Gold Dig #16
There are a couple taco trucks on Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list. My cousin came into town for a couple days, and I talked her into taco truck hopping with me. It didn’t take much convincing. We went to Guerrilla Tacos first (also check out my post about Mariscos Jalisco, where we went next). The Guerrilla Tacos truck parks at a different spot each day of the week – check their website for the location schedule. We went on a Wednesday when they’re in front of the Congnoscenti Coffee in Culver City. Guerrilla Tacos supposedly opened at 10am. We got there about 10 minutes early, so stopped in at Congnoscenti to get a coffee. I think they benefit from a lot of people doing that, as there were quite a few people drinking and lingering in front of the truck. Luckily the coffee is good. They weren’t in a hurry to open the truck for business, and it was more like 10:15 before they started taking orders from the crowd that had already gathered.
The Dish
Guerrilla Tacos specializes in… tacos (surprise!). They do also have the occasional burrito or tostada, but mostly tacos. Their menu changes weekly, based on the fresh ingredients they source locally. The options are not the typical ones you’d find at a taco truck or Mexican restaurant. We tried pretty much everything on the menu.
Wild Boar “Pocho” Taco
This taco had wild boar, fresh tomatoes and burnt tomato chile, aged cheddar, and lemon crema. As you can see, it was nicely loaded. The best bites were when you could manage to get a little bit of everything.
Clam Ceviche Taco
Along with the clams, this taco had gooseberries, tomatoes, and Persian cucumbers. The clams were nice and tender. This taco was like a fresh salad in contrast to the meaty, smoky flavors of the wild boar taco.
Chorizo & Potato Burrito
We were there at 10am and there was what was basically a breakfast burrito on the menu (chorizo, potato, fried egg, beans), so we got that too. It had the least interesting flavors. Tasted pretty much how you would expect a Mexican breakfast burrito to taste.
Golden Beets Poke
The whiteboard menu had a little arrow pointing at the Golden Beets Poke with a notation that said “available at 11am”. Seemed odd that beets would require an hour to prep, so we tried to order it anyway. Rejected. We were told the beets have to marinate just like fish poke. Not sure why they wouldn’t start prepping it ahead of time rather than waiting until they opened. Then again, they didn’t seem in much of a hurry to open in the first place. I suppose when you are as in demand as Guerrilla Tacos, you can do things how you please and just expect your customers to suck it up. We did. The Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook is close by, so we went there, hiked up and checked out the great view, then went back for a beet taco. I am a big meat eater and never would have thought that I’d go to so much trouble for some beets on a tortilla, but I’m actually glad we did. The beets were sweet, the furikake salty, and the habanero chile gave it a pretty good kick.
Watermelon Agua Fresca
They also had a big jug of watermelon agua fresca. Watermelon is one of the few foods I’m not a big fan of (yes, I’ve been told that’s weird), but it looked so cool and refreshing. It was actually pretty good!