Outta the Back of a Truck
Some of the best food in Salinas, California, is found on the street. Why would the city take it away?
On city streets from New York to New Delhi, people cook food. The idea is simple: You need a quick, inexpensive meal or snack; the vendors provide it, and eke out a living without the overhead of rent, waitstaff, or utilities.
Is it that easy? No. There are permits, health codes, and labor regulations that keep the vendors in check. There’s also competition, and market share. As has been reported both locally and nationally, business interests in the city of Salinas, California, are angling to legislate the vendors out of existence. In January, following a complaint made in October by the Salinas United Business Association, the City Council agreed to stop issuing new permits, effectively capping growth. At press time, the City Council had delayed a June 19 hearing to review a resolution limiting when and where the vendors can operate. A petition to save the taco trucks has so far gathered more than 800 signatures.
Salinas currently has about 30 taco trucks clustered in a four-mile radius. Such a density of food under threat makes us hungry, so we went to investigate. With the able guidance of veteran Chowhound Melanie Wong, who has been helping publicize the plight of the vendors, we sampled a wide variety of Mexican dishes, made by hand with great care. We arrived in Salinas on a Tuesday afternoon. We ate. We left full.
Mariscos Las Glorias
On our first stop, we start light. An order of ceviche is an intensely corny tostada loaded with shrimp tossed in a spicy mix of tomatoes, lime juice, and red onion. We also sample the campechana, a delicious blend of ice-cold seafood from shrimp to octopus, all swimming in a briny broth of oyster liquor and lime juice, topped with two oysters and a couple of generous hunks of avocado. The seafood is incredibly fresh and light. This truck serves a delicious hot sauce, called Tiburon, that we haven’t seen elsewhere; they tell us that they get their seafood shipped from Los Angeles and the hot sauce comes with it. As we eat through our order, a crowd lines up; when people see us taking photographs they want to tell us how delicious and fresh everything is. But we already know.
El Grullense
El Grullense, a mobile offshoot of El Grullense restaurant in East Salinas, has changed our mind about tripas. It’s not honeycomb tripe; it’s beef intestines, fried to a perfect crisp, slightly chewy and caramelized, with a faint hint of liver. The al pastor is rich with spices: clove and cinnamon. And the carnitas is like carnitas confit—tender, greasy, and delicious. It’s interesting to survey what sort of tortillas the trucks use, and how they’re prepared. At El Grullense, they’re thicker, and warmed on the griddle. The tacos are served with grilled onion and jalapeño, and as with other trucks, there’s a little window for self-serve condiments, in this case pickled carrots and radishes, lime, and salsa. We wash it all down with Sidral Mundet, a Mexican apple soda.
Mayra’s
Digna Hernandez, with a sweet smile, suggests that we get a chicharrón gordita and a potato and chorizo huarache. Hernandez is not in the business of fast food: She makes each tortilla fresh to order from masa, and chops the vegetables for each dish. She has also been one of the only taco trucks involved in a campaign promoting healthful eating. The gordita is grilled to a crisp outside, with a soft interior, and filled with toothsome chicharrónes in a red sauce. The huarache is named for its sandalesque appearance—like Birkenstocks, with a lip to hold in the filling of beans, potatoes, and chorizo, topped with lettuce, tomato, and crema. The freshly made molcajete salsa of dried arbol chiles and tomatillos alone is worth the trip. We also manage to eat a nopales taco—the fresh prickly pear cactus chopped and grilled with onions.
Tacos Colima #1
We eat tacos while Chris, our photographer, is across the street, returning just in time for the last bite. The cabeza—intensely beefy cheek meat—is reminiscent of short ribs. The beef birria taco holds tender stewed meat in a slightly sweet sauce, and the lengua—cow tongue—is perfectly shredded and paired well with a tomatillo salsa. These tortillas are very thin, with just enough structure to carry meat to mouth. The owners of Tacos Colima tell us that they’ve been cooking for 30 years. We accidentally leave without paying, but return two taco trucks later to hand over our $3.
Catering 2 Maria
More a rolling fry station than a truck, this vendor offers deep-fried gorditas. The meat isn’t as tasty as Mayra’s, but the braised chicken and seasoned ground beef with carrots and potatoes are hearty and simple. We sample our first ear of corn, a.k.a. elote, slathered with copious amounts of mayonnaise, Valentina hot sauce, and crumbly Cotija cheese. At each stop, we explain why we’re photographing all the food (and why we’re eating so much); here, the proprietor asks us if we’re for or against the vendor ban. With a mouthful of mayonnaisey corn, we assert our support for the vendors.
Jaquez
The Mexican hot dog, well documented on Chowhound, was highly anticipated. Start with a warm bun, squirted with mayonnaise. Add a bacon-wrapped hot dog; top with mustard, tomatoes, onions, pickle relish, and ketchup. It’s served with a griddled jalapeño on the side. It looks so good while he’s making it we have to order two. We perhaps regret that later.
Julio Valdez
No one will accuse us of not ending strong: At Señor Valdez’s stand we order another hot dog (necessary for comparison), two tamales, another elote, and a champurrado to wash it all down. Señor Valdez seems impressed—perhaps even amused—at our ordering frenzy. The hot dog is terrifying, piled high with condiments including onions braised in butter and mustard and finished off with a squirt of Cheez Whiz. You bite into it through a sea of bun and condiments, reaching the bacon-wrapped hot dog last. The corn tamale is wrapped up in honeyed masa, a hint of salt setting off the sweet, buttery corn. The other tamale, simply called dulce, consists of brown sugar and cinnamon–inflected masa dotted with raisins and pineapple. The champurrado, a slightly sweet, slightly chocolaty drink, is thickened with masa and puréed corn.
The Salinas City Council has yet to reschedule the hearing on the fate of the taco trucks. For updated information, check back on Chowhound. And if street food is at risk in your community, do something.
Photographs by Chris Rochelle
I would think that the best way for the brick and mortar restaurants to complete would be to, you know, offer better fare to eat thus attracting the customers they say they are losing to the trucks.
Crazy talk, I know.
Thanks for a good story. Besides feeling uncomfortably full on your behalf, I can nearly smell the warm fresh masa, and it's all I can do to not grab my car keys and head out to re-trace your connect-the-taco trucks tour of Salinas (a theme I'd like to see repeated with other side-by-side reviews of like places in one locale, with pin maps, like constellations; a gustatory zodiac?) I had no idea the variety offered at these trucks; now I'm primed to explore the trucks in Oakland and SF, which, like the trucks in Salinas, not only to delight people who appreciate delicious and authentic food, but to feed and nourish day laborers making sub-subsistence wages. Removing these (seemingly safe, family-owned and healthful) trucks would not only punish immigrants for their entrepreneurial drive, but might considerably reduce affordable meal options to unhealthy and disastrously unsustainable corporate fast food with no cultural value. I wonder if the vendors and their customers in Salinas could use the support of those of us in SF and Oakland who would mobilize if this were happening here; maybe I've missed a link above, but is there any mechanism for this (a petition to sign, phone calls or e-mails to send?)
Thank you Chow for the nice article. ivy fang there are a lot of links in that article that would take you to places where you might ask further questions about lending support to the Salinas taco trucks.
Ivy -- SF doesn't have many taco trucks (permits are very expensive), but Oakland has dozens. As a starting point for your explorations, you might want to search "Fruitvale taco crawl" on the SF board.
salinas is pretty damn conservative. it took them like forever to recognise john steinbeck. It seemed they were ashamed of him. Now they try to capitalise on the tourist trade with the steinbeck museum.
I hope the truck food people can get the political muscle to fight any ordinance that would restrict their business. And anyone who enjoys good food should join them.
I read about this on NYTimes.com. Apparently, brick-and-mortar restaurant owners can't stand the heat of competition and are trying to shut down food-selling trucks and carts. The accusation is that these mobile food units are less sanitary. However, there have not been any reports of poor food-handling. Seems a shame, especially after seeing the report on chow.com that included such great descriptions and pictures.
As long as these folks are subject to the same scrutiny as any other operator(health department, liability insurance, local permits, OSHA, etc) I would think it would be fine. I am not sure this is always the case. God forbid someone get sick or worse, from the food; are they going to give me the same assurances that any bricks and mortar restaurant would...that they have met all the ctiteria of any other business and have all of the safegaurds in place to protect the consumer.
A licensed food vendor goes through the same food safety training and inspections as a bricks-and-morter restaurant. With a taco truck you can see right in (or ask to see in), and decide for yourself if it looks like they're using good food handling practices -- but do you check the kitchen of every restaurant you eat in? People get food poisoning from bricks-and-morter restaurants; I don't see why taco trucks should be held to a higher standard.
The real point is that there have been no reported problems with the taco trucks -- they are using the pretext that there *might* be problems (despite years of experience attesting the the safety of taco truck fare) to ban the trucks.
no one said a higher standard...just as high bricks and mortar. Here in L.A. it has been in the news because many of the trucks here are not licensed, and travel around to different locations daily to avoid inspections. Many do not adhere to the same food safety standards as other licensed trucks or restaurants.
Unlicensed trucks are a completely different issue. If there's a problem with unlicensed trucks, then they should crack down on unlicensed trucks, not ban all trucks.
Hi again ivy fang ... Here's a place to show your support
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/412932
In addition to an editorial by the San Jose Mercury News it says ...
"While I am not a part of the vendor’s petition drive, if you endorse this editorial and the customer’s freedom of choice, please post your comments here with your city of residence. I’ll make sure that the City Council hears you."
As a professional economist and frequent customer of taco trucks, it's clear to me that the lower-end food market is among the most competitive markets out there. Barriers to entry are low (or should be -- lower those permit prices, San Francisco!). There's excellent information about quality for trucks that are properly inspected and licensed. Any taco truck causing a public health danger (or dishing out food that everyone thought was bad) would go out of business.
It is completely arbitrary to start drawing lines between establishments that deserve to exist and those that don't. If a truck isn't appropriate, why not ban establishments that serve on paper plates (as my childhood suburb foolishly does)? Why not ban restaurants that offer entrees under $10? Or those that don't earn a Michelin star? These measures might raise the average quality of restaurants by some measure and support a certain kind of restaurant experience, at the cost of excluding people from competing and taking away an inexpensive food option that customers clearly demand.
There would be no case against the taco trucks even if their food were awful. The fact that the Bay Area raves about Salinas's tacos makes the culinary argument for letting a thousand taco trucks bloom as strong as the economic argument.
I'd like to see larger images of these colourful photographs. Great article.
good point pipistrello. I also think the images are fun.
I really want CHOW to try one of the best street food in midtown Manhattan located @ 46th and 6th ave. checkout for the place "Biriyani cart"
www.midtownlunch.com
I would like to see the trucks stay on the streets but also be an example to the communities by going 'green', buying local,
maybe not organic -- but recycle their oil for their fuel, etc
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?sec...
Anyone know of a good taco caterer in chicago that would come to your back yard and make the tacos for you????????????
sogirl,
The place to ask that question and get an answer is on the Chicago board
http://chowhound.chow.com/boards/7
This story is two years old with the last reponse a year ago. Click on the Chicago board link and post your question.