Guide: Where to get top-notch tamales in Los Angeles right now
3 years, 1 month ago

Guide: Where to get top-notch tamales in Los Angeles right now

LA Times  

Tamales rate among the essential staple foods of Southern California. During an early December visit to Angry Egret Dinette, Wes Avila’s then brand-new takeout operation in Chinatown’s Mandarin Plaza, I noticed he’d painted a sign on its window: “Tamales available for the holidays.” I placed an order online, and on Christmas Eve we were unwrapping corn husks revealing fluffy masa ovals filled with things like winter squash paired with Jack cheese, ropy shreds of beef in red chile and duck in salsa negra. 970 N. Broadway, Los Angeles, 278-0987, aedinette.com Chichén Itzá The Cetina family’s destination stand for Yucatan specialties in Mercado La Paloma features three versions of regional tamales. 3655 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles, 741-1075, chichenitzarestaurant.com La Mascota Bakery The inside of this panadería and kitchen feels like every other bakery in any medium-size city in Mexico that’s been updated to seem “modern” while still retaining a grandmotherly charm, with warm hues, and a window off a central patio meant to showcase the women putting together La Mascota’s beloved tamales. 13754 Van Nuys Blvd., Pacoima, 896-8789, megustagourmettamales.com Mi Ranchito Veracruz On a wall-size menu, under the words “Today is a great day for a Veracruz tamal,” owners Pedro Barrientos, Roberto Gamboa and Marcos Ramirez keep a handwritten tally of how many tamales they’ve wrapped in banana leaves since opening in 2016.

Los Angeles Los Angeles Mexican Chicken Southern California Oaxacan Masa Banana Leaf Poncho Tamal Banana Leaves Tamales Tamale Tamales Elena Los Cinco Puntos La Mascota Corn Husks  tamal  guide  banana  right  masa  topnotch  tamales  angeles  los  la  tamale  chicken  leaf

History of this topic

How Mexico City’s humble taco went from market stall to Michelin star
3 months, 1 week ago

How Mexico City’s humble taco went from market stall to Michelin star

The Independent  

Sign up to Simon Calder’s free travel email for expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calder’s Travel email Get Simon Calder’s Travel email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. open image in gallery Diners queue for tacos at El Califa de León in Mexico City The taquería that made …

Where Mario Lopez goes for the best Mexican food in Los Angeles
3 months, 4 weeks ago

Where Mario Lopez goes for the best Mexican food in Los Angeles

BBC  

Where Mario Lopez goes for the best Mexican food in Los Angeles Getty Images The actor and born-and-bred Chicano loves hole-in-the wall Mexican food. Best birria tacos: Birrieria Gonzalez "I don't really go to a lot of high-end Mexican restaurants," says Lopez. Best Mexican style seafood crudo: Mariscos el Faro Lopez also loves Mariscos el Faro, a mariscos truck in …

Celebrities, chefs and athletes share their favorite tacos in L.A.
5 months, 2 weeks ago

Celebrities, chefs and athletes share their favorite tacos in L.A.

LA Times  

Everyone in Los Angeles has a go-to taqueria. Read the guide Memo Torres, L.A. Taco journalist, landscaper: “There’s so many different styles of tacos: If you want a Sonora-style taco, Sonoratown; Sinaloa-style, La Carreta; you want a good street taco, Brothers Cousins Tacos; a good shrimp taco, Mariscos Jalisco; something innovative, I’ll go Evil Cooks, Macheen … My favorite taco …

A taco glossary: Words you need to know to order tacos like a pro
5 months, 2 weeks ago

A taco glossary: Words you need to know to order tacos like a pro

LA Times  

When ordering tacos in Los Angeles, it’s helpful to have some Spanish terms and phrases at the ready. Carnitas: Shreds or bits of pork, literally “little meats,” typically from pork butt or shoulder but sometimes with pork belly or other cuts, braised or slow-simmered in lard preferably in a large copper cazo. If you want your carnitas meat to be …

It’s the first taquería in the world to get a Michelin star. Here come the two-hour lines
7 months, 2 weeks ago

It’s the first taquería in the world to get a Michelin star. Here come the two-hour lines

LA Times  

The taco guy didn’t quite get the fuss. Declared one commentator on the social media platform X: “In my opinion — and call me a hater if you want — neither El Califa de León, or Mexican cuisine in general, needs the validation of the gastronomic marketing company of the tire-maker Michelin.” An employee tosses a tortilla on a griddle …

The secret ingredient in these meaty tacos makes Whittier your next taqueria destination
7 months, 3 weeks ago

The secret ingredient in these meaty tacos makes Whittier your next taqueria destination

LA Times  

Peering over the counter at Tacos La Carreta in Whittier, I watch the cook in front of the comal assemble chorreadas — one of the specialties that defines José Manuel Morales Bernal’s quickly growing enterprise of Sinaloa-style taquerias. The view of the ordering counter and open kitchen of Tacos La Carreta in Whittier Bill Esparza wrote about the first iteration …

Column: Cal-Mex is having a moment in New York. But how does it taste?
9 months, 4 weeks ago

Column: Cal-Mex is having a moment in New York. But how does it taste?

LA Times  

Customers line up at Los Tacos No. New York, like Los Angeles, has become a de facto suburb for Mexico City’s hip set, with culinary ideas flowing among the three cities. There’s an outpost of Dos Toros, an OK burrito chain started by two brothers from Berkeley in 2009, for the same reasons Cleghorn cited, that now has locations across …

6 unique tacos that could only exist in Los Angeles
1 year, 2 months ago

6 unique tacos that could only exist in Los Angeles

LA Times  

In Los Angeles, the taco has for decades served as a canvas for diverse chefs who have long called the city home and likely grew up folding convenient ingredients from their own cultures into tortillas. Duck birria tacos at Baar Baar The duck birria taco is, in chef Sujan Sarkar’s words, “the perfect marriage between Mexican and Indian cuisine.” Sarkar …

‘A constant in our lives’: Readers share their favorite classic L.A. Mexican restaurants
2 years, 3 months ago

‘A constant in our lives’: Readers share their favorite classic L.A. Mexican restaurants

LA Times  

What makes for a great classic Mexican restaurant? 31 N. Baldwin Ave., Sierra Madre, 355-6060, casadelreyrestaurant.com — Domingo Torres-Rangel Food Old-school California Mexican restaurants, por vida Mocked, maligned and ignored, Cal-Mex dining is a testament to our state’s true history — and the food is glorious La Cabañita in Glendale. 6703 Santa Fe Ave., Huntington Park, 585-5055, avilaselranchito.com — Patty …

Old-school California Mexican restaurants, por vida
2 years, 3 months ago

Old-school California Mexican restaurants, por vida

LA Times  

Avila’s El Ranchito restaurant in Huntington Park, seen here in 1996, was the family’s first, opening in 1966. By the time I wrote my 2012 book “Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America,” I had developed a grudging respect for Cal-Mex’s role in popularizing Mexican food in the United States via national chains like El Torito and Taco Bell. Patton …

Review: Poncho’s Tlayudas, a window to Oaxaca, serves one of L.A.’s defining dishes
2 years, 8 months ago

Review: Poncho’s Tlayudas, a window to Oaxaca, serves one of L.A.’s defining dishes

LA Times  

One recent Friday I brought a widely traveled, well-fed friend visiting Los Angeles to Poncho’s Tlayudas, a weekend Oaxacan pop-up in South L.A. that reemerged from a two-year hiatus in early March. Martinez, who is Zapotec, grew up eating tlayudas grilled and folded by cooks in Oaxaca’s Central Valleys, where he was raised, so that’s how he prefers serving them. …

Exploring Afro-Mexican cuisine at Tamales Elena in Bell Gardens
4 years ago

Exploring Afro-Mexican cuisine at Tamales Elena in Bell Gardens

LA Times  

As we try to deal with the 2020 pandemic freight train that continues to barrel over us, we should note a few bright spots— including the opening of a bricks-and-mortar location, in Bell Gardens, of Tamales Elena y Antojitos, which had for years operated out of a truck in the Watts neighborhood. In this episode of “Off Menu,” host and …

21 great L.A. places for Mexican food delivery and takeout
4 years, 9 months ago

21 great L.A. places for Mexican food delivery and takeout

LA Times  

There is hope in the sight of Wes Avila’s sweet potato taco splotched with almond salsa. 4538 East Cesar E Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, 262-5977 Broken Spanish Ray Garcia funnels a few headliners from his downtown restaurant’s modern Angeleno menu into generous family-style meals. 3014 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles, 427-0608, ilovemole.com Guerrilla Tacos If you remember Wes Avila’s singular …

Newsletter: Who should be making (and selling) tamales?
5 years ago

Newsletter: Who should be making (and selling) tamales?

LA Times  

December is tamale-making season in Los Angeles, the time of year when I inevitably find myself elbow-deep in a tub of masa. In my family, the tamale prodigies include my husband, who makes green chile pork tamales in the wantonly spicy northern New Mexico tradition, and my mother, who can transform bubbling vats of guisados and hand-blended masa into pyramids …

Here’s all the great Mexican food from the 2019 101 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles list
5 years ago

Here’s all the great Mexican food from the 2019 101 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles list

LA Times  

Of the many excellent restaurants on this year’s 101 Best Restaurants list, where can you go for exquisite carne asada, mole Oaxaqueño, a steamy bowl of fideo, Zacatecas-style burritos, or maybe a taco tasting menu? Food Ray Garcia wants to combine old-school soul and new-wave ingredients at Broken Spanish Ray Garcia says his new Broken Spanish restaurant in downtown Los …

Exploring Hermosillo, northern Mexico’s great unsung food city
5 years, 6 months ago

Exploring Hermosillo, northern Mexico’s great unsung food city

LA Times  

In the historic colonia of Villa de Seris — a quiet neighborhood just south of the Río Sonora in the city of Hermosillo — Gregoria Guadalupe Fraga Yáñez spends her weekends making tortillas. Meet the discada, ‘like a cast-iron skillet on steroids’ » Ramona Ruiz prepares tortillas de agua, sometimes called sobaqueras, at Tortillas y Burros Doña Guille in Hermosillo, …

How Guerrilla Tacos does Christmas in L.A.
6 years ago

How Guerrilla Tacos does Christmas in L.A.

LA Times  

The private life of a chef is an endearingly old-fashioned conceit in an age when cookbooks double as memoirs and the lifting of a food truck’s concession window can operate, often quite literally, as the curtain drawn on an ad hoc TV set. “I have an Aunt Becky who’d make tamales every year,” Avila says, wrapping the tamales like presents …

Discover Related