El Gallito

A couple of nights ago I was in Culver City for an art opening and, feeling peckish, my associate and I made the short walk to Tacos El Gallito at the intersection of Venice and La Cienega. Between the time I took this picture and the time it took to walk to the truck, a table was covered with multiple garnish containers was set up outside the truck. The garnishes included onions and cilantro, radishes and a salsas of many colors and flavors. The tacos (Lengua and Carnitas) were delicious as they seem to always be at taco trucks. The meat pieces were larger than average, moist and tender. Gallito serves a thoroughly cooked melt-in-your-mouth onion and a grilled jalapeno on the side.

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Taco Trucks in Los Angeles? Yes.

This morning a colleague took me to one of his favorite local Taco Trucks, La Estrella.

I ordered one al pastor and one carnitas taco. My esteemed colleague ordered Carnitas and carne asada.

The tacos were served with a smokey (chipotle?) chile sauce. The meat was tender and juicy. Some people do not like the word juicy prescribed to meat but more people dislike the word moist. I might even say most dislike moist. La Estrella is located on York about a half a block before Avenue 54.

My esteemed and respected colleague suggested that we try another truck's offerings. We immediately made the trek to the corner of York and Avenue 54, a half block away, to Tacos El Pique.

I ordered the same at El Pique, pastor and carnitas. My trusted, esteemed, and stylish colleague and I agreed that the meat was less flavorful than Estrella. I thought El Pique's tacos had a fresh taste that I quite liked. Perhaps the cucumber garnish had something to do with that. I would suggest El Pique over Estrella if you were not in the mood for a smokey salsa.

So far, like Idaho taco trucks, all the food was delicious.

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Notes

Note to self: Take notes next time I visit a taco truck. Hmm. Nothing to write on. I'll just remember.

Tacoslapiedad

If you are in Caldwell and enjoy viewing wildlife while eating your favorite mexican food I recommend TACOSLAPIEDAD. Look carefully and you will see a Yellow-bellied marmot, locally known as a rock chuck, above. There were many of these wood chuck sized rodents nearby watching us, standing of their haunches and whistling.

You might also consider Tacoslapiedad the next time you need a muffler as the truck is parked in the SW corner of the Meineke parking lot. The food was, as usual, yummy. I recommend the burria, locally known as rock chuck (kidding - burria is goat) which I have not seen at Boise trucks.

A note on the name: I was referring to this truck as "Slapiedad," but that did not sound right. Then it occurred to me that the 's' was the pluralization of taco. But Lapiedad sounded wrong too. Eventually I arrived at Tacos La Piedad, as in piety. Tacos of compassion.

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Al Pastor

I found this video on The Great Taco Hunt. I have seen one truck in Idaho serve al pastor like this (on a much smaller scale) and it was the best taco I have ever had. I wasn't even hungry.