous.  As I'm approaching the group, Bucky says "we have an idea."  I said "yes."  They looked at me confused.  I said "whatever the idea, I say yes, lets do it, I'm all in."  I figure at this point, the day is about to take its twist, turn for the crazy.  Nate gets a bigger smile and says, "are you sure?"  I said I was and they told me that I needed to get a tattoo.  I nodded my head without a flinch and reiterated, "yes, I'm down like Charlie Brown."  There was only one reaction caught on camera that really summed up the feelings of the group.

Yes, we told Brandon he could shave my leg.  Peck again has a confused look on his face.  We go to the tattoo parlor next to the taqueria.  No dice, few hour wait, we are giving up and going to hit a bar then head up to the next taco joint.  Luckily, the guys suggested their sister shop which was just a few blocks up.  We go to the orange store front and introduce ourselves.

The best part of the day was listening to Bucky, Mark and Nate explain the tattoo we were going to have put on me.  A pig that is inside a taco.  "We want a bewildered look on his face."  Nate then says, "imagine if you were in a taco and about to get eaten."  The artist, nodded his head, said, "got it" then came back with this:

So the logo was born.  We now have a logo for The Order of the Taco.  There is one addition and that is an earring.  A pig, with a scared, bewildered look inside of a taco.  Is there a better fit, I think not.  Mark and I looked at each other and said "perfect." So yeah, that drawing led to this:

 

As I was lying there getting this impromptu tattoo, the guys sat there wondering what to do:

They walked up the street and saw this awesome guy who is a forever friend of the Order, Brian.  As they are doing that, more magic happened.  Bucky and Chris made a sweet old lady on a motorized cart cry.  Let me tell you something, in this case, they cannot still serve a purpose.  Unless you take the laugh factor into consideration.

She is going by and almost takes the guys out.  They don't say anything, this is of course their story and she whips by them, almost goes up on two wheels and goes around the corner.  Obviously after she cusses them out for obviously being rude and talking trash.  She comes back later, Chris takes the dive out of the way and Bucky engages her in a game of chicken.  Yeah, this man has no fear.  She comes back and apologizes.  The Order is sure that she heard them talking trash about her after encounter 1.  She comes back crying and apologizes, saying that they are nice and that she overreacted and has had a bad day and most people are so mean.  Here's my take on this story, there is a reason that winners write history.  Yeah, I said it, we got to write the story, so we are the innocent nice guys that were victimized by an older, very heavy woman on a motorized cart.  

So many of our members, and I mean most of them don't have tattoos.  They don't realize that they take time.  So they came back and regrouped to find out the next step in the day.

James's face says it all:  "I need a beer."  The group went up the street and hit up a great local place.

They all had a great time and James is so much happier now:

Yeah, so everyone is enjoying a few cocktails, having some fun, getting more hungry for more tacos.  I continue to lie there and get inked.  I was enjoying myself.  Artist said it was the first time anyone has ever not moved at all and his first pig inside of a taco.  He is a great guy, from the Philippines.  His family lives in the mountains and was not effected by the devastating hurricane that hit his country recently.  

The tattoo was done, and I went to meet the group.  I was of course passing on a cocktail as we had to get to driving.  Tattoo is perfect:

Yeah, I dig it.  The guy did a great job and I look forward to going to see him again for another tattoo in the future.  Seriously, it was a great time.  I'll save up some cash and maybe get "The Order of the" put above this bad boy.  Yeah, I know, it's not for everyone, but it works for me and it represents how anything can happen with me and these guys and we will always have fun.  It is a testament to my appreciation to all of these guys and how much they all mean.  This is my Neverland.  It is a made up world that I control and imagine all that I want to imagine and it just appears.  These trips are a fantasy for me.  A fantasy of fun.  Just great people hanging out, enjoying a great time.  I lover "Order" and I'm glad she's on my leg.  I never would have believed that I would do something like this and don't have the intention of doing it again, but I have no regrets for this tattoo.  I've been pining for some new ink anyways.  We ran into the artist right after the tattoo, he went on break:

We all headed towards the cars from here.  Paul and Peck were heading North to LAX, Peck had to catch a flight back to Denver, Paul needed to get some rest, the rest of us went to Casa de Monstrosity to catch a beer there, regroup and get some more tacos so that we could enjoy the Kings game and the USC/UCLA Football game.

Here is half the group in the "Red Dragon" heading North to regroup, there is much more to this story, but that is for the next blog.  Part 4 is coming soon.  Thanks for reading, Stay Excellent.

The Great San Diego Crawl of 2013 Part 1

Wow.  A commencement of brotherhood.  If you don't know us well, you don't know what we've all had going on.  It has been a rough six months in general for the members of The Order of the Taco.  We have had some pretty low points in the last few months.  Personally, professionally, psychologically, it has been just one of those periods in our lives.  We all share with each other, so the burden feels lighter sometimes because we can lean on each other, but feels heavier because we do try to all carry every bit of weight that we have for each other.  The culmination of everything forced our hand.  We made our decision, Tacoteering in San Diego.  Please read through this entire blog.  There are lots of pictures and a description of the twits, turns and good times that we shared.  This will be split into multiple blogs.

The trip was like a sequel to the movie Swingers in some ways.  Some of us brought emotional burdens, some of us were stoic, others dramatic.  Some just tried to party the whole time.  In the end, we all showed up in a different vehicle!  Mike and I drove down together in the van with two kegs of beer.

SELFIE!

Sunrise on our way up!

Some flew like Big Chris and Brandon:

Pilot Randall!

Brandon before take off!

Paul and Peck drove down together, Mark went solo, Nate surprised us by driving down by himself, we were all ecstatic he joined:

Nate was not drinking while driving, or was he?  This was on the excursion, just a great photo of him, I know you wanted to see him.

So, what do you do on a drive down like this?  I drove, Mike however enhanced the trip for each of us:

Mike was converting the lines.  He was making sure that the CO2 could get to both kegs of beer that he had made.  Pretty great idea.  Pretty talented man.  I know, I make very few good decisions, but when it comes to my closest friends, I really have knocked it out of the park with some amazing people.  What did the back of the van look like you ask, well, we have a picture for that too!

Yes, those are two delicious home brewed IPA's.  

So we all met at the Buck Monstrosity's house.  It was a awesome.  We greeted each other, got a surprise when Nate walked in the door, went over the plan for the day.  If you don't know me well, I always plan my work and work my plan.  I had everything mapped out, a description of each location, called to make sure everyone's hours of operations and that they were open over the weekend.  Yes, every detail and minute was scheduled for this trip.  

Our first stop was Tacos El Poblano.  Yeah buddy!  This place is interesting.  I feel a bit pricey, but interesting.  

Looks fancy, don't worry, its not.  The inside is pretty cool.  Great big cones of adobaba.  

The menu is alright:

Our tacos were small but good:

Action shot of James, don't try this at home, he is a trained professional:

What did our table look like?  Yeah, it was beyond full.  How did we feel about the food?  Pretty mixed.  Birria was great (4) lots of nutmeg thought.  I mean heavy handed.  The Adobaba was strong, I thought it was good, Nate was not a huge fan.  Asada was a 3, pretty average and the Salsas were a 4.  They were really good.  Here is a look at our table:

After this great meal, we went out to the van to grab a quick refreshment and head on to Tacos El Gordo:

Our next stop was just a few miles up the road.  We went to a place I've blogged about before, one of my favorite places of all time Tacos el Gordo.  This little gem is a TJ original.  They have four locations, three are in the greater San Diego area, one is in Vegas.  Yes, right on the strip.  Now you know where to eat when you are out there.

Love this place.  The sights, smells, sounds...

What a great shot of Bucky ordering and the chef cutting pastor right off the cone.  Yeah, this place is something special.  Again, don't try to order with the skill and tenacity that Bucky does, he is a trained professional.  We liked the food at Tacos el Gordo.  I would suggest sticking to the pork and beef adobada.  We would all say to avoid the Tacos Aztecas.  They are like a 2 when everything else sits about a 4+.  Salsas are good and their peppers are delicious.  

This concludes this part of the trip.  Why would I cut it off here?  Why would I not finish the story of what happened at Tacos el Gordo?  Well, because a couple of things did happen there.  From after this moment of Bucky's order, things started to get fun.  Jokes are going to be made, things will be broken and yes, stuff goes down.  More blogs to come.  Today?  Tomorrow?  I don't know, I just know that when you read it, I think you are really going to enjoy hearing about the shenanigans.  Thanks for reading, Stay Excellent.