Maya's Taco Market, Echo Park, CA

That picture is not from my phone.  I just wanted to point that out.  Been working a lot and working crazy.  Needed to do some Tacoteering, so I did.  Amber and I had early meetings this morning at Built, but USC.  We had to get up to the office, but of course decided to take a slight detour into the Echo Park area of Los Angeles.  Maya's has been on my hit list for sometime now.  Melissa Chan, a friend from growing up took a picture of this place and posted it on my Facebook.  I've wanted to go there since I first laid eyes on this building.  I would show a picture of Melissa for all of you to see, but opted to post a picture of her husband Mark, a member of The Order of the Taco.  Mark is a very pretty man who I'm glad to have as a friend.

Yeah, that is a winning smile.  This place is 1600 North Alvarado.  Pretty easy to find.  It is where Alvarado hits Glendale Blvd.  We parked on the street on the side and walked in.  There is a cool bench right outside, I just have to show you.

I just really like that bench.  It says "yes, we sell authentic tacos in here."  There is a strong following and Maya's has been around for a while.  The ambiance was perfect.  They have a big flat screened TV and it had a bear juggling on there which was so entertaining to me.  They have a jukebox, a grabber thing to try to win stuffed animals and then a shelf where they were selling peanuts and cup of noodles.  It was pretty wacky, but perfect.  The decor is a bit dated maybe, but really good.

The open sign was on that table for most of our meal, they hung it out by the front door before we left.  Pretty crazy.  The menu is huge, in size.  It looks really big, but they don't have a ton of things.  They make a few meats, a few salsas and then do a variety of things with them.  I really like that.  If you don't know by now, I love when places stick to what they know.

Big menu right?  The people that work there are so nice.  They might have been some of the nicest folks as a whole.  It was great to be around them.  They all seemed so happy to work there, so happy to be there and so happy to connect with each guest, and that was so great.  It really just makes the experience that much better.  They utilize the old school steam wells right up front behind a sneeze guard.

That just gets me excited.  Lets go, lets get to it.  I know this is what you want:
RATINGS:
COCHINITA PIBIL: 3, good stuff, but nothing amazing.  It does not hold a candle to some of their other meats.
CHICHARRON de VERDE: 4, this stuff was great.  I normally like my chicharron really crispy, but this stuff was great.  It is more like a guisado style pork, but it was so good.  Sweet green sauce with some nice layered flavors.
CHICHARRON de ROJO: 5, yes.  Yes, that is a 5.  It was spicy on the back, sweet on the front, salty in the middle.  Good, all the way through.  I was really impressed with the way that they did this.  It was just downright good stuff that I could eat all day.
CHICHARRON y QUESO: 4, this was a pupusa.  I had three tacos and a pupusa.  Oh man, oh man.  They have a few different pupusas and this one was so delicious.  It was so nice, hot, tender and sweet masa really made this a necessity when I go back.  Yes, I said when.
SLAW: 2, the cabbage slaw that they give you for the pupusas was not that great.  It lacked the depth and flavor that so much of their other food has.  It really made me sad.
SALSA: 3,  they had a regular salsa that was a 3.  It was a run of the mill good salsa.
SALSA PICANTE: 5, this might be my second favorite salsa of all time.  It was so good.  I was just drinking this stuff.  It was one of the hottest salsas I've ever eaten.  I really enjoyed it.  It was thin, lots of habeneros.  Oh my goodness, my mouth is watering just typing about this.

Check out that spread!  I love the two slices of avocado on each taco.  So nice!  My plate is the one pupusa with three tacos, the other plate is Amber's.  That small ramekin of salsa is the magical goodness that nailed a 5!  I also have to say that the silverware was amazing.  Really nice, really heavy.  An unexpected nice touch.  These guys did it right.

Yesterday, I joined the Instagram to get more taco pictures out for the Order of the Taco and its followers.  This was the first Instagram photo I send out so I really feel like it needed to make the blog.  Please do follow me on Instagram, you'll never guess the name...

Here's the deal, this place is great.  I think you see the rave reviews.  Is it a top 5?  No, it is probably a top 10, but still can't match Rincon Taurino, El Tarasco, Los Cinco Puntos, Guisado's and some of the other greats that are out there.  I will go back, I will recommend, but it's not one of the "big guys" for me.

Thank you for reading, following on Twitter, Instagram, the blog.  Thanks for the posts, re-posts, re-tweets and telling your friends, foes and everyone else in between.  Before I sign off, you do get the goodbye gratuitous photo of who I was with.  Here is a picture of Amber giving off a fake looking smile.  Why is it fake?  I don't know.  She is with her handsome, intelligent husband Eric.  Don't you just wan to hug him?  I know I do.  His smile looks genuine and sweet.

Stay Excellent!

Las Virgenes Taqueria, Calabasas, CA

This bad boy has been on the list for a while.  Nikki, my BFF has been telling me about this place.  If you get off at Las Virgenes and head towards Malibu Canyon, this is inside of the Chevron Station.  This might be my biggest motivator to buying gas.  Not that I need an excuse to get tacos, but I always find them.  I was working out in Westlake and had to head to El Segundo.  We all know that I can't do that drive without tacos.  Can anyone go that long of a drive without tacos?  Probably not.

I did not try one of the breakfast burritos that Nikki says are amazing.  They only go three deep on the taco selections, I stuck with that.  Pollo, Asada, Carnitas.  Many get discouraged with such few.  I don't.  I get pretty excited about people sticking with what they know they can make great.  These guys are pretty solid.  I was a bit skeptical when I ordered.  I was leery watching the creation being put together, but they pulled through.  They have a menu worth looking at and ordering from if you are around.

Price is right.  Flavors are on.  I would do a breakfast burrito if I wasn't in the mood for tacos, but lets be real, I'm always in the mood for tacos, if you haven't figured that out, you are not a very good reader.  But please continue to read, it makes me feel good in my insides.  You go order at the back part of the market at the taco counter.  They give you a scribbled piece of paper.  You then go pay up front where you would buy gas.  Its the perfect set-up for them.  I dig it.  Lets get to the ratings.

RATINGS:

ASADA: 3, hard to get me past a 3.  It is good.  It is worth eating.  It has a hint of clove in there.  I liked that.  It was a little salty, but really good.  I think that sometimes it is really good when you can taste the salt in asada.
CARNITAS: 4, this was moist, crispy and really good.  It hit all of the points that a great carnitas should.  I was excited for each bite of this.  It was a delectable delight.  It is a must try if you are taking Malibu Canyon towards the beach.
POLLO: 4, clearly I liked this.  It was good.  Very tender and moist.  That is not always easy on chicken.  The flavors were nice.  It was also cut nicely.  Not too small to where it seemed like ground turkey, but it was a great bite size.
SALSA (ROJO):  3, this is solid.  It was really good stuff.  They give you some chips which were really good too.  I enjoyed them.  The salsa was nothing special, but very good.  Not enough spice for me, but the masses should enjoy.

That was my plate prior to me eating all of it.  Yeah, pretty cool looking.  The tortillas are small.  You are probably thinking that you aren't going to get your money's worth when you see the size of the tortillas, but they load the meat up!  It is mounded on there.  They have an avocado salsa that they call guacamole that they put on and it is delicious.  Pretty sweet and tasty.  The onions were firm and crisp, the cilantro was cold and fresh.

Glad I finally got here.  Special thanks to my BFF Nikki.  Thanks again to everyone who sends suggestions, re-tweets, re-posts and tells people about the Order of the Taco.  Here's your goodbye photo of Nikki and me together the day after Thanksgiving last year, also known as the day before The Great San Diego Taco Crawl of 2013.

Stay Excellent Everyone!

El Primo (Re-Visit), truck in the SFV

If this looks familiar, that is because it is.  Traditionally when I go and write about a place, if I go back, there is no follow up write, but for here, we are doing a quick one.  Why does El Primo get special treatment?  It is special.  This place really is awesome.  It parks on Saticoy, right by Reseda about 5pm until I'm not sure when.  They have hours listed from early morning.  I've seen them set up by 4, but it is usually right after 5.  This is the first place I wrote about.  It got good reviews, but not amazing.  It is one of those places that knows how to make a few things off the charts.  Order Pastor, Suadero and Tripas and you will be happy.  Asada, not the best they can do.  Their salsas are off the hook delicious.  Service is pretty quick, you get to watch them cut the pastor right off the cone and that just warms my heart like watching a kid open gifts on Christmas morning.

I came home on a late flight out of Fort Lauderdale.  That was an exhausting few weeks.  I'm here for a bit?  Have to fly out and get to work in New Jersey.  When I landed, said goodbye to the last of the coworkers that were stuck with me, Melissa asked if I wanted tacos.  Of course I do.  We were debating on a few of the "regular" places.  El Indio, Tacos Mexico, you know how it is.  I told her I wanted to go back to this place to try it out again.  I have wanted to get back to this place and this seemed like the prime opportunity.  We listened to Elvis Radio, I know you are all shocked, as we headed towards the truck.

We pulled up and I fell in love all over again seeing the salsa bar:

 Yeah, looks great, tastes better.  Melissa and I debated and new that we needed to maximize.  She went for a Pastor burrito.  It was so delicious.  The rice and beans were good, not overwhelming.  The pastor is just fantastic.  I'm not doing ratings on this place as I did them last time.  Their Pastor, might really be about as close to a 5 as you can get, I think I rated it a 4 last time.  Lets put it this way, you can't go wrong here!  The Suadero is a 5.  The Tripas is a 4.  Those two were not rated last time, so I figured I throw them out there.  They set up old plastic patio chairs against the wall, and you can eat there.  That is what we obviously opted to do.  It was a great call.

That is my wife Melissa eating.  Didn't realize until posting this picture that where someone had tagged is pointing right at her head.  Pretty entertaining.  This really is the first time that she has been Tacoteering.  I'm glad for her to finally be a part of the special thing that is Tacoteering.

If you read the blog, you know that I travel a lot.  You know that I go Tacoteering all over the US.  You know that my Miami experience was pretty solid.  Let me tell you, there is nothing like SoCal tacos.  Big differences between LA and SD, but both are great and no where is comparing, so far.  It is good to be home.

Big thank you to my wife, we celebrate 11 years of being married in just over a month.  Three kids, a few states and a lot of tacos later, we still like going for the late night taco run.  Like all of the adventures, who I get to go with makes it even more fun.

I'll keep looking, you keep reading.  Thanks for the tweets, texts, emails, posts and telling people.  I've got a bunch of places on the radar here in LA and a number of places I'm looking at in New Jersey for my trip there.  I will try to get into NYC as I have spent a ton of time there and never wrote about the regular spots that I hit.  I know you folks need to know all about them.  My love to all readers, I know this one is a bit different then the norm, but that is the fun of The Order of the Taco.

Before I go, one shot of Melissa and I together at a Dodger Game last year:

Thanks for reading, keep re-posting, re-tweeting, and telling folks.  Send me suggestions, I'm always on the taco prowl!  Stay Excellent Everyone!

The Taco Spot, Hollywood Beach, FL

So, this place sure is not in Los Angeles, CA.  This place is pretty cool.  Do I love it, no.  Will I go back, yeah, I will when I'm in the area.  It was good.  Not amazing but good.  It was good for white people's tacos.  There were three things that were really great, the service, the company I was with and the ambiance.  Yeah, we were sitting outside on chairs that are comfortable outdoor furniture.  Here is what we saw the whole time:

Yes, Mr Moon over the Atlantic Ocean.  This was taken by the beautiful Fo while we were sitting in our seats.  It really was comfortable.  The view really was nice.  The company was great.  Nikki P from NYC, Fo from Atlanta, Christian from DC, and Alisha from LA were stranded for extra days with me in Florida on this opening.  We shot out for dinner.  Long days, we were all hungry and we decided Tacoteering was the best way to go.  We were right.  Here is a picture of the great folks:

Yes, Christian has the creepy look in the pimping jacket, Fo has the winning smile, Nikki is trying to book a flight out and Alisha is texting someone, I guess.  What a great group.  Don't worry, Fo took a selfie of all of us, get excited for that one later.  More about the place.  I called to check it out, the people were so nice.  The waitress was most righteous.  Her name was Adriana.  She is a very nice young lady and did an amazing job.  I would love to work with someone who like her.  Very attentive and a master of her craft.  Restaurateurs are amazing people, she is one of them.  Really, the people who work there are great.  They're not as great as the people who work at The Counter, but they were pretty good.  The menu is pretty good, but not great.  It's not great because there is a bunch of stuff that they have not on there.  Not a few things, but a ton of things.  There was a number of tacos, but they are not on the menu.

That is their menu.  There it is, pretty exciting right?  Ok, it's not that exciting, but it is alright.  Let me say, these combos are the way to go.  They will allow you to mix tacos on the combo, they come with two, it is pretty cool.  I dig that.  They just charge you for the higher priced taco, that is cool.  Lets just get to what you want to know, the ratings:

RATINGS:
CORN: 2, here's the thing, they are famous for this.  At least that is what they say.  It is slightly over grilled and then they drown it in Parmesan cheese, but the nasty, over produced kind.  Don't get excited by this lie.  It is not all that good.
CARNITAS: 2, this is like very white people's carnitas.  It is okay, over seasoned, over cooked, not the slow cooked goodness that is carnitas.  They do put a ton of salt on this stuff, so be prepared.
CHICKEN: 2, why did I not call it pollo?  Because it is not pollo.  It is poorly grilled chicken.  It had no flavor and was cut way too big for tacos, I mean come on people!
KOREAN SHORT RIB: 4, creativity alone gives you at least a point here.  I have had Korean Short Rib Tacos, these were not too bad.  Nice use of brown sugar and salt.  They did ok on the meat, but the sauces on this taco were second to none.  They really were good.  One of the folks I got to eat with got the sauces on the side and they were really amazing.
TEMPURA SHRIMP: 4, yeah, no typo there!  Yum, yum gimme some.  This was a treat and a half right here.  I have no complaints.  It was tender, good, nicely battered and fried.  Very encouraging.  I was so happy that Adriana recommended this.
SALSAS: 4, creative with nice variety, not enough spice for the big guy, but still tasty enough to be above the scale.
PINEAPPLE JALAPENO: 3, yeah, this should start so sweet and finish so hot, it did not, but was good.  Paired with the right taco, you are in for a treat, enjoy it.
JALAPENO: 4, ok, very different from the normal jalapeno salsa, but delicious.  Very delicious.  This was some great stuff that I would enjoy on my taco eggs in the morning and my lunch tacos and my dinner tacos.
HABANERO: 3, this was WAY too mild.  The flavor was good, but for sure the weakest as far as impressions in the bunch, very sad.
SEVEN CHILI: 4, the complexity made this happen.  Not as spicy as I would have liked, but good.  It was deep with layered flavors and was very nice to enjoy on all of their tacos.

Looks pretty good right?  No, it kind of doesn't, yeah, those are all flour tortillas.  There is the "corn" option, but its not on the menu and I looked at what they were calling "corn" tortillas and it was scarier then a fat guy in a thong.  Beans and rice were alright, but not Salsa and Beer good for sure.  I promised a selfie, so here it is without further a due:

What a great group.  We did have some real fun.  It was great just chatting, catching up.  We've all been working such crazy days and hours together but haven't spoken.  My beard and I really enjoyed everyone.  Lets caption this.  Fo: I love selfies!  Z: Just another taco picture.  Z's Beard: I just want to get back to eating tacos.  Alisha:  Camera?  I love being in photos!  Nikki:  Yo, I'm Nikki P from Staten Island Representin!  Christian:  Wow, I love Z's beard. We took a picture of all of us with the waitress in front of the restaurant.  The guy who took it was not too sharp, it didn't come out great, but here you go:

My beard is so hidden in this photo.  It is sad.  It represents so well.  Another day, another great adventure, another taco.  Couple more days here, then back to LA for a week and a half then Tacoteering takes itself to New Jersey.  Yeah, you read that one right, bring it on Garden State!

A few things, before I go, thank you as always for re-tweets, re-posts, reading, telling your friend, family members, enemies and co-workers.  Before I say goodbye, and remind you of what I'd like you to do like I do every blog, you get one more gratuitous photo, this time, it is of Fo:

Stay Excellent!