LA Smells Like Tacos
The title doesn’t lie. Everywhere I have been in Tinsel Town there has been the wafting aroma of tacos. LAX? Tacos. Santa Monica? Tacos. Marina del Ray, Bevery Hills, Hollywood? Tacos. I don’t mean that in any derogatory way. Oh no, it’s a compliment. It smells terrific.
The tacos that produce that intoxicating odor are not the pseudo tacos with fried corn shells or worse those using a seldom seen ingredient in Mexico, flour. These are the real deal – grilled corn tortillas filled with any variation of slow-cooked or grilled (and sometimes both) meat like Asada or Cochinita Pibil.
After two days of trekking about LA sampling the offerings of great chefs like Wolfgang Puck it was time to listen to my nose. But I had two problems A) I don’t know where to find any taco stands and two, my feet were still killing me from hours of mingling at the TASTYs after-party. So I did what our fore-fathers would have done. I Googled “food delivery Hollywood” to find a place that would bring tacos to my hotel room.
I stumbled on a great service called LAbite.com that picks up food from a number of restaurants and delivers it to your door. I punched in the zip code of where I was staying and up pops several restaurants of varying cuisines for me to choose from. I went with Frida Taqueria in Beverly Hills. I was rewarded with a truck load of the good stuff.
I ordered a taco sampler with Carnitas (slow roasted pork), Cochinita Pibil (Slow-roasted pork marinated in citrus juice), Pastor (Roasted pork in a special marinated sauce), Asada (grilled tenderloin strips) and a pair of Fish Tacos. I also had them bring me some Guac and Chips and a fresh order of Churros. What arrived was a revelation. The tacos were amazingly thick with stuffing, each morsel better than the last.
The guacamole was smooth with chunks of avocado that announce on the first bite that you haven’t had avocados until you’ve had fresh avocados. They were very sweet and succulent.
The Churros, however, stole the show. My previous experience with these south of the border donuts has been from the freezer department of the grocery store. These were so much better as to be a different dish altogether with a soft filling that was the perfect foil to the crunchy exterior and cinnamon-sugar dusting. And unlike so many American desserts they were not so sweet that all flavor was lost.
In conclusion, and in summary, Frita Taqueria has great tacos and their Churros are fantastic, LAbite.com is a great service and no matter how comfortable the shoes five hours on concrete will make your feet hurt.