El Tarasco Taco Truck: 3rd and Loma

El Tarasco is located on 3rd street, a block east of Loma near Downtown Los Angeles. Anthony and I were in search of a tiny cart that appears on 3rd and Crown Hill in the evenings, but it didn’t seem to be there that night. We saw El Tarasco’s Virgin de Guadalupe on its truck side across the street and made our way for a trial.

I ordered two pastor tacos but was informed by the truck owner’s teenage son that they were out. I went with carnitas, buche and lengua.

The carnitas were flavorless, and suprisingly chewey. They had a chicken-like texture, and this was quite disconcerting. Also, the taco was slabbed in salsa verde and guacamole salsa. The mixture of the two salsas did not work well. Overall, they were quite disappointing.

The buche and lingua faired no better- it was chewier than usual. So chewey in fact that I am conviced that the meat was actually pig’s fat. They were cut into strange cubes that were not pretty to the taco-eating eye. The above mentioned, Salsa Verde/Guacamole mixture did not help the situation.

The five tacos, while filled with meat, did not satiate my appetite. Their flavorless and chewy texture actually made me feel quite ill at ease. 10 minutes after ingestion, my stomach began to feel queasy. Plus, the cart didn’t offer Horchata- I had to settle for a can of 7-Up (which was covered in a strange grime). I decided, I needed to save taco-face so Anthony and I headed over to Taco Zone to kill the bad taste in our mouths with real carnitas. I still needed 2 Pepto pills to get through the night.
Beware of El Taracsco.
Summary

Taco Grade: C-
Salsa Grade: (Verde) Hot
Horchata: N/A : (
Price: $1.15

Positives: Good amount of meat in tacos. Full Selection of Tacos (theoretically). Provides beets, pickled onions and peppers, and avocado salsa free of charge.

Negatives: Dirty cart. Overall bad tacos. Ran out of Pastor and Carnitas. Terrible Buche and Lingua. No Horchata, and bottom of Soda cans covered in filth.