JR Tacos, Happy 1 Year Birthday Anastasia Eleftheriades

Each story has a different time, a different perspective pending on who the person is telling the story and how the people reading it view it.  This blog, to many is about a birthday party for a sweet young lady and a taco truck from an excellent family that is tied back to our community at Saint Nicholas.

Yes, there is a photo bomb from my oldest son Alexander.  He was spinning around in his wheelchair and I didn't catch that he was in the picture until later.  The set up is for JR Tacos.  Raul Meza helps work at our church in Northridge, CA.  He also runs a great taco truck and does parties at people's houses.  This is not the first time this year that I've had the opportunity to eat his great food.  They do it all.  They show up with the food, cook it onsite, have the paper products for you to use and it is a great little set up.  Contact information will be at the bottom of this blog in case you are ready to use him for a shin dig or party that you have going on soon.

To me, much of this story starts with that amazing father swimming with the birthday girl.  George Eleftheriades and I met many years ago at summer camp in Greece.  We were at Ionian Village together in the summer of 1994.  We were inseparable out there.  We shared a bunk, would sneak out of the cabin at night and go to the beach.  We were able to sneak beer back to the camp and stay up too late while suffering the headache consequences the next morning.  George and I took every adventure even hiding in other people's hotel rooms and running around the hotel when we were told we had to go to sleep.  It was a great time in both of our lives.  Sadly, summer ended, and so did our time at Ionian Village.  George went back to Brooklyn, I came back to Los Angeles.  It is hard when you are that young, awkward age to have a friend, grow so close and then it is like you will never see them again.

THESE PRETZELS ARE MAKING ME THIRSTY!  If you don't get the reference, just ignore and keep on reading, I feel bad that you don't, we're about to go back to your regularly scheduled programming...George and I just understood each other.  We were the same age, well, we still are, we had fun and similar struggles, challenges and shared a similar cultural background.  We decided that we would keep in touch.  Prior to the days of blogs and Facebook, we wrote letters and mailed them back and forth.  We would very regularly for years write letters.  I was lucky enough to go to NYC the next year, we got to hang out, it was great.  We continued to write letters, got on the phone a few times, but as I said, there was no Facebook or Twitter or chat stuff that there is now, we lost touch.  I will say that years later I tried finding him on Facebook, Google all those search engines.  I really looked to see if I could find him when I was in New York so much.  I would think back to the great friend and guy that he is.  I'm fortunate to have many wonderful connections and people that have been in and are in my life, but I always do want more and hate losing one of the greats.

Now that you know some of the back story, you are probably wondering how I ended up at George's daughter's first birthday party 20 years later.  About a month ago as I was at church enjoying the Divine Liturgy.  A family walked in and began speaking to Dara, Mikey, Melissa and saying hi to the kids.  I glanced over and continued to ignore people, like I do.  As they kept talking, I looked back over and began staring at this guy.  It became an uncomfortable glare.  Dara and Melissa asked me what was wrong, but I was rendered speechless.  He than walked around over to where I was holding his beautiful daughter and asked me my name.  Before I could answer he was trapped in a bear hug that had to have been uncomfortable to anyone who was watching.  His wife, Belinda, Dara and Melissa were all quite confused.  After all this time, he had moved to Los Angeles and is living less than 10 miles from me.  What a great thing to have each other back in our lives.  It is great that after all these years, it is like no time has gone by, we have similar interests and will get to raise our children together.

That story is much of what I will remember of this party, but I know you Taco Enthusiasts want to know all about the adventure of the tacos and the party, I must give the people what they want!

What a great turnout of people excited to celebrate one year of life for such a sweet girl!  A few beers, some great people and tacos really made this hot afternoon great.  It was nice meeting so many people that shared the love for a great young lady with a wonderful family.

There is my sweet goddaughter Charlotte who made it to the party.  The question is, is Sophie State sleeping on the job, or is it just creative timing on this Tacoteer's part?  I will let you be the judge of what is going on here.  As you can see, many of us are watching to make sure that Charlotte is in good hands.  Was she dehydrated?  Can't be, there was a ton of water going around to make sure everyone stayed good on this hot summer day.  We don't know what the excuse for this is, but if you see her, feel free to ask her what was going on here.

Look at the sweet birthday girl and her mommy!  They are trying to beat the heat and are getting ready to eat some amazing tacos.  How can you not want tacos for a party?  I mean, even at one year old Anastasia knows that tacos are the best thing for a party.  How do you not know?  Why are you not having a taco truck at your party?  Maybe these ratings can help motivate you to do the right thing.
RATINGS:
BEANS: 3, refried beans, they can be pretty amazing, but these are pretty average, but I think exactly what you would expect for a party and a truck like this.
RICE: 3, good old Mexican Style rice.  The Juggernaut ate the heck out of the rice.  It was well flavored, not too salty, but brought some goodness to the meal.
SALSA VERDE: 2, this was the saddest part of the taco experience for me.  It really was so mainstream that it did not excite me.  It is probably good for the party scene, but I felt that it lacked the depth and flavor that is needed for a great salsa verde.  Maybe some more cumin and citrus would have brought a smile to my face.
SALSA ROJO: 3, pretty standard goodness right here.  I like it much spicier, but like I said, party salsa, the masses must eat it.  It is good stuff, you will like it, layered flavors, nice smokiness.
POLLO: 4, that is amazing to me for a truck to get above a three.  This was really tender, really flavorful, nice color to it, but not over seasoned.  Cooked all the way through, but so darn juicy.  Just enough chili powder and a hint of garlic really made this a surprise treat on a hot day.
ASADA: 3, exactly what you would, should expect.  They did a nice job, it is textbook truck asada here my friends.  You know what you are getting.
PASTOR: 4, would this get a 4 off a truck if I'm food trucking?  No.  Would it get it if in a restaurant?  No.  But for what this is, it was great.  Nice hints of clove, aciote cooked to tender perfection.  The texture was great on this one.  I was surprising pleased.  I will warn you that it was a little greasy, but that just made it better for all of us who enjoyed it!

Great spread here, yeah I got two pastors and two asadas to start!  Well worth it.  They let you go through the line, add some lime, cilantro, onions radish and salsa.  Makes it a nice little choose your own adventure.

Here's a picture of a young Tacoteer in his natural habitat.  He is carefully examining the tortilla and has a mixture of rice and pollo ready to be placed in before he skillfully attacks that taco.  If you don't know who that is, it is my youngest son, Jason the Juggernaut.  He is great and adventurous in eating as long as his big sister doesn't talk him out of it, which she commonly does!  He went through a couple of tortillas, a little chicken, but a ton of rice!

What a great day and what a great adventure.  It was wonderful getting to spend time with Anastasia and everyone excited to celebrate her birthday!  Proud of this sweet one year old.  Thank you to everyone for reading, telling people, re-tweeting, re-posting and indulging me as I go back in time with stories of childhood friendships that transform into the amazing relationships that they are today.  I do encourage everyone to eat more tacos, you are missing out if you are not eating them regularly already!  To find JR Tacos:
PHONE: (818) 730-9417
EMAIL: rmezatacos@gmail.com

Today's gratuitous photo is a photo of George and I from years ago at Ionian Village.  I'll let you guess who is who, the only hint is that I did not have my beard with me then! Thanks for reading.

STAY EXCELLENT!!!

Salvador Rodriguez Catering, I was in Chatsworth, he's from Compton

I was struggling on how I wanted to start this one off.  I was trying to find the right things to say.  We have an amazing tight nit community.  We have a group that enjoys spending time together.  We share in each other's successes, we help each other when we need.  There was a slew of nice, sweet things I wanted to say about the Saint Nick's community.  Instead I'll tell you a little more about the birthday boy himself.  Trumbo.

Trumbo, more known to all of us as Trevon is a great dude.  Always full of life, always a man that I've looked up to for his free spirit fun loving attitude.  A guy who literally turns his Jacuzzi into a smoky pool to entertain the kids that are at his birthday party.

So that card above was made by my daughter Eleni.  She was trying to write Trevon, but it looks like Trumbo so I enjoyed calling him that.  My kids love Trevon.  They get excited to see him everywhere.  He is the voice of the Valley Greek Festival every year on Memorial Day Weekend, and my children imitate him for weeks afterwards and try to be just like him.  He has taken Alexander to comic book stores, which is so cool because I am not a very patient person and have never been in one myself, but Alexander loves it and thinks it is awesome.  I've known Trevon and his whole family my whole life and I'm very lucky and grateful that he has been in my life for all this time.  His daughter Mia was the flower girl in my wedding.  She's kind of mean to people now, but that just entertains me and we all know her mom is one of the toughest smartest people around and is always a few steps ahead of this young lady who's almost done with high school.  Below is a picture of some of the things that Evie made and brought.  She is so crafty and awesome.

Trevon and his kick ass wife Jen have a most excellent back yard.  They do movie nights through the summer.  For Trevon's birthday, it was Empire Strikes Back!  Prior to the movie starting, he had Weird Al singing, I love the song and on the big screen, it was super cool.

Here is a photo of the set up that he does and then he is generous enough to invite many of us over to get to watch movies on this screen.  Last year he did a Ghostbuster's night just for my daughter Eleni who loves Ghostbusters.  She still does, we watched it today!

Here's a quick shot of some of the great folks who were there celebrating Trevon's birthday!  I can't say that I have anything but love and admiration for everyone in this photo.

Speaking of love, let me show you a photo of this dude cooking.  He was a very nice guy, he grills onions which were crazy good and also grills whole fresh jalapenos, yeah, I did eat three.  They were so damn good!  Pinto beans instead of refried, I go back and forth, these pinto beans may not have been as good as my cousin Lisa's, but they were solid.  Rice was fine, it was good rice.  This guy is a hard working good dude.  His food is good overall, but he is just a really nice guy.

Yeah, pastor just gets me excited.  Enough chatter, lets get down to business.
RATINGS:
ASADA: 3, it was great, I enjoyed it, it got better the longer it sat.
POLLO: 3, this I teeter tottered as a 4.  It is really good.  Tender, wells seasoned.  Something to talk about, I mean, heck, I'm still talking about it.
PASTOR: 4, yeah, it is that good.  After it sat for a bit, it got even better, it was so well seasoned, so well cooked, the care to this meat was amazing and it melted away on your tongue with the happiness that only seasoned meat can bring.
SALSA ROJO: 4, this spicy goodness was smoky and had a little twang from a pepper and I am not sure which one.  That intrigued me!
SALSA VERDE: 3, pretty run of the mill, good, heavy lime flavor.

If you are looking for a truck for a party I recommend this guy.  He also does carnitas and I hear that it is off the chain.  I do have another truck that I recommend, email me for their info, I have to go to another party that they are at and get some photos, do some rating and do some writing.
Contact info:
Salvador
Spanish: (323) 353-8303
English: (323) 240-4719

I really enjoyed chatting with him and watching him work.  Dude is a master of his craft!

Thank you again for reading.  Tonight's gratuitous goodbye photo is nothing short of awesome.  It is of the man, the myth, the legend, Trevon Kezios.  This is a photo of him heckling the captain of the boat on the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland.  Trevon not only is that guy, but he pulls it off and it is one of the many reasons that everyone who meets him loves him.  I am very thankful to have been invited to his birthday celebration.  Very Happy Birthday to an amazing dude.

Stay Excellent!

El Jacalito, Culver City, CA...Amber Birthday Lunch!

Yeah, this place is pretty interesting.  They left up the awning from Whole Foods, which has been gone for a damn long time.  Interesting place.  They do both Oaxacan and Mexican food.  Separated only by the page on the menu.  Very cool to have the options.  They try to appeal to anyone who is on their way down Washington to Santa Monica/Venice area.  The place doesn't really stand out.  You need to be looking for this place to find it.  If you are not really looking on the street, you will drive by it.  Signage is exactly what you see in the picture above.  Is it pricey?  Yes, the place is not afraid to charge you, be warned of that. It is "special occasion" Tacoteering.  Enough about this place for now, why were we there?  Who was I with, what was going on?

That is one of the many pictures of Amy.  Amy is one of the great folks that I work with.  I guess all that you can really see is her hand, but don't worry, there is going to be plenty of more pictures of her, whether or not she wants. The day before the actual anniversary of Amber's birth we went to surprise her.  Ramon orchestrated all of this.  He did quite an amazing job, but really, when does he not?  We have been buried.  All of us at work.  Have we been having fun?  Yeah, we have, but super, crazy busy.  We met at one of our locations, Built Custom Burgers and were working.  We told Amber that there was a place that I really wanted to go Tacoteering at and it was in Culver.  We definitely took the long way to get there.  We went all over the place.  Had we not used our phone to find the place, we probably would have gotten there in half the time.  We get there and take a seat inside.  Amber, Ramon and I.

Ahh Ramon, he is so cute.  Look at him excited to try his beverage.  I stuck with the same, water, no ice, no lemon, no straw.  Ramon ordered horcata, it comes with ice cream in it and Amber ordered a pumpkin beverage that we had never heard of.

 
Yes, those are the pictures of their drinks.  The inside of this place was simple, pretty cool.  Deli counter was still up and they used it to store their ice cream in.  They had a few flavors, I didn't really look.  We were there for a celebration which automatically means tacos.  This place is a very Mexican place.  Most folks sticking to Spanish.  The reason that I bring this up is because it was hilarious to be in there and then have the TV show Friends playing on the television.  A nice flat screen none the less.

As we were sitting there, we made sure that we were by the window.  We had been communicating with Amy.  She had picked up Danger.  Danger use to be the "office" dog at our home office for work.  When Carly our Graphic Designer took a position with another company, she took her dog Danger with her.  Everyone misses both of them, but Amber really misses Danger.  Danger was everyone's buddy.  Danger would greet everyone at the office, try to steal your food.  Amber went nuts when Amy walked around the corner with Danger.  It was awesome to see Amber get so excited.  She yelled, it was even better to see the confused patrons as Ramon, Amy and I were laughing while Amber is playing with Danger.

This is the excited embrace as they saw each other.  Yes, the look of joy on both of their faces was awesome.  I mean how cool is that?  Carly let someone pick up her dog and let the dog surprise someone else for their birthday?  I loved it.  Really cool to be there.  Again, kudos to Ramon, Amy and Carly.  Ramon and I asked if we could move our table outside to eat with Danger.  She was reluctant but allowed us to do it.  We took the table apart, took it outside and we got set up.  We then had to again take it apart and get it back inside.  So well worth it.  It was pretty cool.

So this is our set up, OOH, another Amy sighting!  Danger couldn't take his eyes off of Amber.  Back to some about the food. The chips they served are bad out of the bag corn tortilla chips.  The salsa they serve was unreal.  It was good.  I look forward to the ratings part.  Ramon ordered guacamole, another great call and the queso fundido, umm, not bad...

Nice presentation, but its about the flavor right?  Well that was not too shabby either.  The place is good.  Not top 10 good, but good.  We went through a lot of baskets of chips.  The salsa was just so addicting, the guacamole was off the charts.  The menu was huge, it took some time to get our food ordered.  Of course, we asked what kind of tacos.  They have Oaxacan and Mexican choices of meat.  The only part I found a bit off, is they normally serve it with lettuce.  Not a fan of that, but of course we just ordered no lettuce.  Ramon, Amber and I ordered tacos, Amy got their Mole.  Great call for all.  It was good to see everything on the table.

That was Amy's Mole, yes that is an Amy hair and purse siting in the photo.  The mole was pretty good.  Let just jump to it.

RATINGS:
CHIPS: 2, they could have received a 1, but they weren't stale and they did try to keep them warm, which is a nice touch.  I think I just love the use of a popcorn maker to keep chips warm.
QUESO FUNDIDO: 2, it wasn't horrible, but so many places do it better.  Cheese coagulated pretty quick, meat was really trapped on the bottom, it was also pretty greasy.
MOLE: 3, stuff was solid, but nothing unreal.  I was surprised that it was so highly recommended by the young lady that worked there.  She insisted that it was the best that they had.  It was not bad, but I was hoping for a solid 4, maybe a surprise 5.  Rice was bland, which didn't help.  Chicken was almost on the overcooked side, but not uncommon for mole.
CHORIZO: 3, nothing special here folks.  Good, nothing to be disappointed in, but nothing to call anyone and tell them about.
CECINA: 4, I thought they did a nice job here.  It was good.  A little more cooked then I normally prefer, but I would order it again.  It was pretty good stuff.  Salted well, but not over salty.  They season this on the grill by the flavor, not marinated, and do a good job.  I clearly liked it.
TASAJO: 3, this is one of my favorite things to order, but they overcooked it.  They tend to keep things over the flame a bit long here in general, but this one was really overdone.  I was a little bit sad.
ASADA: 4, this was interesting.  Might have been one of the better asadas I've had.  It was not chewy, one of the few things that was not at all overdone.  I was very happy with the flavor and the texture.
PASTOR: 4, good stuff.  You get some of that cooked pineapple!  Yum.  The meat was seasoned well, cooked nicely.  You get an explosion of flavors which is what I'm always looking for in Pastor.
GUACAMOLE: 5, never thought I'd see that.  It was a bit chunky, definitely made to order.  It had nice cut up cilantro, onions, garlic and a good dose of citrus.  Tasted like lemon and lime.  Really good stuff.  Worth and order if you ever go by.
SALSA: 5, this was the highlight of the food.  This stuff was addicting.  I had a dream about it last night. I want to bathe in this stuff.  It was spicy, sweet, savory, salty, tasty, smile making goodness!

Great sideways shot of tacos right?  Nice presentation, maybe a bit more cilantro and onions and use of a better quality tortilla?  Yeah, that would be a victory.  

Amber was into it right?  Great shot of how we are always on the taco attack.  It was all about her and her birthday.  Amber is great.  She takes amazing care of all of her friends and is one of the best I've gotten to work with. She is kind, giving, and very intelligent.  She does so much for all of us, we really wanted to surprise her and give her a quick break from the crazy long days that she's had.  Glad Danger made it out.

Yes, Danger made her happy.  It was great to get to see him again and great that he was able to join us for lunch.  Well, Happy Birthday Amber Morales.  You really are a great friend and I'm lucky to get to call you a co-worker.  Amy and Ramon were excellent.  Very cool, very nice job making this happen.  Carly, we miss you at work and thank you for being a stealthy part of this.  Danger, you rock.  

I hope everyone enjoys this story.  It is again a testament to how it doesn't always matter what you eat, but who you eat it with.  The food was great, which is a heck of a bonus.  The journey, the story, the company, that is what really makes it awesome.  Before I go I want to thank everyone for reading, tweeting, posting and following The Order of the Taco.  It continues to take off and the friends that are in this group and the people that are on this blog are amazing and help make my life better everyday.  Before I sign off, I'd like to show you one more gratuitous Amy Chu photo:

Stay Excellent All!