Tacos y Burritos El Texano - Boyle Heights

“Are you from the newspaper?”

I used to get asked this all the time when I would pull out my camera. Sometimes I would respond, “No, I’m from the internets”. But this was back before the food truck craze and social media; back before yelp was big. I never saw anyone else take photos at taco trucks or food trucks and there I was with a lousy camera with an obnoxious flash that would wake up half the neighborhood. It’s different these days; we’re a nation of facebook status updaters, yelpers, and tweeters. We’re expected to take photos of everything we do then share it with people who probably don’t give a shit.



So tonight, when I started to take photos at the corner of 4th and Breed St at Tacos El Texano, and one of the patrons asked if I was from the newspaper, I thought of those Taco 1.0 days, and then thought how passé my “no I’m from the internets” comment had become. Because for all I knew he was already updating his facebook status from his smartphone to say that someone from the newspaper was at Tacos El Texano.


carne asada, al pastor, chorizo

I ordered al pastor, carne asada, and chorizo. The tacos came bare, and I garnished them with onions,cilantro and salsas from the dispensers (my favorite salsa delivery method by far). They also had a container with avocado salsa but I opted for salsa roja and verde. The al pastor was cut from the spit, and then griddled with onions. It reminded me of El Taurino’s al pastor;the salty-sweet flavor and tender slivers of pork went well with the spicy salsa roja. The chorizo was cut into little bits and not that discernable from the al pastor but the salsa verde, a blend of tomatillo/tomato and chile arbol had enough heat and flavor to persuade me.


carne asada

The best of the three was the carne asada, which was miles above most carne asada you’ll find at LA taco trucks. A lot of carne asada is finely chopped and then paired with a chile salsa, and onions to masquerade its lower quality. But this asada had a nice amount of meatiness to it and the tenderness and flavor were on point.

Tacos are $1 each (asada, al pastor, cabeza, tripa, buche). Burritos and quesadillas are $4. They didn’t have jarritos, but they have aguas frescas.

El Texano isn’t that far from Tacos El Pecas, one of East LA’s most popular trucks. So if the line at Tacos El Pecas is getting you down, or if you’re wondering which trucks to add to your Friday night taco crawl, El Texano is a worthy addition.

4/5

Tacos y Burritos El Texano
2308 E 4th St
East Los Angeles, CA 90033

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