Yum Tacos!

Ruth Reichl loves taco trucks

2009-11-18T16:51:44-08:00

Foodie extraordinaire ne plus ultra Ruth Reichl stops at my favorite taco truck in Berkeley, California, for "soft, spicy, lime-rich tacos" and tweets about it. Definitely check this truck out - it's 30 seconds off the freeway on Ashby, just east of the underpass.

taco truck wedding in Sacramento

2009-09-18T11:06:04-07:00

Well, more like a taco truck reception, at least. Sacramentans Camille and Chris had their reception and wedding at McKinley Park and hired Aurelio and his excellent Tres Hermanos truck - the same fellow who catered my and my wife's birthday party last month - to cook up some tasty treats for their guests. This is a great idea and yet more chance to show our city council that regulations making it impossible for these guys to do business hurt the entire community!

Eat Real Festival: Oakland, CA Aug 28-30

2009-08-12T15:50:34-07:00

I'll be there, as will taco trucks & plenty of other good, cheap, mobile street food (to participate, you gotta have wheels). From the press release:

Street food, fresh summer fruits and veggies, live music, handcrafted local beers, ice cream sold from the back of a bicycle. Come find it all and more at Eat Real, a free festival, taking place August 28-30 at Jack London Square. Buy from your favorite street food vendors, pick up a ticket for the Beer Shed and sample from among the 40-something microbrews, or shop in the Market for local produce and artisanal snacks. In between the good eats, enjoy the non-stop entertainment and activities that include chef demonstrations, dance performances, bands, films, food competitions, and lots more, for free.

papercraft taco trucks from Goopymart

2009-06-22T10:08:27-07:00

The artist who made our wonderful mascot has created several high-res papercraft taco trucks for you to cut, fold & stick together (note the official Yum Tacos truck above - click for the large version, then print & assemble!). They do not, unfortunately, include tacos.

Sacramento News & Review reports on the death of the taco truck

2009-04-16T10:23:55-07:00

Our friend Chris Shimoda has a great article on the impending death of Sacramento's taco trucks in today's Sacramento News & Review, with plenty of information on why this sort of thing happens - and why we need to fight it. Thanks for the plug(s), Chris!

Last year, however, the Sacramento City Council saw fit to declare food-vending vehicles at permanent locations a nuisance, effectively a death sentence for Sacramento’s taco trucks, this despite similar measures being struck down throughout California. Only a handful of local trucks survived the ban—and they’ll disappear, too, by 2012.

Joshua Lurie-Terrell, local resident and curator of yumtacos.com, recently served as guide to Sacramento’s going-the-way-of-the-dodo taco vendors. Lurie-Terrell, author of a useful Google map documenting trucks both here in Sacramento and as far east as New York, has been featured on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. And with a merry taco-eating band in tow — Lurie-Terrell’s partner in crawl, Gaela; this writer; and said writer’s lovely girlfriend — we set off to explore the last days of the Sacramento taco truck, leaving no ceviche tostada unturned.

what is it about the trucks?

2009-04-05T16:25:19-07:00

A journalist friend here in Sacramento asked me why, exactly, that taco trucks were good. Not why was the food good - we all know that some are and some are not. He was asking why I believed they were a beneficial thing, and why the Sacramento City Council should reverse their decision to effectively outlaw the trucks. What is it about these vendors that is good for the community, besides the obvious (allowing third-shift employees, factory district staff and others to eat something other than MacDonalds; cheapness; nominal healthiness). Any ideas?

authentic taco truck-style lengua (tongue) tacos

2009-02-14T11:11:23-08:00

A lot of people are hesitant to try tongue - they think of the tough, thick meat they remember from Jewish delis - but Mexican lengua is another thing entirely. Tender, delicious, rich and moist. Try this recipe and I guarantee your inner carnivore will be satisfied.

Click on the image for a larger version!

the taco truck map - share your favorites!

2009-02-12T15:03:00-08:00

View Larger Map

If you know of a specific truck - whether it is one you visit regularly, or just see it on your way to and from work - please list it in the comments below and I'll include it on the map.

A general location (i.e., a street intersection) is just as good as a specific address. Thanks!

Petition: Save Sacramento's Taco Trucks

2008-07-15T12:22:49-07:00

(sign the petition by leaving your name and city and a note, if you like, in the comments below)

Recently, the Sacramento City Council almost-unanimously enacted an ordinance drastically restricting the ways in which mobile food vendors - principally taco trucks - may do business in the city. Even though the vast majority of Sacramento's taco trucks (including all those relied upon by downtown and Natomas third-shift employees) do business from private property - parking lots where they've received owner permission to be - the new city regulations basically tell property owners that they don't know what's best for themselves, and enact all sorts of new rules on the trucks.

And even though the ordinance claims to only regulate "operation on the public right-of-way," we've been told by two sources on the City Council staff that it will be enforced against trucks in private parking lots, as well, even if they have permission from the property owner to vend at that location.

5.68.170 Operation on the public right-of-way. (full text here)
It is unlawful for any person to operate a food vending vehicle while stopped, standing or parked on the public right-of-way:

A. Between the hours of eight p.m. of one day and five a.m. of the following day during the months of April, May, June, July, August, September and October;
B. Between the hours of six p.m. of one day and five a.m. of the following day during the months of November, December, January, February and March.
C. For more than thirty (30) minutes in one location, without moving to a new location at least four hundred (400) feet away;
D. Within four hundred (400) feet of a location where the same food vending vehicle previously operated, on the same calendar day;
E. Within four hundred (400) feet of any other food vending vehicle; or
F. Within one hundred (100) feet of any street intersection controlled by a traffic light or stop sign. (Ord. 2008-008 § 2)

Certainly it would be next to impossible for the trucks to move, heat up the grills, set up their fridges, cook & serve & then clean before decamping for their next location all in 30 minutes. In fact, it's almost impossible to set up and get the grill going - not to mention actually sell any food - in under 25 minutes, according to at least one truck operator; by enforcing these regulations, the city will actually decrease safety and cleanliness by reducing cleaning & proper setup times.

City Council staff have claimed that they did indeed talk to taco truck owners, but we've been able to talk to over a dozen - including the proprietors of every downtown, Arden and Natomas area truck - and not a single one can remember ever being approached by anyone from the city; none were told about the city council meeting where the vote was held, and none have been told about the new regulations.

The California Apellate court has already ruled that similar regulations in other cities were "prior restraint of trade," and while I'm no attorney, if the law says that other California cities can't put hardworking people who are providing a public service out of business, I don't see why such competition-killing tactics are allowed by the City Council (especially when the California Vehicle Code says very clearly that street vendors can't be prohibited).

This regulation is the same kind of anti-immigrant, classist abuse we've come to expect from the Sacramento City Council; it doesn't surprise me, but what does surprise me is that half of the council refused to reply to calls & emails asking if they talked to any of the vendors, and the rest flat-out lied, telling me there were links between the trucks and crime - even when the Sacramento Police Department says quite succinctly that they have no record of any such correlation.

Sacramento's taco trucks a part of our California culture, they are clean and safe to eat from (all are inspected as often or more often than restaurants, and on average all are substantially cleaner and have less violations than restaurants, due to the fact that most are owner-operated, cleaned out daily and have visible kitchen areas). Please help us keep them!

By signing your name and location below, you attest that you disagree with the Sacramento City Council's decision to criminalize most mobile food vendors in the city, and agree that you'd like our taco trucks back, health-inspected & safe, where they can serve Sacramento residents.

(sign the petition by leaving your name and city and a note, if you like, in the comments below)

OMG we are famous you can have our autograph

2008-04-28T10:00:35-07:00

Most first-time visitors coming to Yum Tacos may have heard about us on NPR - so many thanks to you, and to Cyrus & NPR. And please do let us know where your favorite taco trucks are, so we can add them to the map! Thanks also to Karla Cook & The Food Times for picking up the story as well, and to the ingenious Goopymart for our new mascot.