A Few Favorite Tacos from Taqueando, and where to find them

I mostly avoid food festivals these days (long lines, hungry people, ugh) but a festival called Taqueando? Of course I was there. The all-you-can-eat taco festival featuring chefs and taqueros mostly from Southern California and Mexico is Bill Esparza’s reincarnation of Tacolandia, the former LA Weekly-sponsored festival (now independently funded because LA Weekly is owned by conservative a-holes). Despite my food festival kvetching, this festival illustrated perfectly why these types of events can be so important to cities. Especially in LA, where it’s a challenge to get from one end of town to the other, Taqueando was an opportunity to taste food from all over the city. Eaters got to try tacos they may have been lusting after in their IG feeds, and they got to try tacos from places they probably haven’t heard of. And while I think folks were excited to sample from places just over the border like La Guerrerense, Corazon de Tierra, and Tras Horizonte, I’d bet it was also an educational experience for people who haven’t traveled south yet. The vendors seemed genuinely happy to be there too.

Also, the festival was nicely managed, with the lines not too long and lots of aguas and mineral water to wash down the masa and meat. Not to be like “I’m an event producer so I know things,” but I am an event producer and I noticed that clearly the tickets were capped out of consideration for the guests and the vendors— they could have sold way more tickets. Don’t miss it next year if you like tacos (and if not, why are the heck are you here?)

A few of my favorite bites from stands in the area that you might not know about:

Poncho’s Tlayudas

A classic Oaxacan snack, tlayudas are thin and crispy tortillas that typically host asiento (lard) beans, cheese, lettuce, tomato and meat on top like a pizza, or folded and crisped up on a grill or comal. Not all tlayudas are created equally though, sometimes they are too dry, or overly loaded with one ingredient (like so cheesy you can’t untangle your mouth from the quesillo). I’ve been meaning to get to Poncho’s stand on Friday nights where they offer homemade moronga (blood sausage) and heirloom corn tlayudas from Oaxaca. It did not disappoint, with a healthy amount of juicy cabbage and salsa to balance the smokey masa and richness of the moronga served on the side. Next to the stand, Odilia, Poncho’s partner hosted a booth for Frente Indígena de Organizaciones Binacionales, a community-based org and coalition of indigenous organizations, communities, and individuals settled in Oaxaca and California. She gave me a cookbook by indigenous Oaxacan women living in LA, so I walked away extra juiced from these two stands.

Dos Tierras

I was delighted to see this crew from San Diego, who I had the pleasure of collaborating with for my event Mexico in a Bottle in Barrio Logan. There’s a lot that’s cool about them. Their dope logo is a start, but also they serve vegan, vegetarian and meat tacos. Often I find with vegan food that the positioning is anti-meat versus pro-veggie— and you can taste it in the boring soyrizo tacos. I’d always rather have an original like their enoki adovation: enoki mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli marinated in pineapple vinegar and guajillo chiles. BBQ flavors mingled with a layer of beans, topped with tangy curtido and a pleasant habanero beat salsa, plus cotija and fried onions for a little crunch. Their slightly thicker handmade tortillas are great too. Check them out at pop-ups in southern california.

La Huesuda Tacos

Slow braised pork ribs in grilled guajillo and BBQ sauce with chile de arbol pepper aioli and pineapple won me over here. Apparently I’m diggin interesting takes on BBQ flavors these days. Check them out as they pop-up around town.

Some of my other favorites from places that have more fama:

La Embajada

I know cauliflower has long been the new kale, but it was struttin yesterday with a number from Guerrilla Tacos and a fish taco riff from this restaurant in Monterrey, Mx. The battered and golden cauliflower was crispy and airy, cut by a burnt salsa macha with pickled onions.

Corazon De Tierra

Chef Diego Hernández represented his beautiful restaurant in Valle de Guadalupe with a striped bass taco from Todos Santos.

Breddos

I didn’t spot too many insects at the festival, but this London-based restaurant made up for it with a fat and crunchy chicatana on top of a cured rockfish and nectarine tostada.

Broken Spanish

Pork prensado with hibiscus pickled onions— as vibrant as it looked.

Sonoratown (pictured at top)

I had about 15 tacos by this point, but who can turn down a freshly made flour tortilla, the smell of mesquite, or a luscious guacamole splat? Not I.

Chichen Itza

Yucatan represented by none other than the poc chuc taco with two types of habanero salsa to sample. I have been missing Yucatan but a trip here might help with that.

A night in San José del Pacífico

Where to eat, sleep and get some peace in Oaxaca’s magic mushroom town

Between Oaxaca city and the pacific coast there is a notoriously precarious road through the mountains. Midway through the journey is a town called San José del Pacífico, which is known for its cabins tucked into dense pine tree forests, and the only species of magic mushrooms endemic to Mexico. There is also a tattoo artist here who inks hummingbirds and cactus flowers and triangles into constellations. In the same studio you can find his wife’s apothecary: body oils and serums that smell like the warm breeze outside their family cabin in the woods. There is also a roadside restaurant where chilacayote lounges on the porch outside, and the cook inside makes a silky yellow mole that put to shame any version I had in Oaxaca city. The town is strewn across the highway about 8,000 feet above sea level, so if you come just remember to bundle up and let the mist or the hallucinogens roll over you. 

Thanks to Omar (Oaxacking) for taking me on this adventure. 

Where to eat:

Restaurante Lupita

At this restaurant you’ll find a crop of watermelon shaped squash called chilacayote guarding the door, a nursery’s worth of cactus plants for sale, and ponchos and yarn tchotchkes hanging inside like Christmas tinsel. As with a lot of places to eat on the side of the road anywhere, the menu is told to you with a few options for the day. I was torn between the chicken soup and beef with yellow mole. The later satisfied my yearning for a good mole. It was earthy with subtle heat and tender hunks of beef, potatoes and carrots. If there is a more perfect drink to have in the mountains than atole with panela, please send it my way (and yes, mezcal is pretty good too except that the altitude will get you much more drunk than you thought you were gonna be which I learned when I slithered from the bathroom floor to bed later that night). 

San Mateo Rio Hondo

Down the road a ways there is another town, called San Mateo Rio Hondo, where vines grow out of an abandoned church wall, the stairs still there but leading to nowhere. The town feels plugged into the hillside, the red dirt sprouting tall purple and red flowers. 

There’s a juice bar up a little from the basketball court with the retro turquoise blender and cherry red orange juice squeezer of hipster dreams. Also, baskets of jicamas, carrots and beets. I got a papaya and orange juice and she makes a good chocomilk too. 

Up the hill a little is Comedor las Amapolas (which means poppies), the name handpainted two different ways outside the building and drawn in old English on the wood panels inside. To a local the sight of a comal with a pot of beans and fried eggs starting to bubble might be as common as butter on toast in the U.S., but in my mind that’s an extraordinary start to the day. When the pile of peppers and onions began to mingle sweetly with the smells of carne asada, and she asked if we wanted a sopita then the morning was officially won.

Beans, eggs and rice was all I wanted, the sopa de fideos and delicate but spicy salad of radishes, chiles and cilantro were the extra points. 

Also, in this town if you ask for propsero or Posada Yegoyoxi there is a gringo-Mexican family with Italian roots and the son and father have a pig ranch, you can grab some sausages to take home. This also doesn’t look like a bad place to spend the night. 

Where to stay

There are a number of options here, but Omar took us to Cabañas La Puesta del Sol. Simple but comfortable wood cabins face the mountains, the patios outside equipped with lounge chairs and benches for meditative forest gazing. There’s a fireplace and you can request extra blankets to stay cozy. The grounds are strewn with hanging plants from trees, crawling agaves and flowers. At night if you bring candles (to make out the shadows of your mezcal bottles) there’s not much else besides your friends’ beautiful faces and the stars to look at. In the mornings the birds will sing back and forth and the sun will wrestle the morning clouds for a little more sky.

What about those mushrooms tho…?

Apparently July through October is mushroom season. Otherwise you can find them dried but everyone said it’s worth it to get them fresh.