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June 21, 2007
Don't mess with my taco trucks
So the particular Camazotzian suburb of Raleigh that I'm stuck in for the next few days makes Kenner look like fucking Prague, but that doesn't excuse the narrow-minded Caucasian Food Blandness Act of 2007 passed in Jefferson Parish. Ban taco trucks? Are they nuts? A hundred years ago this line of reasoning would have banned the muffulettas and poor-boys that those invading hordes of Sicilians were using to corrupt our youth.
In regions of the US where Mexican and Central American culture is strong, like Texas, the taco is the equivalent of the poor boy. Everybody eats them, all the time, you can get one on every corner, neighborhoods and cities will argue over who has the best tacos, what makes a proper taco, what neuvo innovations are sacreligious and what classic traditions are worth defending.
Bringing real tacos, real Mexican and Central American food to New Orleans in a familiar form (and taco trucks are practically an indigenous cultural icon) is a good thing for this region.
Jefferson Parish can do what they want, but New Orleans, we need to keep these folks and their food.
Posted by ray at June 21, 2007 8:01 AM | Permalink
Categories: [food | new orleans ]
Comments
Hey Ray-- is it Cary? You may now understand why I moved back to Austin, if not why I moved away.
P.S. This blog post is now the #1 result in Google for "Camazotzian". I never read A Wrinkle in Time, I feel bad about that.
Posted by: Josh at June 21, 2007 10:45 AM
The tamales save me each time I have to make a run out to the Power Blvd. environs, and they want to get rid of their vehicles and vendors? Shame.
Posted by: Maitri at June 21, 2007 11:10 AM
I think we're actually on the outskirts of Cary, rather than in the bustling metropolis itself. Near Highway 1 and Kildaire Farms. On the plus side, there is a Whole Foods nearby. On the minus side, that's all there is.
Everything here is spotless, brand new, smiley and polite. It's awful.
#1 for camazotzian? That's awesome. I'm only #2 for "fuck texas".
Posted by: Ray at June 21, 2007 11:53 AM
You realize I'm having visions of organizing an air lift of several tons of chiles to the City Council, right? Or parish council or whatever....the idjits who made the decision. Doused in chipotle, screaming poblanos.... Ahhhh.... feel the burn.
Posted by: darkneuro at June 21, 2007 12:30 PM
Speaking of which...
You have any taco truck recommendations in town?
Posted by: candice at June 21, 2007 2:34 PM
Nah, they move around too much. The al pastor tacos at the one that used to park at Claiborne & Carrollton were really good, but they move on for obvious reasons.
Posted by: Ray at June 21, 2007 3:07 PM
Ack! Sounds like you may be out in Morrisville or thereabouts. >>>Shudder...
Posted by: Gregg P. at June 21, 2007 4:37 PM
Are there any S-------s in Camazotz?
Despite the Texan appreciation of taco yumminess, I remember reading an article in the Chronicle about the efforts to "clean up" the taco trucks on Riverside. Cultural suicide via xenophobia, that is.
Posted by: Hiromi at June 21, 2007 5:08 PM
Ray, as a man who cooks I should think you'd make your own tacos anyway. :)
My mom (from NM)taught me to make them when I was about 10. I make my own.
Tacos 101:
1. Making tacos with those hard taco shells is like using canned shrimp in gumbo.
2. Real tacos are not made with flour tortillas.
Have you ever had New Mexico tacos? They're assembled flat....stacked like pancakes with the meat and fixings in between the (home-made if you're lucky) corn tortillas.
Posted by: charlotte at June 21, 2007 6:19 PM
Well, the thing with tacos is the tortillas have to be awesome or why bother, and I'm not gonna make my own tortillas at home any more than I'm gonna bake a loaf of Leidenheimer's to make a poor boy. Problem is store-bought tortillas routinely suck, at least around here.
Good flour tortillas are awesome, but decent flour tortillas are still good. Whereas an excellent soft corn tortilla is heavenly, while average corn tortillas suck. The margin for error is different.
And some tacos just don't belong on flour. Al pastor tacos require corn. They just do. We can argue pineapple or not, but corn tortillas are non-negotiable.
Posted by: Ray at June 21, 2007 6:33 PM
I had a brain fart. The stacked NM thingie is enchiladas, not tacos. More wine, please.....
And yes you are right about the quality of the tortillas but I still say home-made is better even with the ones we have here. What do you think those taco truck folks are using? I seriously doubt they're making tortilla runs to Mexico.
I'll be shopping for some decent tortillas when I go to NM next month - flour and corn.
Pineapple? No thanks, I'm a purist.
And no sour cream. I suspect serving sour cream on Mexican food is an American invention. Ick.
BTW - I also make killer chile rellenos.
Posted by: charlotte at June 21, 2007 7:26 PM
My husband, a Californian by birth, saw that report on the news last night and immediately said, "Bullshit - this is racist."
Period.
Damned JP gringos.
Posted by: liprap at June 21, 2007 9:16 PM
I'm angry but not at all surprised. Remember Jeff Parish back in 1987 when Harry Lee announced that stupid thing about stopping any nonwhite people he saw in the parish because, after all, what are they doing there anyway? And everyone was applauding him, but they said he should have done it without an announcement. Fabulous. Jeff Parish obviously hasn't changed a bit. I hope to hell I never have to live there again.
Ahem. On a non-ranty note, Robert Rodriguez is happy to show you how to make quick and easy tortillas:
Posted by: Jette at June 22, 2007 6:51 PM
The video was awesome....and I don't mean the food!!
Seriously, home-made tortillas are the best. My step-mother (who is Mexican) made great tortillas for her NM enchiladas. I miss that.
Hmmm.....maybe I should give it a try.
Ray - I am tired of having to type name, email add, url every single time. Whassup w/that?
Posted by: Charlotte at June 22, 2007 9:28 PM
So I got linked by MetaFilter (says a friend, I don't normally read it myself).
Will one of you folks who are registered there please go and point out that New Orleans did not ban taco trucks? It was Jefferson Parish which did that, and Jefferson and Orleans do not overlap even one tiny bit.
I'd do it myself but they want $5 for me to register, and I'd rather spend that money on a couple of al pastors.
Posted by: Ray at July 16, 2007 1:23 PM
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