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!

Salsa and Beer, North Hollywood, CA

Yeah, I've been here a bunch of times, but here we go, Salsa and Beer.  There are two locations, one is in North Hollywood, one is in Reseda.  Biggest difference between the two is one serves full liquor, the other is just beer and wine.  This place is good.  Full service, which is slow, but pretty fun.  I see many friends in the area tag themselves here or fire off pictures from here.

Why did I decide to write about this adventure?  Just a downright great time.  It was double date time with Dara and Mike Phillips.  Two of the greatest friends and people that I know.

I know, they look great.  So they are Jason, my youngest child's godparents.  He loves them.  I'm pretty sure that he likes them more then me.  Nothing to do with this taco run, but today at church, Jason sat with his Nouno all through the sermon at church and then fell asleep on his Nouno.  He slept for a while, even over at coffee hour he was still asleep in his Nouno's arms.  It was great to see.  The love that he has for his godparents really makes me happy.

The four of us really just enjoyed getting away for a bit and hanging out.  We don't all get to do it that often, they are both working a ton, I'm always flying somewhere for work to save the burger world and we of course have the three monsters at home.  Yiayia and Papou are very helpful and were very awesome for taking all three of the brats.  Alexander was hanging out with his good buddy Trevon at the comic book store for a bit, but he's the easy one anyways.

We got more then a little spread today.  Yeah, mucho stuff.  We were all over the place with burritos, tacos, taquitos, flautas, enchiladas, almost everything.  Take a look:

I know you all love to see the way that I pass judgement with ratings but I'm not numbering this stuff.  It is all good, but just as a restaurant.  They crush it with potato tacos and taquitos.  The salsas would find themselves in the 4-5 range.

My favorite thing about going to Salsa and Beer is the experiences.  It is the times that I have with the people that I go with.  There are some really memorable ones.  The first time I went was with my cousin Corinne who I love and it was a perfect trip for me, Melissa ordered my food, great friends and family were around.  Sizzling taquitos, yeah ridiculous.  My dad and I would shoot over there for lunch sometimes when he worked in Burbank.  We asked Dara and Mike to be Jason's godparents at Salsa and Beer.  Two years later and a few twists in between in life and they asked us to baptize their baby who is due next May, ironically on my wife Melissa's birthday.  It was a marvelous surprise.  I don't know if I've seen Melissa happier and that was the most exciting part for me.  Don't get me wrong, I am ecstatic and honored, but I loved seeing the look and smile on Melissa's face.  This is a huge deal in our faith and something that we are so excited about.  I have two grown godsons, Nicholas and Jason and it pains me the distance that we have in our relationship.  Melissa and I also have a beautiful goddaughter Melaina.  A big reason for us wanting to move back to California was to be closer to her and her family.  Her mother is my cousin Corinne who I was talking about earlier in this post.

I know, where did the taco story go here?  It goes back to what I've said many times, it doesn't matter where I eat, but who I eat with.  Today was pretty awesome.  Mikey is a member of the Order of the Taco, and it's always an honor.  I do with that the rest of the members and I could eat together all the time, but that just doesn't work.  Our next big trip is planned and mapped out though!  San Diego, we are coming, better show us your best.

OK, one thing about the food.  My favorite thing to get there, is to share the spicy bean and cheese burrito with someone and then get a taco.  Yeah, the spicy bean burrito is fantastic.  It is so well flavored and good.  I could eat just that and be happy.  Their salsa bar is fantastic and has mild to hot flavors.  Food is great, service is often slow though.  Place is very affordable.  Like cheap and good.  Warning, they are busy always.  Early, afternoon and late.  Be ready to wait at either location.
http://salsaandbeernorthhollywood.com/location.asp

If you have never been, I recommend.  Let me know when you are going, I'll join you!  Thanks again to everyone for reading and a very special thank you to Melissa, Dara and Mikey for making the day so special and so much fun.  I needed that to recharge the battery and find the balance.  Stay Excellent everyone!