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    Taco truck in London!

    http://www.lataco.com/taco/taco-truck-uk-london



    No idea if it's any good, but I think that's great. The van kind of cracks me up, though. This is what a taco truck looks like:


    #2
    Taco truck in London!

    That's the old Citroen van from The Triplets of Belleville. Which, if you've never seen it, you should.

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      #3
      Taco truck in London!

      Citroen made that marvellously corrugated Type H Van right up until the early 1980s.

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        #4
        Taco truck in London!

        Wow. Is it still around? Should I call the telephone number?

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          #5
          Taco truck in London!

          Apparently--the blog post I saw it on was from this week. No mention of how they learned of it.

          Here in LA, the hot dining craze is the Kogi truck--Korean BBQ served in tacos and burritos. Like a Korean taco truck. They started out parking at two locations each night, and set up a Twitter feed so people could find out where they were. It soon became really popular, and people started complaining about the wait, so they've added a second truck, and are even going to open in a restaurant location as well. This London taco truck should think about a Twitter feed--if it's actually good and people want to eat from there.

          But on the other hand, part of the thing about taco trucks is that they're fleeting. Some park in the same location for months, and then one day, they're gone. Sometimes you find the new location, sometimes you don't (I still miss the one that parked down the street from my apartment in college...so many late-night orders of "dos tacos de carna asada y un al pastor, con todo", and a Mexican Coke or Jarritos. It wasn't the best ever, but it was familiar, and you start remembering everyone in the truck.)

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            #6
            Taco truck in London!

            You call that a taco truck? This is a taco....ok well it's not a truck...but it could be.



            Anyway, is there a lack of proper Mexican food in London? Because I'm pretty sure I could fill that gap.

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              #7
              Taco truck in London!

              There's a serious lack of good Mexican food in the UK. As an American colleague never tires of telling us, it's basically the only food that you can't get a decent version of, somewhere, in London.

              We tend to think Mexican food is either tomato-y chillis swimming in sour cream, or some semi-posh party food with dips. When I was in Chicago, I had really good, solid, cheap burritos which were completely ace.

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                #8
                Taco truck in London!

                Have you ever been to Exquisite on Blackstock Rd, Derek? (Actually, I couldn't swear that it exists any more...)

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                  #9
                  Taco truck in London!

                  No, I haven't. It sounds like a strip club. Ahem, not that that's necessarily a bad thing.

                  I guess it must be good for vegetarians too, yes?

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                    #10
                    Taco truck in London!

                    There is one of those vans parked on Clifton Place in Brighton more or less permanently. When I get around to making my movie remake of "Allo Allo", I'll be requisitioning it as a prop.

                    (I'm not certain that I have the legal power to do this)

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                      #11
                      Taco truck in London!

                      diggedy derek wrote:
                      No, I haven't. It sounds like a strip club. Ahem, not that that's necessarily a bad thing.

                      I guess it must be good for vegetarians too, yes?
                      Yeah. I think the deal with Exquisite is (was?) that you go there expecting the usual 'Mexican' food you get in Britain (which I love, by the way), but the chef is hardcore and uncompromising about doing things the authentic way, and you get all these familiar-but-unfamiliar versions on what you're used to. And it's buddy brilliant.

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                        #12
                        Taco truck in London!

                        Sounds good. Yeah, I quite like the big-pile-of-chilli type Mexican, too, but I'm very keen to try something more authentic. Ta.

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                          #13
                          Taco truck in London!

                          I've always wondered, you know, if there are any countries whose food just isn't worth bothering with. Any places where, despite the centuries where they could have honed a national cuisine, they just made do with rubbish.

                          There's got to be somewhere, isn't there? Where the normal selection process of honing a national palette just didn't happen.

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                            #14
                            Taco truck in London!

                            I don't know what the immigration patterns are like in England, but the best way to find good Mexican food is to find out where the Mexicans are. Some chef who has decided to open an "authentic" Mexican restaurant is not going to fit the bill; it will be the high end Mexican equivalent of Asian fusion. In my opinion, Chicago has the second best Mexican restaurants after LA. The restaurants are good in these cities is because there are so many Mexicans living in both. I saw a talk recently by the performance artist Tim Miller, and he claimed that Chicago and LA are part of Latin America, which seems about right (and for me that's a good thing--and would be better if I could learn more Spanish).

                            Anyway, find out where the Mexicans live in London and you will find restaurants, which will be more authentic. Unfortunately, though, many will not be vegetarian-friendly because of lard in the beans.

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                              #15
                              Taco truck in London!

                              The first few google search results for "mexicans in london" are people asking questions about where the hell they can find decent Mexican food.

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                                #16
                                Taco truck in London!

                                I hate WSC, this is the 5th post I've lost in the last 24 hours. Because it keeps logging me off and when I hit send...It's lost. *punches server*

                                say goodbye to insightful post about Mexican immigration in Chicago, the birth of the taqueria in Chicago and the rise of 3/4 star Mexican restaurants in Chicago with proper Mexican food and how that ties in with the rise of the Chicago culinary scene. I'll try again later.

                                http://www.chicagomag.com/Podcasts/ChefsOnTheGrill/RickBaylessInterview.mp3

                                Although Rick Bayless hits all my talking points pretty well.

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                                  #17
                                  Taco truck in London!

                                  Top Tip: When you log in, check the box marked 'Remember Me' and you won't get logged out. Ever. Even after you die.

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Taco truck in London!

                                    radmonkey wrote:
                                    I hate WSC, this is the 5th post I've lost in the last 24 hours. Because it keeps logging me off and when I hit send...It's lost. *punches server*

                                    say goodbye to insightful post about Mexican immigration in Chicago, the birth of the taqueria in Chicago and the rise of 3/4 star Mexican restaurants in Chicago with proper Mexican food and how that ties in with the rise of the Chicago culinary scene. I'll try again later.

                                    http://www.chicagomag.com/Podcasts/ChefsOnTheGrill/RickBaylessInterview.mp3

                                    Although Rick Bayless hits all my talking points pretty well.
                                    Tell me about it--I lost a post I spend about 20 minutes writing this morning. I forget to check the "keep logged in" button at work.

                                    But do you know if there's one or two states that most of the Mexican immigrants in Chicago are from? In LA, it's mostly people from Jalisco, Oaxaca, and to a lesser extent Michoacan. I'm wondering how different Mexican food in LA is from that in Chicago.

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                                      #19
                                      Taco truck in London!

                                      danielmak wrote:
                                      [quote]I don't know what the immigration patterns are like in England, but the best way to find good Mexican food is to find out where the Mexicans are. Some chef who has decided to open an "authentic" Mexican restaurant is not going to fit the bill; it will be the high end Mexican equivalent of Asian fusion. In my opinion, Chicago has the second best Mexican restaurants after LA. The restaurants are good in these cities is because there are so many Mexicans living in both. I saw a talk recently by the performance artist Tim Miller, and he claimed that Chicago and LA are part of Latin America, which seems about right (and for me that's a good thing--and would be better if I could learn more Spanish).[quote]

                                      I think you forgot San Francisco, where the burrito comes from. Houston and Dallas too, whose Mexican population is similar in size to Chicago's but with much deeper roots.

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                                        #20
                                        Taco truck in London!

                                        I've always wondered, you know, if there are any countries whose food just isn't worth bothering with. Any places where, despite the centuries where they could have honed a national cuisine, they just made do with rubbish.

                                        There's got to be somewhere, isn't there? Where the normal selection process of honing a national palette just didn't happen.
                                        Unless you're being ironic, dd (and I'm a bit poor at spotting irony) ... the answer is staring you in the face.

                                        All the Portuguese that I know that have been to Britain, without exception, have said the same thing: lovely country, lovely people, crap weather, crap cuisine.

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                                          #21
                                          Taco truck in London!

                                          There's a new tacos and burritos place on Fleet Street. It's fine for lunch.

                                          I've always wondered, you know, if there are any countries whose food just isn't worth bothering with. Any places where, despite the centuries where they could have honed a national cuisine, they just made do with rubbish.
                                          The Netherlands. Pancakes aside.

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            Taco truck in London!

                                            Tibet has got to be near the bottom in Asia.

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                                              #23
                                              Taco truck in London!

                                              linus wrote:
                                              I think you forgot San Francisco, where the burrito comes from.
                                              Erm, the San Francisco burrito perhaps, but most things I've read say that the burrito was first made in the Arizona/Mexico borderlands, by miners. El Cholo in Los Angeles was serving them in the 1920s, and I've read that the first wet burrito was served at El Tepeyac in East Los Angeles. Of course, most of what we know today is heavily influenced by the San Francisco burrito.

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                Taco truck in London!

                                                linus wrote:
                                                I think you forgot San Francisco, where the burrito comes from. Houston and Dallas too, whose Mexican population is similar in size to Chicago's but with much deeper roots.
                                                Linus--Yeah, there are some great burrito places in San Francisco (La Zona Rosa on Haight was always a favorite and a place in the Mission that had tofu burritos--can't remember the name but they had some brown leather seats). I haven't been to Houston or Dallas, but have spent some time in Austin and I never really liked Mexican food there because it was mostly TexMex, which I don't like. The other problem was all the bacon in the beans, which might work for some folks but not for a vegetarian.

                                                Inca--I don't know enough about the states of origin that are most represented in Chicago, although I hope to learn more. Perhaps radmonkey can say more.

                                                One of my favorite places in LA was in Whittier (Los Portales) but closed 2 years ago after being open for 20+ years. The brothers who owned it were from Guadalajara.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Taco truck in London!

                                                  Incashallah wrote:
                                                  linus wrote:
                                                  I think you forgot San Francisco, where the burrito comes from.
                                                  Erm, the San Francisco burrito perhaps, but most things I've read say that the burrito was first made in the Arizona/Mexico borderlands, by miners. El Cholo in Los Angeles was serving them in the 1920s, and I've read that the first wet burrito was served at El Tepeyac in East Los Angeles. Of course, most of what we know today is heavily influenced by the San Francisco burrito.
                                                  Inca, I recently learned from someone who did a lot of academic research on the orgins of the burrito that it dates back to two centuries ago in Northern California, which unlike the rest of what was then Mexico, featured wheat as the primary cereal. The weather up there, with wet winters and bone-dry summers did not support maize cultivation but was well-suited for wheat. According to him, donkey meat was pretty popular (as that animal was pretty common back then), and wraps using wheat tortillas and donkey meat along with sonoma jack and beans date back to those days. Young donkey meat (or burrito) was a delicacy. It kind of makes sense because in the Arizona/Mexico border corn was the main cereal and tortillas were mostly made from corn, wheras burritos are always done with wheat tortillas.

                                                  danielmak: interesting stuff about Chicago's Mexican heritage, something to look forward to on my first visit down the road. About the square backless seats with the brown leather strips: they are pretty much standard in most burrito places.

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