Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Taco Truck and Bar Crawl

The Route of our crawl

Tacos at El Pique






The guys enjoying their tacos





Carne Asada at La Estrella



No tables here!


Reviewing the menu at Taco Zone








Condiments and Salsa at Taco zone









The taco truck craze in LA is phenomenal! I had to find out what the hype was all about and enlisted one of my very talented friends, John Lopez to map out a night of tacos and beer madness. John not only was born and raised in LA but writes for the LA Times and Vanity Fair, I thought he'd be the perfect ring leader. After doing a little research myself, I told him that a definite spot to hit was Highland Park.








To start, we met up at my loft in downtown where we quickly swished down a few Coronas, tortilla chips and freshly made guacamole. All 5 of us piled in John's car and away we went to Highland Park. Our first truck, the famed La Estrella, where we orderd a few carne asada and carnita tacos. Sad to say they had not finished cooking up the al pastor which I hear they are known for. Regardless, the carne asada was delicious, moist, flavorful with a perfect spicy red salsa. We decided to compare the same tacos next door at El Pique. Unfortunately, the carne asada was not as tasty as La Estrella but no complaints as the salsa was vibrant and spicier which complimented the taco nicely.








Next stop was Verdugo bar, dark, dingy, and 90s music with various beers on tap, my kind of place. We chilled for awhile and wanted to get a little loose before our next taco stop but unfortunately the line at the bar was unbearable. So, after our beer we moseyed over to Taco Zone in Los Feliz. We kept it consistent and ordered Carne Asada and Carnitas. We also tried the Mulita, a vegetarian delight of cheese sstuffed into a corn taco. Suadero (beef brisket) is a highlight there. Taco Time had a variety of condiments and salsa which I highly praise. However I found the carnitas to be dry and the carne asada bland. The Suadero was awesome, very flavorful.









It was midnight, we were tired and our plans of hitting Coles or the Association in downtown came to an end. All and all it was a fun time and I'd love to do it again, hey, maybe I'll make this an annual thing. Any other suggestions?