Donde Comer, 12/12 to 12/13: Las Vegas' El Shuko Truck is Delivering Guatemalan Hot Dogs to L.A. This Weekend

A Shuco with all the fixin's at Los Mismos del Liceo in Guatemala City

Great news my friends, the El Shuko Truck is setting up in Los Angeles this weekend which will give you a chance to try Guatemala's famous shucos (Guatemalan hot dogs) and mixtas (hot dog tacos) along with some tasty Guatemalan antojitos (little whims). 

I've been following the only shuco truck in the U.S closely and am happy to report that after the New Year, the El Shuko Truck will be permanently stationed in L.A. I was formally introduced to shucos a year and a half ago while touring Guatemala, and this truck run by Cristian Guzmán is representing this traditional hot dog with pride and flavor. Don't miss it. 

El Shuko Truck is planting it's flag in L.A.

Mixtas (hog dog tacos) on the grill at Los Mismos del Liceo in Guatemala City

El Shuko Truck, 1025 E. 54th St. , South Park, (702) 927-7625, Saturday, December 12 from 2pm to 10pm and Sunday, December 13 from noon to 8pm, Follow them on Twitter and Instagram @ElShukoTruck

Street Gourmet LA, A Food Related Snapchatter to Follow in LA Magazine's Digest

My Los Angeles Magazine colleague and cocktail writer extraordinaire, Caroline Pardilla, aka Caroline on Crack, recently included me in a roundup on Los Angeles Magazine's Digest of food related Snapchatters  to follow for my street food crawls throughout Latin America and mad heckling skills.

And there's even more as I explore a full array of dining experiences from the finest tables in Latin America, L.A. as well as other international destinations to the colorful world of mom and pop eateries and street food temples.

Snapchat is a social media platform that I've embraced for its ability to bring followers along for the ride, giving them a genuine experience unobtainable on other media like Instagram and Twitter. So, what are you waiting for? Vamos a comer! @streetgourmetla on Snapchat

Catch My Taco Crawl With Phil Rosenthal and Larry Wilmore on Episode 6 of I'll Have What Phil's Having

               

In cased you missed the Los Angeles episode of I'll Have What Phil's Having on PBS, here is the entire episode. In addition to top name chefs and brilliant comedians like Paul Reiser and Martin Short, I appeared on the show leading Phil and Larry Wilmore on a taco crawl in Boyle Heights and the Arts District, eating amazing tacos at Carnitas El Momo, Mariscos Jalisco and Guerrilla Tacos (another top L.A. chef). Enjoy!

Join Club Tengo Hambre for our 3rd Annual Thanksgiving in Baja on Saturday, November 28th

Skip the cold leftover turkey sandwiches--on second thought, make that comforting sandwich to go and head down to the Valle de Guadalupe on Saturday, November 28th with Club Tengo Hambre for our 3rd annual Thanksgiving in Baja at chef Javier Plascencia's picturesque Finca Altozano, with Las Nubes wines poured by oenologist, Victor Segura.


CTH was just featured in Condé Nast Traveler's, Valle de Guadalupe: Baja California's Surprising Wine (andFood) Destination, which named the Valle de Guadalupe as the next great wine country. CTH was "founded by a group of writers and bloggers living on both sides of the border, hosts popular events and guided tours centered around the region's food and wine that will have you feeling like an insider in no time"--David Landsel, Conde Nasté Traveler.

It's a fantastic opportunity to extend America's comfort food holiday with a quick getaway for couples and friends to the next great wine destination, Valle de Guadalupe, with Club Tengo Hambre.


Click on the link to purchase your ticket(s) now.

Happy National Taco Day: Here are the Best 25 Tacos in L.A.

This is the only best taco list you'll ever need, the rankings aren't very important as I didn't really order them, but these are the best 25 tacos in L.A from Los Angeles Magazine's Taco issue. Enjoy and Happy National Taco Day!!!

Feria de Los Moles 2015, October 4th, 2015, the Largest Mexican Food Festival in the U.S.A.

The 8th Annual Feria de Los Moles, founded by Pedro Ramos and organized by Vesper PR's Mariluz Gonzalez,  takes over Olvera Street this Sunday to showcase traditional moles from Puebla, Tlaxcala, Oaxaca and more with delicious adobos (moles with vinegar), pipianes (pumpkin seed moles) and moles. The event is the largest food event, and the largest Mexican food event in the U.S. with live music, special guests like representatives from the City of Atlixco, Puebla which is Celebrating Their 50th Anniversary of Huey Atlizcayotl.


It's a family oriented event in the Los Angeles Mexican community--not your typical divide and conquer tasting event where you and your crazy, gluttonous friends try to rack up a high Instagram food porn count, but an event where you enjoy a plate of mole with friends and family while listening to a nice cumbia. As much as I've always longed for a tasting event to sample lots of mole, I've gotten over it, and have learned to appreciate the Mole Fest for what it is: the best Mexican food event in town for traditional Mexican cuisine. So, here's an easy system for sampling lots of mole.


First, you must arrive early--10a.m.-- and come with a hungry bunch so you can order multiple plates to share. There are many of our local Oaxacan restaurants there, but give the home cooks a shot, especially those from Puebla, because they have been some of the strongest stands at the event. Not to mention that last year, mole royalty showed up; chef Liz Galicia of El Mural de Los Poblanos came to cook the refined Pueblan moles from one of Puebla's most famous restaurants. Anything from Tlaxcala is a must, because you've never tried them and they're in the same league as the Pueblan and Oaxacan varieties.

Miss Mole, 2014, Briana Marquez


But make room for mole caderas, a specialty of Tehuacán,Puebla; it was the most memorable dish from the 2014 edition of Feria de Los Moles and puts birria to shame. The flavor profile is similar to a birria but richer and packed with string beans. The dish usually involves fresh slaughtered young goats that are prepared immediately after a ritual killing as part of a festival that takes place on October 20th in Tehuacán called Festival de la Matanza.
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Mole de caderas from Puebla, Mexico

Chef Liz Galicia from the world famous El Mural de Los Poblanos

Do it yourself mole tasting: pipian rojo, adobo and mole poblano

The event is free to the public, and it's a pay as you go set up for food and it's your best bet in trying Mexico's famous moles prepared by skilled cooks and chefs at one of the best food events Los Angeles has even seen.

8th Annual Feria de Los Moles, Sunday, October 4th, 10a.m. to 7p.m. Olvera Street, http://www.feriadelosmoles.com/home/?se=1&idi=1

My Ultimate Guide to Regional Mexican Cuisine in L.A. on First We Feast

Ever since Pulitzer Prize winning L.A. Times Food Critic, Jonathan Gold, wrote in a 2007 LA Weekly post that L.A. practically has every region in Mexico represented with the exception of Chiapas, many other writers around the country have assumed this to be gospel. This was never true, and at the time, the article even mentioned regions that were not represented at all, as some of the restaurants counted were not regional restaurants.


So, from this day forward, consider the record corrected in The Essential Guide to Regional Mexican Food in Los Angeles, a post I recently did for First We Feast. And while we don't have all regions represented, our depth goes beyond provincial dishes, making Los Angeles second to none in the U.S.

East L.A. Independence Day Parade


I hope you enjoy the guide and get a chance to dig in to all these delicious regional gems in Los Angeles, the second largest Mexican city in the world.

Donde Comer, September 18-20: Tacos La Carreta, Compton, CA

L.A.'s first legit northern Mexican taco cart


It just doesn't stop here in L.A.We are gaining new traditional, regional vendors each week, whether they've been around a month like Tacos La Carreta, or 15 years, hidden from mainstream food media.

As a writer for Los Angeles Magazine, restaurant consultant, fixer for food television and editor of this blog, it has been my job to find great shit. Whether it be the streets of L.A., Mexico, Brasil, Guatemala, or anywhere else in Latin America, I find shit, professionally.

These past few years have seen increased activity as many jobs that come up, as well as for my beat at L.A. Magazine, require me to find new places, constantly. And, to the petty food critic out there who has begun to trivialize my contributions to you diners, all I have to say is, what is your job? Apparently, to not find shit.

2 Generations of badness, Jose Morales Jr. and Sr.


My latest find I just published in Los Angeles Magazine's Digest is about Compton's Tacos La Carreta, and it's one of the best, a real carne asada vendor doing special tacos from Mazatlan, Sinaloa. And, this is my pick for you to explore this Sunday, as that's currently the only day they're out.

True carne asada is cooked over mesquite

Finding great Latin American food only helps to lift up Los Angeles as a dining destination and to reinforce its status as the best city for Latin American dining in the U.S., especially for Mexican cuisine. So, that's what we're going to keep on doing. I find shit.

On that note, let me welcome my new contributors, Juan Ismerio and Cerpa Rodion, who took these fantastic photos, and will be helping me update Street Gourmet LA more often and allow Street Gourmet LA to be in more than one place at a time. Scouts are for louts, no, these talented young Latinos aren't scouts, but they'll be contributing in a number of ways including an upgrade to a real website, attending events I can't make, and shooting much better quality pictures.


This past week we were able to attend events in Brasil, Los Angeles: the L.A. Times Taste event, Alex's Lemonade, the Festival Chileno in Camarillo and this top notch taco cart, Tacos La Carreta in Compton, as a team.

Chorreadas, Mazatlan-style vampiros spiked with a splash of hot, unrefined lard

These chorreadas, vampiros, tacos and quesadillas are game changers; do yourself a flavor and pay them a visit this Sunday.


Tacos La Carreta, 413 N. Wilmington Ave., Compton, Sundays only from 3:30pm to 9:30 p.m.

On the Road: Menudo Blanco, Estilo San Juan de Abajo, Nayarit in Montecito Heights

On the Road is a weekly series here on Street Gourmet LA, where we share a favorite bite from our travels, domestic and abroad, in the finest dining rooms around the world and at the most humble of urban and rural stands as well as people's homes.

This week was just another typical week around the office, Michelin star restaurants in Jardins and Vila Medeiros, São Paulo as well as delicious pasteís (pastries) in Liberdade (São Paulo's Japanese neighborhood); Los Angeles Time's Taste event, Alex's Lemonade Stand, the Festival Chileno in Camarillo for completos (Chilean hot dogs) and pisco sours, Sinaloan-style tacos (exciting new post coming soon on Los Angeles Magazine) and a bowl of homemade menudo blanco by a family from San Juan de Abajo, Nayarit.

Chava and his wife, Hildelisa, cook up a light and tasty white menudo from southern Nayarit, influenced by the nearby state of Jalisco. While this wasn't the greatest dish of this rather substantial week in food, it was a reminder of how nice it is to sit down with a family and enjoy simple, delicious and thoughtful cooking.


The delicate stock is different from most white menudos I've encountered--transparent and light in flavor until chopped onions, jalapeños, yerba buena (as is typical in Jalisco) and menudo mix spices are layered to taste. The ample cuts of beef include al dente book tripe, beef tendon, and a marrow rich lower leg bone draped in crunchy bits of cartilage.

The family is the best of the many houses preparing menudo blanco, all from San Juan de Abajo, in Lincoln Heights and Montecito Heights where snack kings Raspados Nayarit do business. It's another example of the regional enclaves that exist in L.A. (and why L.A. has the best Mexican food in the country), where everyone knows each other, and each year and few more from their home town show up ready to work, but not until they've had a hot bowl of menudo blanco from San Juan de Abajo.