Why so much fuss about tacos?

A common icebreaker or get to know someone question is “if you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?”. I can honestly answer that by saying tacos, particularly from taco trucks. As a native of Merced, a city in the Central Valley of California, taco trucks have been a constant in my life and diet since I was a child. These small stores on wheels are ubiquitous throughout the Central Valley, easily found in and between cities. Ask any local and they will know where at least one of these trucks are, and most will even recommend you their favorite one. However, as I have noticed with many people who move here, they have no idea the quality of food that these trucks offer. Even many locals who adore these trucks don’t realize the depth that goes into the decision making process of how to present this simple and elegant food. 

When it comes to any food that is prepared and sold hundreds of times each day, each part of the process is planned and intentional. Tacos are no exception. For example, let’s take a simple carne asada taco, a dish that has been prepared countless times in my region. How small do you cut the meat? Are you going for a melt in your mouth feel or more texture? Let’s say you want more texture, are you frying the meat off evenly on the grill or leaving the bottom to crisp up and the top stay chewier? How long is it staying on the grill? Are you adding any extra liquid or fat while it’s grilling? Are you grilling the skirt steak off whole and then cutting it up, or cutting it up before it hits the grill? Are you getting your primary flavors from a marinade, relying on a salsa, or some combination of both? What’s in your salsa? How much salsa goes on each taco? Do you put on the salsa yourself or have a salsa bar that customers can use themselves? Are your tortillas flour or corn? Are you using one or two per taco? Did you fry off the tortillas to get them crispy? If so, are you crisping up just one or both of the tortillas? What vegetables are you offering on the side? Chiles, hot carrots, radishes? Are your chiles jalapeños, or serranos? Pickled or grilled? 

All of these are decision points that I have seen go in many different ways. Some people swear on a salsa verde versus a salsa rojo. Some think that if the tortillas aren’t corn they aren’t authentic. And most think that the correct answer is whatever that truck they went to growing up did. Regardless of what is “right”, they are worth discussing, recommending, and recording. 

That is the purpose of this project. It is not a set of reviews. It is not a paid promotion trucks can use to advertise. I want to make a (mostly) objective record of the various taco trucks in my area. Taco trucks are very much an oral tradition here as opposed to places like LA or New York where street food icons have been given much more fanfare. Without knowing someone to give recommendations, it is hard to discern the food you will get from one truck compared to another. I would like to compile a resource that has this information for whoever deems it interesting or helpful and hopefully we can get more people outside of our own little community to recognize the value of my favorite aspect of my home.