I've had many tacos in my day. I've made them, I've bought them, I've taken them without paying for them. At the end of the day, I've consumed mass amounts of them. The excursion or journey if you will was unreal. The pictures above do no justice to the excitement, passion and love that was had yesterday on a beautiful day in Los Angeles, CA. This blog will outline the trip for all of you who just wanted to go but were unable to. I will write some blogs about the specifics of each place at a later time. I'd tell you to close your eyes as you read this to enjoy and envision the journey, but if your eyes are closed, you can't read and this becomes pointless.
On the morning of August 10, 2013 I rolled out of bed as a founding member of The Order of the Taco, not realizing all that, that meant. I showered, shaved, put on my Dodger shirt and a pair of jeans just like any other morning. What I didn't realize, is that this just wasn't an ordinary day. Days like this don't just happen. It is not a matter of chance or coincidence. It was in fact a day of destiny. A day of true infamy. Brothers uniting for a common love, passion and purpose and rising to a greatness in taco. Brandon Begley, Nathan Lee, Michael Phillips, James Anastasios, Paul Zaferis, Christopher Randall and The Buck Monstrosity, Nicholas Thomas made this thing happen. With myself lucky enough to be a part of this band of guys, we became the founding members of The Order of the Taco and did in fact do some true Tacoteering.
We left the San Fernando Valley about 11am PST. We piled into my wife's red Toyota Sienna and The Buck Monstrosity's grey Hyundai. Little did we know these vehicles would help us transcend greatness. We took the 118 to the 5 and got off the road as they tried to follow my crazy driving. I was again reminded how different driving a car is then riding a motorcycle. Lane sharing is a ton easier when you are on a bike. Changing lanes is a completely different story. The various places that we passed, like the Korean Taco stand and the Hawaiian restaurant tempted us, but we stayed on course. We had a path a plan and were following our Taco Destiny.
Our first stop was to be Mi Casita. I had been there a couple of years ago, we got there and it was closed down, graffiti ridden and clearly no longer serving delicious tacos. This did not slow us in anyway. This did not hinder our journey. Not an eye was blinked as we made our way to Los Cinco Puntos.
I did make four lefts, with took us in our first circle, but that is all a part of what happens as you go on an adventure like this. I've been to Los Cinco Puntos prior to this trip. My BFF Nikki Dushinsky turned me onto this place a couple of years ago when she sent me an article written about it. By no means did this place disappoint. It was a hospitable, delicious environment. Entertainment was provided by some random stray dog that had just given birth. She was walking around begging for food like a homeless guy on a freeway off ramp. We did not oblige her on this trip as everything was consumed. Big tacos, big fun here. We laughed and joked of my sub par driving and the ability that I have to drive in circles for absolutely no reason. We left there and went for a short drive up the street to Guisados.
Guisados was a hoot. This place was much more contemporary then my colleagues expected and I have to say much more contemporary then the neighborhood of Boyle Heights can handle. What a treat. The food was excellent. There options are fantastic. They have a great sampler of mini tacos where you pick six and just eat. We got a couple of those with a fish taco that was fabulous! I'd love to tell you that the highlight of this stop was the Armando Palmero, their delicious version of an Arnold Palmer made with lemonade and Jicima, but it was in fact the owner's brother Eddie. Eddie runs, owns and works in a bakery next door. Guisados has two locations, one is in Boyle Heights, the other is right by the Great, Dodger Stadium. Eddie provides masa for the tortillas multiple times throughout the day. This is not just a one time stop for the week or day for these places. The masa is so fresh, it is given to the stores at about 25# at a time! Yeah, fresh and delicious. Eddie gave us an amazing tour of the facility and we got a lesson of Masa 101. It helped make this trip so much more amazing. I will be writing a blog soon about Guisados, Armando and Eddie to go into more detail. From Guisados, we drove in a huge circle all the way around LA, thanks to my once again, sub par driving skills.
We were headed to Mexicali and sadly there were some street closures. Instead of taking the easy way, we drove all the way around the 5 to the 10 to the 110 to the 101 to end up basically where we started from. Needless to say, we safely got to Mexicali which is located in Chinatown. If you are on a date and need a taco, go there. If not, don't. The food was just ok. They have a sting ray taco. Yes, it is actual sting ray. It tastes more "shelly" then fishy. I would recommend not touching it. As was said at the table, "there is a reason that sting ray is not main streamed for consumption." The chef or owner guy that was there was very nice and tried to be very accommodating. The only really great thing I can say about this place was the seating. I dig the long picnic tables in a restaurant. Anyways, the place was trendy, the tacos were not nearly as good as we could make them and this was by far the least entertaining and most disappointing part of our journey.
Our next trip took us a little more North of LA. We were headed to El Atacor. There is two of them on Figueroa. We were headed to the original one. We saw the other one first and decided to stop. This proved to be a fantastic decision. The chick working there saw the eight of us barge into the door and ask for their famous Taco de Papas. This little hooker lied to us and said that they were out because they had been so busy. I called the place later in the day and they were not out. Shocking right? Anyhow the reason this stop was so great was the outside entertainment. As we got back into the cars, we see this guy drop to his knee. Was he proposing? We had to stare. We sat in the cars and stared at this couple for a good 9 minutes. He was brushing the ground in front of her with his hand, she would kiss him on the forehead, it was weird. She had a big purse that was zipped 90% shut. This little dog would pop his head in and out. It really was pretty creepy. We couldn't leave, we couldn't look away. He was either searching for something on the ground or wanted to sweep the floor in front of her. This led to many laughs and jokes throughout the day. El Atacor #1 was indeed a treat. The food was great and really cheap. I mean 8 potato tacos and 2 pastor tacos cost $8.71, both times that we ordered. The bathroom reminded us of a walk in cooler that had been converted. We loved the decor, the place was great.
Leaving El Atacor, we were a bit sad that we had probably had our best meals behind us. We trekked deep into a part of LA we had never heard of. Seriously, have any of you heard of Garvanza, CA? The place exists. Not too far from Pasadena. So we park on the street after I take us on another famous circle and we notice a bar, Dusty's as we walk into My Taco. The lady at this place was a totally miserable woman. She refused to let us eat in the restaurant and told us we had to take our food to go. We ate in a tree, yes, a tree. We ate right in front of their large window out of a tree just to show this lady what a large middle finger that we had. Everyone in the restaurant was staring trying to figure out what the heck was going on. On a positive note, Paulie won a stuffed elephant from a claw machine that we played for way too long.
So we walk into the dimly lit bar Dusty's and the bartender says to the regulars that she just hopes we are not cops. As we each order a beer to toast and celebrate the awesomeness of our journey some jackass decides its in his best interest to heckle us. He makes some comment about us and "why we are there." I turn to the group of knuckle heads and tell them that we are all celebrating me getting out of prison. There were no more stupid comments from these guys. Got a couple of high fives and hellos from some of the dudes as they left.
Post victory beer, we made a great decision. Drive back to church car wash that we passed and ask if the food we were watching them make is for sale. Yeah, it was. They were really big fans of us as we probably quadrupled their sales for the day and pretty much built them a playground with all the money spent. Pupusas were great. They were afraid to take our picture, but were some really nice folks that I'm glad we met.
My friends, readers, haters and anyone I left out, this concludes the story of our excursion. We ended on the famous, beloved Route 66, which in this writer's opinion made the trip all that much better. In the end, as good as some of the food was, as great as some of stories, antics and jokes were, the best part was the company that I was with. A group of amazing guys, with keen palates, good looks and a sense of adventure that is unmatched in the taco eating community. A huge thank you to all readers, please do tell your friends about this blog, and endless thank yous to the amazing guys that I got to spend the day with.
Love love love El Atacor! I used to live down the street from there.
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