Introducing CaliforniaTacoTrucks.com!

With origins in Mexico, a dash of Americanizations and a kitchen on wheels, taco trucks are the perfect metaphor for California. They represent cheap and quality street food that has spread from Calexico to Yreka and beyond. Anyone who loves an honest horchata, a good burrito and solid torta knows where to find these roving brigades of deliciousness.

California Taco Trucks was started as a way for five Californians to explore this intersection and confluence of geography, culture, photography and, of course, tacos.

Join me and four of my fellow taco lovers for a new blog about all things taco truck.

Chico Enterprise Record: Starving Student: The cultural significance of taco trucks

Starving Student: The cultural significance of taco trucks:

It is not a secret that the highest-income earners in Chico are white people. So let’s go ahead and stop trying to pretend I’m being racist. Everyone is racist. And every journalist is biased. If you do not agree with the previous two statements, you probably understand the world much differently than I do, and will find this column at least partially offensive.

Therefore, people who stick their nose up at taco trucks are probably exactly the kind of people who need to be eating at them. Hispanics are a huge part of our community, but it seems most white folks in this town have no interaction with people of another race and this is sad because most white people are annoyingly white. If you use energy-saving light bulbs, refuse to shop at Wal-Mart and think you have done something important for Africa in your lifetime, then you’re probably annoyingly white.

I have received e-mails warning me to stay away from taco trucks because they are “roach coaches.” I’m not even Hispanic and I find this offensive. If white people ran more taco trucks, I am fairly certain other white people would not refer to taco trucks in such a derogatory way.

There are so many Hmong in Chico that during their New Year celebration in 2007 they stuffed the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds with more people than I had ever seen at an event in that location. But most people are surprised to hear this. I get the feeling Hmong people might feel a bit alienated from the community.

Inevitably, every time I go to Tacos El Pinolero there are a host of Hispanics, a few blue-collar white people and that one white guy on his cell phone wearing khaki pants who gets a burrito to go so he can tell all his gelled-hair buddies back at the office about how he slummed it for lunch.

Monday afternoon was exactly this way.

Taco trucks face strict regulation in Tulare Co.

Taco trucks are once again under threat, this time in Tulare County. This smells of the saga down in Salinas.

The Fresno Bee:

By Erik Lacayo / The Fresno Bee
12/08/07 22:21:02
TIPTON — Taco trucks across Tulare County could be driven out of business, some vendors fear, because of a proposed ordinance that would regulate where they can sell food.

The Tulare County Board of Supervisors is expected to vote Tuesday on the new rules for mobile food vendors because county officials have received complaints about them for years, county spokesman Eric Coyne said.

Many complaints have come from restaurant owners, Coyne said, who worry that taco trucks are taking their customers while not having to pay the same fees and taxes.

Under the proposed regulations, the county’s estimated 320 mobile food vendors would be required to apply for business licenses, have restricted hours of operation, such as not being able to operate after 7 p.m., would only be allowed to sell food in one location for one hour at a time and must be at least 1,000 feet away from a restaurant.

Tacos in Firebaugh and Huron / A burrito in Los Angeles

So on Wednesday, when I drove from Oakland to Santa Monica — a drive that I’ve made since I was a kid easily over 100 times — I decided to spice things up a little bit. I-5, as most people know, is California’s most boring section of highway, and it serves exactly one purpose: getting people from the north to the south and vice versa as fast as possible.

However, some research on Chowhound turned up the presence of a taco truck just a few miles due east of I-5. I was *so* there.

There I found what may be the loneliest taco truck in the state on the dusty corner of Nees Ave. and Russell St., just west of the town of Firebaugh, CA.

As I pulled up sometime around 2:30 pm, a Mi Rancho tortilla delivery truck driver was chatting away with the owner. I arrived and ordered an asada and pastor taco.

The asada was a bit dry and boring, but the pastor was decent — not a whole lot of zing to it. The “picante” salsa wasn’t all that “picante” and was a bit more on the sweet side than I would have liked. I’ve had better in Oakland, but it was a nice welcome change from the dearth of options along I-5. But when the most expensive thing on your menu is a $3 burrito, I really can’t complain. On my drive back tomorrow, I’m going to swing by and order the burrito — that is, assuming the truck is there on the weekends.

Read more“Tacos in Firebaugh and Huron / A burrito in Los Angeles”

California transportation woes

On his blog, Daniel Hernandez notes that there have been a couple really neat proposals for a proper subway system for LA.

The first one, designed by Numan Parada, would put a subway stop at 26th and Wilshire, about 2 blocks from my parents’ house. It would take two transfers to get there from LAX, which would be freakin’ sweet.

The second one would put a stop at 23rd and Santa Monica Blvd., about 6-7 blocks from my parents’ house, and would take the same number of transfers to get to LAX.

Still, they’re both fantastic ideas. One problem though, it’s highly unlikely that this will ever get built:

That led [Parada] to take a break from his studies to craft his own transit map last fall. The plan, circulated on public transit blogs and websites, would cost an estimated $31 billion to $38 billion, and add 378 miles of new rail to the existing system, he said.

Transportation experts said such an extensive network would cost several times that.

Still, one can dream.

In other news, the California High Speed Rail, may get (har) de-railed.

LA Times:
Schwarzenegger asked the Legislature in his 2007 budget to slash money for the California High-Speed Rail Authority. The governor also wants lawmakers to postpone indefinitely a $9.95-billion rail bond issue that is slated to appear on the November 2008 ballot.

Other than the fact that having a high-speed rail up and down the state would be totally sweet, safe, fast and convenient, here’s some more wonky reasons why:

LA Times Op-Ed:

There are dozens of flights each day, carrying 10,000 to 15,000 passengers, between the metropolitan areas of these two cities. Currently, one-third of the flights out of LAX and SFO are for trips of 350 miles or less. A high-speed rail system would be a viable alternative to some if not all those trips, easing traffic congestion and reducing pressures to expand local airports.

Shifting more traffic to trains would require expansion of stations and other infrastructure — as well as acquisition of rights of way. But if done properly, it would result in much less environmental impact on people than would airport expansion.

The governor has proposed a $110-billion transportation bond, mostly for highways. Total costs for the high-speed rail system are estimated to be about $35 billion, but this would be matched 50-50 or better by Washington. And the system could be up and running in eight to 10 years.

*sighs*

The only thing that looks like will happen is that within the next 12 years, Caltrain will get extended from the 4th/King terminus, going underground to the new, totally revamped Transbay Terminal. I imagine it’ll be something like the Grand Central Station of the West, but awesomer. 🙂

The design is supposed to be announced in August.

I can’t wait.

I’m out of town starting today until June 5

I’m on a road trip from now until June 5, headed to :

– Eugene, OR
– Sasquatch 2006 (George, WA)
– Seattle, WA
– Vancouver, BC
– Waldport, OR
– Eureka, CA

We stopped in Yreka, CA en route to Eugene today and discovered that the Yreka Bakery is sadly no longer.

Also, Mt. Shasta is really sweet.

Tomorrow: A quick trip to Portland en route to Sasquatch.

Just bought a JetBlue Flight for MLK weekend

So despite the fact that I’m a stockholder, I’ve never actually flown JetBlue. My grandmother pointed out that they’re currently selling $39 one-ways from OAK to Long Beach, and I immediately grabbed it. (Although in my haste, I had to make a change from a Friday eve flight to an early Sat morning flight due to a thing at work that I forgot about.) I’m leaving my craigslist ad up for now on the off chance that someone replies so I can save the flight.

One thing I don’t get though, is why doesn’t JetBlue fly into Burbank from Oakland? They fly out of Burbank to lots of other places, just not to Oakland. Doesn’t make sense.

Going to LA 1/13 – 1/16

Is anyone else going to LA for MLK weekend?

I could have bought a Southwest ticket last night for $120, but stupidly waited until this morning and now they cost almost $200.

I’ve put up an ad on craigslist. My other options are to suck it up and get the $180 ticket on United or Southwest — or try to brave the California Chinatown Bus scene (San Leandro BART to Santa Monica!) for $90 roundtrip on CABus.