Only one type of protein offered, but man..it's so good.
Tacos La Carreta is the winner of '23 LA Taco Taco madness, Judge's choice for it's Asada Torito. The same taco is mentioned in other lists (like Infatuation) for best tacos in LA....wouldn't be surprised if the owners end up on a Netflix food series sometime soon. So we decided to make a trek to North Long Beach on a Monday night (unlike other taco trucks, they close at 9pm).
Doing a little research on-line, found out that the owners live in Paramount but since that city does not allow food trucks, this current location (south side of E 69th St between Obispo and Downey Ave) has been the location even before COVID. We found street parking on that same side as soon as we saw the flashing signs proclaiming Sinaloan tacos. And it has easy access to the 91 freeway, for non-locals coming this far. They put up 4 metal stools for those who want to eat there, but those were already occupied and most people were doing carry-out, including us.
Strangely, there really isn't a menu sign (sure there is a small sign with the types of food...but no prices). They only accept cash, but the receipt given is printed and useful when picking your food up.
There is no condiment or salsa bar here...any order will come with carry-out packages of salsas (5 different types), sliced cucumbers, and grilled white onions with one roasted hatch pepper. And unlike other places, they gave us enough salsa. After placing the order, it took about 12 minutes for the food to be prepared, packaged, and handed to us. It's a smooth operation. We took the 91 then 710 back home, opened up our bag, and dug in.
All four items (taco dorado, vampiro, torito, quesadilla) used the same, chopped carne asada and it was mounded on each item. The meat had so much flavor, smoky from the mesquite wood (I read that on-line...not good enough to distinguish the different types by taste alone). They can't be doing that at the food truck, so wondering if they are cooking the meat somewhere else and bringing it here (it didn't smell like smoke anywhere close to the food truck).
One distinct topping they put on their items is a combo of raw, finely chopped cabbage and red onion...you can request it off if you want. The taco dorado was street taco size and was open faced. The vampiro was a bit bigger, still open faced, but has a layer of melted cheese at the bottom. Both used a corn tortilla. The quesadilla and torito were similar in size and taste, using a really good flour tortilla, except the quesadilla had a lot of melted cheese while the torito had the grilled hatch pepper in the middle. Every bite had that strong Smokey taste, and because the beef had been chopped finely, relatively easy to chew. Next time, I would get more of the quesadilla and try a different salsa in each bite.
Of course, as I'm writing this, I can't find my receipt and strangely I can't find prices for this place anywhere on-line. So guestimating, since the total for the 4 items was $20 out the door, thinking the taco was either $3 or $3.50 and the toritos being $6 or $7. Definitely on the high side for a food truck, but imo, worth it. read more