Guerrilla Tacos: A Pictorial Essay

Americas - USA West Los Angeles
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Because parking isn’t too hard to find these days in the Arts District…

Chef Wes offers us passers-by some glorious bites with the current menu.

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Horchata… Salvadoran-style, with morro seeds. More “soul” than the usual horchata I’m used to - Refrescante!

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Taco trio: (1) Soft Shell Crab Taco (with cabbage slaw, pico de gallo, chile Japones & cilantro), (2) Bacon & Foie Gras Taco and (3) Wild Boar Taco (with green raja chiles, raw tomatillo chile, pinto beans, gooseberries & herbs)…

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Honestly, my favorite bite of the visit was the soft shell crab (and not the much-lauded lobster quesadilla) - This was one of the best bites of 2017 for me so far. I found the bacon to be a bit too smoky and tough, thus overpowering the foie gras both texturally and flavor-wise. The wild boar was just the right amount of gamy and the whole concoction was a marriage of chili and tortilla - terrific.

Yellowtail tuna toastada (with white miso, furikake, chile del valle, pine nuts, avocado & uni)…

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The tostada was photogenic as hell. Tasted pretty effing good too, with the only slight downside being the uni taste getting drowned out. Sidenote: God I love California avocados…

Lobster Quesadilla (with Oaxaca cheese, aged cheddar, chile morita & chives)… Incredible texture, but just didn’t hit the high notes for me (may too much heat on my particular quesadilla that day?). Still, this is a “Top 3” quesadilla for me.

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Bang banged it out at Salt & Straw afterwards: Rosewater, saffron & pistachio ice cream to celebrate the Persian New Year (Happy Nowruz!)…

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Hi @J_L,

Nice! :slight_smile: Very interesting that your Lobster Quesadilla had too much heat. Ours (at Silver Lake Wine) was very little heat, but just the right balance of Maine Lobster and Oaxaca Cheese and Aged Cheddar. Maybe Chef Wes was feeling it during your visit? :slight_smile:

Thanks for the great pics. :slight_smile:

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I need to track this down next time I’m in LA. I sat next to Chef Wes at the bar at Taco Maria one night. Great guy.

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I popped by at 1:30 the other day, and they were sadly out of everything except the softshell crab tacos. I was a bit worried at how fast the taco came out because it seems like the crab must’ve been pre-fried and sitting there? However, upon biting into the taco, if it was pre-fried, it apparently did nothing to the quality. Perhaps it was simply fried up that fast because it tasted quite fresh and was probably the best fried-seafood type tacos I’ve ever had. Incredibly light, airy just crispy, savory batter coating exemplary crab. The chipotle crema was not reinventing the wheel, but was a great rendition of it and the fresh tomatoes really gave the taco an elevated citric pop along with the astringency of the cabbage. The new tortillas are also a MASSIVE step up in quality. I used to always think about the fillings as spectacular, but lament the tortilla quality every time I visited; it actually was the main reason I stopped visiting as often as I couldn’t handle the disappointment of spending $8 on a taco to eat mediocre tortillas. Now the tortillas are properly pliant, and perfumed with corn, nearly as good as being made fresh. The intensity of the corn in the tortilla was actually the element that pushed the taco over the top for me. I am convinced to begin returning more often as with these new tortillas these may well be the best tacos in LA. Now if I can just convince them to make a habanero salsa…:smiley:

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Agree that the soft shell crab last week was an incredible taco.

I guess it depends on the day, but if you ask them, they usually have an excellent habanero salsa available on the side to add to your tacos.

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Ah shit…if only I had known!

Well, a reason to return for sure!