This just in from Katy, Texas (just west of Houston on I-10):

KATY, Texas — Two men stole money, jewelry and cellular phones from two women working a taco truck, officials told KPRC Local 2 Monday.

Fort Bend County sheriff’s deputies said two men approached the truck in a construction area in the 5200 block of Dillon Creek Lane in Katy at about 1:45 p.m. Thursday.

One of the men pulled out a revolver that he had hidden under his shirt, officials said. He demanded the women turn over their money, jewelry and cellular phones, investigators said.

Detectives said the second man got away in an unknown direction while the armed man told the women to drive him to Gaston Road near Fry Road.

The women were not injured.

Investigators said one of the men is Hispanic, 20 to 23 years old, 5 feet 8 inches to 5 feet 10 inches tall and 130 to 150 pounds. He has a long face, light skin, short brown hair and spoke Spanish with a Mexican accent, officials said. He was last seen wearing a green shirt and pants.

The second man is Hispanic, 28 to 30 years old, 5 feet 8 inches to 5 feet 10 inches tall and about 160 pounds, deputies said. He has a round face, dark complexion, long hair that was tucked under a baseball cap and he spoke Spanish with a Mexican accent, investigators said. He was last seen wearing a short-sleeved blue shirt and blue jeans.

Anyone with information is asked to call Fort Bend County Crime Stoppers at 281-342-TIPS.

Update: Apparently these guys are “serial taco truck robbers” ?

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

The good folks over at Current TV did a short minute long video on the taco truck contraversy in LA that’s been brewing down south. Nothing new here, but some great shots of LA taco trucks.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

People in LA aren’t taking this lying down. Notoriously apolitical Angelenos are trying to stop the current attack on everyday pleasures.

NYT:

Los Angeles, loathe to rallying cohesively around a local cause, has joined hands around tortillas.

A new county ordinance restricting taco trucks has outraged food bloggers, construction workers, residents of East Los Angeles accustomed to plopping down in a folding chair, taco in one hand, non-alcoholic sangria in the other, as well as members of the taco-loving public willing to drive 15 miles for the best carnitas.

And then an obligatory choad quote at the end:

“A lot of these food trucks are not from our community, they make money in our community but do not give back to the community,” said Lourdes Caracoza, the president of Maravilla Business Association, which covers a small section of East Los Angeles. “People say this is part of our culture. I don’t recall any towns in Mexico having taco trucks.”

If there’s one thing you can say about culture, it’s that it’s unchangeable and the same everywhere.

The article also links to the “Carne Asada is Not a Crime” petition at saveourtacotrucks.org.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

Time gets on the bandwagon with a piece about LA County’s plan to kick taco trucks out. Apparently the purpose of government is to take sides in what County Supervisor Gloria Molina, the leader of the crackdown, admits is a “turf war.”

“There are so many other problems in this city. Gangs. Robberies. To focus on people trying to make a living selling tacos? It makes no sense,” says Olegario Hernandez, while gassing up his taco truck on East L.A.’s Whittier Blvd. Taco truck drivers say it takes time to set up and prepare the food, and that moving constantly would make doing business impossible.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

Jonathan Gold is my hero.

LA Weekly:

The best thing I had to eat last week was a massive carnitas huarache, from the Gorditas Lupita’s truck on Eagle Rock Boulevard near Avenue 34. I ate it while leaning against a warehouse wall in Glassell Park, washed it down with a bottle of Mexican Coke and perfumed with the exhaust of a thousand diesel trucks. The second-best thing may have been a Puebla-style cemita overstuffed with fried beef milanesa, ripe avocado and shreds of the Pueblan string cheese called quesillo — that one I ate sitting on a plastic folding chair right on Indiana Street, where it runs into César Chávez at Five Points in East L.A.

The third, who knows? A bean-smeared clayuda devoured while sitting curbside at the La Oaxaqueña truck on Lincoln at Rose in Venice? A tostada of fiercely hot aguachile, chopped marinated shrimp, eaten on a milk crate perched next to a Whittier Boulevard medical clinic? A spicy tongue taco eaten at El Pique, in the parking lot of a Highland Park car wash on York at Avenue 53? The carne asada taco at the El Chato truck on Olympic near La Brea, the tooth-staining red sauce at El Taquito Mexicana in Pasadena, the al pastor at El Taurino on Hoover at 11th near Macarthur Park? They all came from trucks; they all made me feel glad to be alive, glad to be in Los Angeles.

. . .

Why would an ordinarily sensible woman wait 45 minutes outside a truck to secure the same plate of food she could nab in one-tenth that time at the related taquería next door? Sure, it’s the communal experience, the great brotherhood of the taco-eaters, but it is also the food. In tacos as in love, timing is everything, and if you’ve ever inhaled a taco of pork al pastor moments after the slivers of dripping meat have been hacked from the spit, you know: At that moment, desire and fulfillment are one. A great street taco is happiness translated into the language of warm tortillas, finely chopped onion and a hot sauce that bring you to your knees. The taqueros will usually ask if you want your tacos wrapped to go, but I have never known an order to last even the few seconds it takes to walk back to the car.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

Let me be the first to say, this new LA County law is ludicrous, plain and simple. I really hope David LeBeouf is on the case. This is the same nonsensical argument that was used in Salinas last year.

Los Angeles Times:

Supervisors unanimously agreed to pass the law after business owners, particularly in East Los Angeles, complained that taco trucks were keeping brick-and-mortar restaurants from flourishing by drawing away customers.

“We have received many complaints from restaurant owners who say it is very hard to do business after 6 p.m. because catering trucks park very near restaurants,” said Louis Herrera, president of the Greater East Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. “Many restaurants are forced to close their doors because they cannot compete with a catering truck’s prices.”

Restaurant owners complained that the costs of operating a taco truck are minimal compared with the numerous bills that stationary businesses have to pay.

And I’m not the only one who thinks so.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

I’m sorry, but if you think it’s a good idea to start extorting taco truck owners — especially in Spokane, WA — for money, you’re probably not going to get very far.

Spokesman Review:

A federal charge of impersonating an FBI agent has been filed against a multiple-time felon accused of extorting cash and taking the taco trailer used as the source of income for a Spokane businessman facing deportation.

In addition to the federal charge, Marwan Abdullah Nasser faces a state charge for allegedly kidnapping the son of taco vender Carlos Zuniga to back up extortion demands.

The self-employed businessman, who operated the popular “Tacos Tumbras” in Spokane and Spokane Valley, was told he could avoid deportation to Mexico and remain in Spokane if he paid cash bribes to a man he was told was an FBI agent, court documents say.

Zuniga, briefly detained last summer on pending civil deportation charges, later was introduced to Nasser by local Hispanic activist Carmella LeBlanc “who told Carlos (Zuniga) that Nasser was with the FBI,” the documents allege.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

Taco trucks in Iowa? Seriously? I’m astonished at how much I don’t know about the geographic diversity of taco trucks is our country.

Des Moines Register:

City Council members on Monday will cast the second of three votes on a requirement that all so-called “transient merchants” buy permits. Twelve vendors had permits last year; at least three times that number are in business. Those with leases of a year or longer do not require permits, which is what Councilman Brian Meyer wants to change.

“The one thing that absolutely has to happen is that everybody gets a permit, which is what we’re moving forward on,” Meyer said. “Everything else is negotiable.”

City officials have temporarily dropped the idea of higher permit fees and limits on the number of days a vendor can be in one location, whether it’s to sell food, tennis shoes or tie-dyed flags.

Critics said the tougher rules would put an unfair burden on legitimate businesses that barely eke out a profit. Others suggested that the proposals reflect racism against Hispanic entrepreneurs.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

Still no word on exactly which truck it was. That must be some killer carnitas.

Associated Press:

02/18/2008 08:48:21 PM MST

FONTANA, Calif.—A hunger for carnitas nearly led to some carnage after a Fontana man was robbed of a bag of tacos at gunpoint. Police Sergeant Jeff Decker said the 35-year-old victim had just bought about $20 in tacos from a street-corner stand Sunday night and was bicycling home when the suspect confronted him and said “Give me your tacos.”Decker said the suspect grabbed the bag of food, punched the victim in the face and began to flee.

When the victim demanded his tacos back, the suspect pointed what appeared to be a handgun at the man and threatened to kill him before running away.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

Who knew they had taco trucks in North Carolina?

Chapel Hill News:

On Jan. 17, the town issued a first letter of violation — a warning — to the three property owners letting the loncheras park outside their businesses.

The notice gave the vendors seven days to stop selling.

Loncheras have become popular across the Triangle as the Latino population has grown. In Raleigh, before a new policy tightened restrictions, many loncheras parked along downtown’s Fayetteville Street. Some visited construction sites during weekday lunch hours. A few sold food outside nightclubs, weekend soccer games and other spots. The new rules prohibit the taco trucks from becoming fixtures and have made them more sparse.

In Durham, mobile food vendors can park their trucks in the Central Business District, which is mostly downtown, and at construction sites.

After about 10 days, Carrboro’s taco trucks returned last week, assured they wouldn’t be fined until the town reviews the rules.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post