It’s pretty much summertime here in Southern Califa and that means BBQ’s and tacos. Casey was in town for a few days and I didn’t think it would be right to send him back to the East Coast without spending a day by the pool drinking some cheves and eating various marinated meats.

Thank god Casey was around too; a BBQ was way overdue. I was also unable to resist the temptation of the big new grill and was pretty much powerless against the forces of the sunshine, the giant grill, and the availability of quality Mexican marinated meat.

Our cabinet guy gave me the hook-up on a dope carniceria that served up carne that ain’t no joke. Apparently, Lario knows how to mix up a marinade. I stocked up on 15lbs. of meat: carne asada con naranja, puerco al pastor, and pollo limón. Thankfully, they had everything else I needed: cilantro, key limes, tortillas, onions, and Coronas.

Throwing the thin strips of Carne Asada on the grill was a thing of beauty. The sizzling beef threw up wafts of delicious smelling smoke that put my dog Tosca into a complete fit. PETA would have been pissed at the sight of such cruelty (though Drew did fumble a Halibut to Tosca’s advantage later in the day).

I used a skillet for the al pastor since it comes butchered in small pieces. It was fun to get all Food Network with it and flip the meat around too.

Of course I also worked with some chicken and some huge medieval pieces of turkey that Casey brought, but in my mind, the al pastor and the asada were kings.

Somebody not from California brought hot dogs. I tried to force a reconciliation between the dogs and the tacos by splitting a dog down the center and filling it with al pastor, then dropping it into a tortilla. Because like Obama, I’m not afraid to reach across the aisle.

I feel pretty strongly about tortillas as you should already know. The fresh tortillas from Lario’s made it all come together. The flavor, the fluffiness, and the fact that they were .59 cents made them fantastic. Just look at how good they look shining in the sun. Behold their awesome force.

Everything came together in one taco explosion. Many thanks to Nicole and Matt for their amazing guacamole. I dug into the emergency guacamole (read: store bought) for the first round of tacos and regretted it big time when drowned my al pastor in a a fat dollop of their chunky guac goodness.

The tacos were delicious and I was happy to please my taco-loving guests. Frankly, I know Jen, Josiah, and Casey are taco connoisseurs and it humbles me to see them so pleased by the meager attempts of my gavacho tacos.

One of the great joys of being in SoCal is spending a day in the sun eating tacos by the pool and drinking Mexican beer. It is perhaps the greatest joy for any Angeleno.  Now I just need a reason for the next one.

NOTICE:  Because we’re moving to Germany soon, I’ve recently become paralyzed fear at the prospect of living without awesome marinated meats from south of the border.  I’m now calling out an APB for anyone in the LA area that can teach me a few good recipes.  I’m looking for lessons on Al Pastor, Carnitas, Chile Verde, etc.  I will pay for food and beer.  Please help me out!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 2:46 am and is filed under Chez Moi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.