I’m Rick Bayless, Bitch!

Rick Bayless with Tacos~photo Tim Klein via Time Out Chicago

This is a big month for Rick Bayless. Of course, there was last night’s state dinner at the White House, honoring Mexico’s beleaguered president Felipe Calderon. The menu featured many wonderful items, including Waygu beef (from Oregon!) in black mole. Sadly, there were no tacos. But no worries there, because a new place in LA, called Red O, features a Bayless designed menu which does include plenty of taquitos and tacos. Not only does Red O have a selection of tacos al carbon, or wood-grilled tacos, they also feature what seems to be the continually growing trend of tacos de cazuela, or tacos de guisado. These are tacos made from fillings served from a communal pot on the table, preferably a traditional pot made of clay, or barro, in Spanish.

Note: In case you were wondering, the header for this section refers to a video from Time Out Chicago, in which Bayless slugs a Yelp reviewer in the gut and declares, “I’m Rich Bayless, bitch!” Watch it. It’s funny.

Taco Varios: Tacos de Guisado By Another Name

Since we’re on the subject of these tacos de guisado, or de cazuela, Bill Esparza has a great post about just that on his blog Street Gourmet LA. He says that in Baja California, these tacos are called tacos varios. The truck featured in the post, Tacos Aaron, has 15 to 20 different fillings on a given day! Dig that. Mr. Esparza will be guiding a street food segment for the tv show Bizarre Foods Baja on June 14. Looking forward to that.

Elk, Deer, Sheep, Bear, & Wild Pig Tacos

Talk about bizarre tacos. Well, not really. What’s more bizarre is that they were served at a Los Angeles rescue mission. There were also yellowtail, tuna, and tilapia tacos. Apparently, about 250 pounds of meat were donated by the Sportsman’s Channel as part of its “Hunt. Fish. Feed.” initiative. Some of the hunters were on hand to help serve the tacos as well. I wonder how they came upon tacos as the ideal vehicle for this meat and fish fest. The LA Times article says that the menu varies depending upon donations–anything from donuts to Dodger dogs. So, I’m thinking, who’s going to be the first to make a Dodger dog taco? Finally, as an aside, I’m curious about LA’s skid row. Where is it and why isn’t it capitalized? Skid Row. Most neighborhoods have the dignity of caps, even the crappy ones.