Series
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Who Can Make Tacos?

June 3, 2024
LA Taco legend Memo Torres dishes on cultural appropriation, LA’s best tacos and why LA Taco is worth your membership!
Show transcript
00:00
Y'all. Let's welcome,
00:01
Memo from L A Taco.
00:07
Thank you, Jenny.
00:07
Thank you. Welcome,
00:08
welcome. We're so happy to have you here memo.
00:11
So we want to just dive right in.
00:14
So we saw your post about La Raza basically hating on other
00:19
cultures, adopting tacos.
00:22
And why do you think it's a good thing for other cultures
00:25
to kind of come up with their own taco?
00:27
Well, I mean,
00:29
first of all, it's not all Raza.
00:30
I think it, you're right.
00:32
You're right. I think I'm very accepted,
00:34
but there's that hardcore conservative,
00:36
leave my tacos alone type of crowd.
00:39
And I think when you come to,
00:41
when you're in L A,
00:42
you realize that a lot of those folks are people that haven't
00:45
actually even traveled through Mexico.
00:46
They're kind of born here.
00:48
They're a taco, Latino or the taco de Canna down the
00:51
street in the corner and they're like,
00:52
that's a taco, that's a real taco.
00:55
I don't think you've been through Mexico.
00:56
I don't think you've seen the hamburger tacos they make down there
00:59
They make all kinds of crazy stuff like Mexico is just
01:01
ingenuity in general. We're in.
01:04
So here in LA,
01:06
I mean, I think one of the most common things that
01:08
we do, especially with so many cultures here.
01:10
When you go out to eat,
01:11
you go and you bring your tacos home or,
01:13
I mean, you bring your food home,
01:14
your leftovers or it will be tired or whatever.
01:16
I don't know about you.
01:18
But I know in my family and my friends you get those
01:21
leftovers, you heat them up in a tortilla quick taco ba
01:24
you know, I mean,
01:26
we're already making tacos with all this other food.
01:29
So and then being in LA,
01:30
I think one of the most common things that we have here
01:32
are tacos are tortillas and I think it's beautiful when other cultures
01:36
appreciate that. See that.
01:38
And I always tell people like,
01:39
just let the tortilla grow,
01:42
let the taco grow,
01:43
branch out, let it flavors.
01:47
And I think it's also a great opportunity for folks to just
01:49
kind of go somewhere.
01:51
And if they're not familiar with the cuisine,
01:53
you know, like,
01:54
all right, you haven't had Indian food.
01:56
There's an Indian Tikka masala burrito,
01:58
you can try, right?
02:00
You haven't had falafels,
02:01
you can have a falafel taco,
02:03
you know, and it's a great way to introduce people to
02:05
other cultures. So for me,
02:06
I'm all about let the tortilla grow.
02:08
I agree. I agree.
02:09
And, and I've seen those videos of parents going to Korean
02:13
barbecue and bringing their little tortilla and like,
02:15
dude, I do it too with the rice paper,
02:17
make a little taquito with the,
02:19
you know, so it's like,
02:20
I agree we celebrate that.
02:22
But once they do it,
02:24
it's like, oh,
02:24
that's not a taco anymore.
02:27
It's culture appreciation, not appropriation guys.
02:31
There's a difference, said it better myself.
02:35
And what's your favorite adopted taco in the city?
02:38
There seems to be a lot of like Arab tacos coming out
02:42
which is interesting because yes,
02:43
I know anytime I post about like an AO style taco like
02:46
a like a falafel or Shawarma or something like that,
02:49
people are always like,
02:50
yeah, the Lebanese brought good.
02:52
I'm glad everybody knows Lebanese brought the Trompo del Pastor to Puebla
02:57
Mexico and that's how we got the famous El pastor.
03:00
So there's already a history of those cultures blending the foods
03:04
So we're seeing it again here in L A now where
03:07
it's kind of going the other way where they're taking the tortillas
03:10
and making, you know,
03:11
Aeros style tacos here in L A.
03:12
So I like like mid east tacos.
03:15
Yeah, Mediterranean food and just a mix of Mexican is just
03:18
perfect. Like we always order from this place called what
03:21
is it? Turas.
03:25
And I love how they mix the two.
03:27
We also have Exos kitchen down in Boyle Heights who are these
03:31
two Oaxacan brothers that worked in Lebanese kitchen and then they started
03:35
their own Lebanese restaurant and now they have their own tacos too
03:39
Their Arab, middle Eastern tacos.
03:40
That's beautiful. That's so beautiful.
03:42
Ok, so you're constantly dishing out hidden gems in the city
03:47
but also breaking news.
03:49
What can we find with L A Taco's new membership?
03:53
Is it only in L A or you can be a member
03:56
from anywhere? But most importantly,
03:59
I think what we do is we support local,
04:00
we highlight local, we let you guys know where all the
04:03
little hidden gems are the local mom and pops that you can
04:06
follow. But our membership supports local journalism because you know
04:11
back in the day journal used to be supported by online
04:13
ads. But Google keeps all that money.
04:16
You know, they're even doing stuff like A I is reading
04:19
the articles and then just summarizing it for people.
04:22
So now we don't get that link back.
04:24
So it's hard to sustain journalism.
04:26
But I think at a taco,
04:28
we've proven that small independent journalism can succeed for sure.
04:32
And you guys are killing it.
04:34
You guys are hopping on the stories like that.
04:36
Yeah, you guys are doing great.
04:38
Thank you, appreciate that.
04:39
But yeah, you also get free tacos.
04:41
I mean, we're the only publication in the world where if
04:45
you sign up for a membership,
04:46
you get free tacos of the best Taquerias around the L A
04:50
You get access to all our cool ass events.
04:52
You get merch like this or like this and I got you
04:56
some sweat. I can't wait to and what other stories do
05:02
you guys cover? But you get a lot of investigative journalism
05:04
you get journalism that discusses the corruption in the in
05:07
the city hall. Like we expose quotes that we saw.
05:10
We we help to change things like the homeless people during
05:14
the pandemic. Our reporting make sure that everybody had like,
05:17
you know, public toilets.
05:18
One of the, one of the things that we try to
05:20
do is we try to hold our local officials accountable,
05:23
whether it be the police,
05:24
whether it be our city politicians or officials.
05:27
And you know, a lot of times people will be like
05:29
oh you guys are too woke and like there's nothing woke
05:31
about wanting to keep your city,
05:33
you know, accountable.
05:34
Exactly. So when we post stuff like that,
05:37
we'll always get the new followers.
05:38
That'll be like, what does this have to do with tacos
05:45
We get those too.
05:47
But if they're important stuff,
05:48
we have to highlight and all that has to do with our
05:51
community or else, then later you guys are complaining,
05:54
why, why is this happening?
05:55
Quiz? Yeah. Anywhere there's a taco,
05:59
there's a local dishes that needs to be spoken about.
06:01
Most definitely. I know this is a tough question.
06:04
But what would you say are the top five taco spots here
06:09
in L A? My personal,
06:11
your personal. OK.
06:13
I hate doing this because I hate singling out all the other
06:15
beautiful, wonderful taros that I love and I love all of
06:18
you guys. You guys are amazing.
06:19
But my go tos usually are Sonora Town.
06:23
I like Sonora Town,
06:25
Russo la Carreta, Los Cholos,
06:27
Mariscos, Jalisco on the west side.
06:29
I like brothers, cousins tacos.
06:31
I also like the,
06:32
I mean that's more of the five.
06:34
Ok. Well, if you want all the rest L A
06:37
Taco. Yes, you guys check it out.
06:40
We also have an app,
06:42
we have an app and if you're a member,
06:44
you get access to our map that has all the tacos in
06:46
L A, you got them highlighted by the top 69.
06:49
We have them highlighted but where you can get a free taco
06:52
if you're a member and we have all the other ones that
06:54
are just kind of good tacos in the area that you can
06:56
check out too. Thank you so much,
06:57
Mimo. We really appreciate you being on the show.
06:59
Let's give them a round of applause.
07:01
Actually, I want to thank you for having me on.
07:06
I brought you some of our swag that you can get if
07:08
you remember our a taco hat and we have all kinds of
07:11
hats like this one too.
07:13
We have all kinds of shirt in our shop and we also
07:15
have some cool stickers.
07:17
Oh my God. I love,
07:21
there's a cool story on how that one came out too and
07:23
we have these other ones and there you go.
07:26
Thank you. You got to pass.
07:30
Well, you guys are killing it.
07:31
I'm so proud of you guys.
07:32
Thank you guys. Appreciate all the support and where can people
07:36
follow you and sign up for the membership and even get the
07:39
app. We have our website,
07:40
a taco.com. We're on all socials,
07:44
a Taco on Instagram,
07:46
Twitter, Facebook, tiktok.
07:49
I don't know how many there are now.
07:50
Me personally, I go by El Trago de Los Angeles.
07:53
You can find me on those handles too,
07:54
dude. That's so cool.
07:58
It, it's funny every time my mom says,
07:59
oh I'm like, oh me and like me gare the taco
08:04
and she's like Escom no ga and I'm like,
08:06
no estar. Yeah,
08:10
that's what my mom used to say.
08:14
Oh, well, thank you so much.
08:16
Let's give it one more pass guys.
08:18
Thank you guys. Appreciate it.