— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
Since having some of the best goddamn sandwiches in the city isn't enough, Rhea's Deli is breaking into the taco game next weekend:
We're shooting for next Saturday [between] 12-130am for our very first taco party.
Who knows how they'll fit a taco party inside that small deli, but taco party!
— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
As commenter Adam noted yesterday, it appears our dreams of having a fleet of Mexican fast food first responders saving us from hangovers and malnourishment have been crushed: the Taco-mergency taco truck is in fact a movie prop (note the 555 phone number). I maintain this is the best idea to come to mobile food vending since the advent of the ice cream truck. What this town needs isn't another boring food truck, but a fire engine hosing you down with beans and cheese and a swat team shooting you in the face with guacamole.
Someone, please make this happen.
(Thanks Steve!)
— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
My life is a perpetual taco-mergency. If it were not for Farolito and their 3am closing time, I'd probably have bleed out along Mission Street or outside of Pop's years ago. But the problem with brick and mortar bean and cheese hospitals is you still need to make your way there, which is difficult if Jameson or a stray bullet has rendered your limbs useless. But a taco truck pulling up to Bender's at 75 miles an hour with the red and white flashing and the siren song of tortillas and diarrhea echoing against Victorian architecture? That, my friends, is a game changer.
An additional Twitter search indicates that this taco truck is parked outside of Alamo Sq. for the filming of “Five Year Engagement.” Is this $2-savior-on-wheels a cheap film prop or an new San Francisco establishment? If you're in the know, do clue us in.
— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
16th Street is pretty shitty for tacos, no doubt. But if you were a gang member of the MS-13, the gang that controls the northern part of the Mission, would you consider the limited selection of tacos crappy enough that you'd cross into enemy territory for a delicious 24th Street taco? According to the SF Weekly, they do just that. In the Weekly's “Insider's Guide to the MS-13 Gang,” members would “dash” onto 24th for tacos:
10. You can cross into rival gang turf — for a tasty taco.
In one of the more bizarre moments of [former MS-13 member Abraham] Martinez's testimony, he said he'd venture into the heart of [rival gang] Norteño territory on 24th Street to get food at one of the taquerias. “I'd make a dash for it, in and out really quick. Or I'd have someone go for me.” Try Yelping that.
In a follow-up post, they looked into the court transcript to see what taquerias are worth the risk, but there weren't any good answers:
Phillipsborn: There are some taquerias on 24th Street you like? There are times you'd go in disguise to get some food?
Martinez: That's incorrect. I'd make a dash for it, in and out really quick. Or I'd have someone go for me.
The Weekly conjectures that Martinez would head to El Farolito, Taqueria Vallarta, or La Taqueria Guadalajara. I'm pretty certain it was Papalote.
— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
Serious Eats recently went on a walking tour of the 24th taquerias in a search to find the best tacos in the Mission. While I'm sure we can all agree how pointless this exercise has become, they did come across an interesting pattern:
What I find most interesting here is that beside from the two best taquerias, which are clear outliers, the rest of the taco joints follow a very strong quality trend: the further east you go, the better they get. This makes a lot of sense, seeing as west of Mission Avenue [sic] is much more heavily gentrified (read: gringified) than East, which still has a large and vital Mexican population. It's just neat to see it in an actual graph.
I think blaming gentrification for this pattern is a stretch, but I do have to agree with the overall point. Plus, props to Serious Eats for bucking the myth that Mission St. alone is the ultimate destination for Mexican fast food.