It's been too long since I have had taco-related content on here.
I'm not fond of Los Angeles. I believe I'm on record as saying it's essentially God's greatest mistake. Its people, by and large, are pretty neat though. It gets some of its local color in the form of mobile taco trucks that primarily serve the sizeable Latino population spread throughout the area. Under the guise of concerns for public safety and sanitation, the city is attempting to ban the trucks. This is considered such a slap in the face to long-time residents that even the New York Times is writing front-pagers about the controversy. And taco lovers from around the country are joining Angelenos in solidarity at SaveOurTacoTrucks.org.
Tacos are street food. They are Poor People Food. They are not something to be dressed up and served in fancy restaurants (although I hate most of the cast, I have unending respect for this guy from Top Chef for refusing, on principle, to make an "upscale taco"). Of course taco trucks, like most mobile food service, present some sanitation concerns. Let's be frank – you're not expecting hospital-quality cleanliness when ordering a taco from a converted school bus. We're adults and we understand what we're buying.
While the local government's actions are cloaked in a lot of language about litter or health and safety concerns, SOTT and many other observers have speculated that it has a lot more to do with large crowds of Latinos gathering in neighborhoods wherever the trucks stop. God forbid a bunch of people mill around a truck and talk in a parking lot or on a street corner. That would upset the delicate beauty of….Los Angeles? The smog-choked, traffic-strangled asshole of the world? Come on.
Much like when Chicago tried to ban Eloteros, I think that the local government involved in this controversy have forgotten a cardinal, 500 year old rule of politics: don't fuck with what people eat.
Kulkuri says:
If there are fewer Taco Trucks, there will be more room for the guys selling velvet paintings of Elvis.
Kreggg says:
Cheap,delicious, and mobile food is dangerous to a system that runs on establishment and private property. This is the same county (LA) that will arrest catholic aid workers for handing out food (under the guise of disorderly conduct) to homeless people in a state park with benches that (gasp) could be used by homeless people to eat instead of soccer moms and snowbirds.
j says:
I love my taco truck! Save my cheap mexican food!
A truck comes by my building every day promptly at 1:15 PM and announces its arrival with a vainglorious flourish blasted from its high-wattage horn. And then all the hungry and yearning masses come streaming in. Two mexican senoras work the grill, one with platinum teeth, and the only words I can understand from her are 'taco' and 'burrito'. You have never tasted a better steak burrito: a delicious two-meal A-bomb at the ridiculous bargain of $4.00, about half the going market rate. Perhaps the best part is that the coffee machine is built right into the side of the truck.
But even on this idyllic campus these fine new Americans' pursuit of happiness is being infringed: they have been persecuted by parking tickets and harassment from the campus police. Which both of the ladies complain about, one of which is intelligible to me. I am unhappily unsurprised that there is growing opposition to the taco trucks that is organized by a major city.
peggy says:
Kulkuri, does that make you pro or con? I… I can't tell…
Meghan says:
Mmmmmmm. Tacos. But I do also love velvet Elvis… We have a velvet Elvis hanging in our house, but no tacos. Maybe the next NPF should be on this topic instead, mhmm?
J. Dryden says:
As a native of Los Angeles (there are, in fact, a few of us, though most of the city is populated by people who moved here for the sole purpose of bitching about how much it sucks, and if all of you would just fucking leave, it wouldn't–you people *are* the problem–but I digress), I'm appalled and horrified by the idea of losing this element to the city's appealing element of non-glamour. There are, in fact, a few genuine fragments of culture in L.A., usually involving things you don't have to get dressed up for: the beach in July, Disneyland (I know what you're thinking and shut up–out-of-towners and natives do not go to the same Disneyland–ours is full of genuine childhood memories of making out with our first girlfiends on cool rides that aren't there anymore), and of course the best Mexican food anywhere (including Mexico.) And Mexican food is anathema to the American system of values because the cheaper it is, the *better* it usually is. A taco bought off a truck will be ten times better than one purchased at a glass-table-topped 'cantina' on Melrose. It's the dark secret of the financial world–cheap is often better than pricey. So naturally the Powers That Be want to shut this down–it's the *true* L.A. that reveals the lie that is the Nice Clean Shiny Plastic L.A. that brings in the tax revenues. Alas, as the debasement of Times Square shows (as well as the less-noted loss of L.A.'s Farmer's Market to an outdoor mall that gobbled it up like a Lovecraftian horror), the side of good often loses these battles…
Kulkuri says:
Peggy, I have eaten food from break trucks from L.A. to Long Island and have no problem with them. I posted the comment as a joke.