Ugly Delicious (2018) s01e02 Episode Script
Tacos
You look beautiful, Pete.
I think this is the most romantic lighting we've ever been in together.
Who's coming tonight? - Gold.
- Who else? - Gustavo.
- Have you met Gustavo? - I've never met Gustavo.
- Gustavo is awesome.
I've read his column a lot.
I eat a lot of tacos with Gold.
I think we're gonna go to, like, three of his favorite places tonight.
Okay.
Is it true that you like quesadillas more than tacos? I've had a lot of good tacos.
I just don't love tacos as much as everyone else.
I would rather eat a more delicious Peking duck than a taco.
- Why is it, uh, one or the other? - 'Cause the world is binary.
- Your world is binary? - Yeah, my world is binary.
- I love tacos.
- Yeah.
But I would rather have a burrito or a torta.
You're from New York.
Of course you don't like tacos.
You haven't had good tacos.
The taco there is just more deliciousness per square inch.
More deliciousness per second than there is almost anything in the world.
- Totally agree.
- Wow.
Pound for pound.
When you have a row of places with street vendors here making food, what are some tell-tale signs where you'd obviously wanna go to try? Go to the places where you do not understand some of the words on the menu.
If you don't know that word, that's where you wanna go.
'Cause that's gonna tell you immediately this is regional stuff.
I would also say the salsas.
You know, if you just have red or green Meh.
Or the chiles toreados.
- Oh, yeah.
- What's that? Uh, chilies that are basically blackened on a grill, good places will, like, just give 'em away.
- Secrets of the trade.
Yeah.
- Secrets of the trade.
And I would say, if you go there and there's a big mound of masa, and somebody is making tortillas, score.
Probably, still What would you say? 80% of the trucks just use - Just use junk tortillas.
- Oh, yeah.
Way too many.
Horrible tortillas.
So these are the three things.
One is, don't understand the language Good sign.
- Good sign.
- Yep.
- Two Salsa game strong.
- Salsa game strong.
Three, tortilla game strong.
- Someone is making it, right? - Yeah.
If you see a packet of tortillas right next to your taquero, run.
I mean, you wanna talk about regional cuisine, this is as regional as you get.
You're gonna get a shrimp taco from one town in Jalisco and it's gonna be absolutely amazing.
You're getting the tacos de camarón.
That is what we need to get.
- Yeah, that's the order.
- That's the king.
I think everyone's gonna get their own order.
I wanna get camarón.
- Tacos de camarón.
- Tacos de camarón.
- Yes.
- There's your name twice.
You know it's good.
- Your order's ready.
- Order's ready.
Thank you.
It's a hard-shell taco.
But in a completely different way than the "Taco Night in America" type of taco.
Yeah.
The most celebrated "fish taco" in Southern California.
It's like har gao.
There's no food you can't find an Asian parallel for.
That's exactly what it is like.
Fried, a little bit of salsa with that aguacate.
That is tremendous.
You approve of it.
Yeah, it's delicious.
I want to order another one right away.
That to me, again, I don't think taco.
- How can you not think taco? - You don't think taco 'cause you've never had a taco like it.
Well, in my head, I'm definitely thinking Cantonese dim sum.
You're gonna imagine that there was a magical history of Chinese There has been a long migration of Chinese to Mexico.
There was Chinese in Mexico just, like, 20 years after the conquest.
- It's already 1530.
- I'm just saying it tastes Chinese to me.
All right, shall we eat on? - Yes.
- Let's do it.
That was really fucking awesome.
This is sort of like discovering I'm Asian food's not all, you know, General Tso's chicken.
Well, you're not Mexican.
Yeah.
"Hija de Sanchez" means "Daughter of Sanchez.
" I'm the daughter of Sanchez.
My parents are Mexican.
They were immigrants to the States, to try to give me a better life.
And then, here I am in another country and, in a way, an immigrant myself.
And somewhere along those years, I realized I just wanted to get back into my roots and reflect the flavors that I really believe in.
I really wanna bring up what people think of Mexican food, or, in general, Mexicans in Europe.
If I'm not gonna do it, who's gonna do it? You know? Who's going to show people how great Mexican food can be, even as simple as a well-made taco? Which is just simply a well-made tortilla, even though it's not that simple.
It's, like, hours of work.
I've seen you grow through this process of, like, trying to find who you are, 'cause that's one thing that you've always been.
You are hard as fucking nails.
So, do you feel like you can become the best taco-maker in the world? Yeah, I want to be.
And I think, you can't say that.
You can't say, "I'm gonna be the best taco-maker in the world.
" - But you definitely think - But I definitely want to make Don't play the humble card.
That's not your strength.
I know deep down inside, you're like, "Fuck everyone else.
" I'm gonna fucking kill them! "I'm gonna be the best motherfucking taco-maker in the world.
I'm in Copenhagen, so no one thinks I can fuckin' make the best taco in the world, and I'm gonna show everyone that I can.
" We go like this, press it through.
When did you go back to Mexico the first time? Well, I went to Mexico when I was younger, but then I didn't go again until I started working at Noma.
Did you start to go back when René started to go back? Yes.
René Redzepi is one of the world's great chefs and loves Mexico and has spent a lot of time in Mexico.
He's done pop-ups in Australia, in Tokyo, and feels that Mexico might be the best representation of what Noma could be.
Going to Mexico was a real moment for me.
They have this highly developed cuisine that blew my mind, and there was spice in it.
You know, it's hot.
You're touching a food that is, like, sacred to Mexico.
We're not gonna be traditional Mexican.
We're inspired by what they do.
Is there one dish that you think you can explain how it sort of bridges the gap? We actually took the masa and we made a ferment of it.
And it's so good.
And to me, that's a perfect mix of a Noma thing with this quintessential, most important factor of Mexican food, which is the masa, the Mex tortilla.
Are you gonna put a taco on the menu in Noma Mexico? If you ask Rosio, she's gonna say yes.
Because we're doing it with Rosio and she has a taqueria.
Imagine the training she has.
Five years in our kitchens.
She's putting all that knowledge into her history.
It can only be good.
Are you gonna feel weird, cooking in Mexico? Weird in what way? Like you don't belong? Like, in Korea, they call me a gyopo, like a foreign-born American, that I don't belong, right? Do you feel like they're gonna talk shit? Mmm.
I think they will.
Of course they will.
They have a huge history beyond what we recognize.
It would be insulting not to acknowledge that, right? I think what you guys are presented with is a very, very difficult task of doing something respectful but new.
Well, I hope it'll transition into Hija as well, to harness all the flavors a bit better here.
That's tremendous.
Is this, like, the signature here? - No.
- What? There are better fucking tacos than this? I think most people like the carnitas the best.
- I have room for one more.
- This is not very traditional.
- Fish skin taco.
- Fish skin taco.
So, this one is also made with salsa, with gooseberries, since we were talking about it.
- Oh, this is the gooseberry one? - Yeah.
Danes love the fish skin taco, right? Yeah.
- Why? - So predictable.
Why do you say that? I wanna know when you're gonna drop your faux-Danish accent - and come back to an American one.
- What are you talking about? You'll watch this and be like, "Wow, I sound like an expat traitor.
" No way.
Goodbye, Noma.
In the trash.
Where are we going? - Mexico.
- Oh, come on.
Mexico! Maize was born in what we now call Mexico, 9,000 years ago.
Seven thousand years later, pre-Hispanic communities discovered that if you cook maize with an alkaline solution, you create nixtamal.
When you grind it, it becomes masa, which is what makes corn tortillas so nutritious.
By the time conquistadores arrived, the Aztecs were chowing down on tortillas, which means they were probably eating tacos, too.
But the Spanish missed their bread.
So after they conquered the Aztecs, they introduced wheat, which is how we got flour tortillas.
Flash forward a few hundred years, after the Mexican-American war, and taquerias are popping up all over Mexico City to feed the workers who flocked there looking for work.
Understanding that tacos are a great food to eat doesn't take anything other than eating tacos.
And having never been to Mexico before, it at least gave me a window into how many different styles and approaches to tortillas and fillings and toppings that existed.
It's ridiculous to restrict tacos to being a cheap food that you eat quickly, which they are and they are amazing at, but why can't that still be a vehicle for the best cooking in the world, for the best restaurants in the world? It happens to a lot of Mexican chefs.
A lot of times we don't see what we already have in our country and the richness of our food.
It's extremely unique, you know? When I first came to Mexico City, I was very impressed how Mexicans are so educated when it comes to really, really amazing food.
So, yeah, there's a big demand.
Huge demand.
I grew up in the States.
I'm just as patriotic about the States as most Americans.
I lived there for 27 years.
- Were you born there? - No, I was born in Mexico, in Guanajuato.
I was meant to come back to my country.
I kept finding more and more ingredients, all these signs that said, "You belong in Mexico.
" You know, the market in Mexico City is the largest open market in the world.
Central de Abastos has its own police force, it has its own transportation system.
So it's the central point for all - fruits and vegetables.
- For all of Mexico and the world.
If you find something in China that came from Mexico, it left Central de Abastos.
- England, the US, wherever.
- It all goes through Abastos.
- It all goes through Central de Abastos.
- Wow.
I love markets in general.
Because it's where you actually start to think about what you're going to be cooking.
This is guanabana.
It's one of my favorite fruits.
Not only do I love what we produce in Mexico, but I love the markets.
Because it gives you an idea of what Here, take some of that.
Right there.
It's almost like overwhelming.
So, you cooked in the States, right? Mmm-hmm.
When you came here, what was the difference in what there was to cook with? When I came to Mexico, I was kind of shocked of how much fresh ingredients we can find all year round.
Because of all the different climates and Because of the climate, because of the cultures.
It took me a few years to actually, like Acclimate to what was here - and how to cook with it.
- Yes, yes.
Lima.
I wanna buy some of this.
Señor! That first taco was fucking extraordinary.
Yep.
It was one of the best bites of food I've had in a long time.
All right, so my theory that it could be Chinese or Asian - It is not completely insane.
- Thank you.
- Not completely insane.
- You're saying there's a chance? Anyone who comes to Mexico, they put in their little bits and pieces of their culture.
The Germans, the Czechs, the Poles, they gave us the beer.
Uh, Lebanese gave us al pastor with tacos árabes that we're gonna eat soon.
You go to Mérida, and you go into the mercado, where there are giant mounds of Edam cheese in the red wax because they always had, like, a big trade with Holland.
You know, so all these different cultures are bringing in their cuisines.
That's what makes Mexican food so delicious and, again, so long-lasting.
Hey, Gustavo, you wanna tell me what's going on in here? Yeah, so these are gonna be people from Puebla, making what's basically a taco árabes.
Taco árabes, most people would compare it to shawarma.
They're doing it off the spit.
And what you're gonna see looks kind of like pita bread, but it's a completely different bread.
It's called pan árabe.
So it's gonna be a little bit thinner than a pita, and that all comes from the Lebanese migration that came to Puebla in Central Mexico from the 1920s onward.
I had no idea of anything about that history.
Mmm-hmm.
I feel like a total fool and it's awesome.
No idea what's happening.
Ooh, this is so good.
- Oh, look at that.
- Oh, my God.
So, what happened to this meat? Why is it so delicious? The marinade.
It really feels like a kebab.
That's crazy that there is such a a clear line from that food to this food.
Is there anything Chinese about it that you can find yet? I hope you choke.
Okay, I had no idea this is Lebanese in origin.
And the al pastor tradition came from that? There's only so much food you can fucking know.
I know nothing about certain food cultures and, unfortunately, all of Mexico is one of them.
That very much goes to the stereotypes Americans have always had about Mexico.
That Mexicans can only be of Indian descent and Spanish descent, and that you don't have all these different traditions coming in and making Mexican food what it is.
This is my mother.
- Your mother? - My mother.
My father.
Countrymen, cousins.
I think that story began when my grandparents came here to Puebla.
They came in 1928.
Due to the First World War, they became refugees.
Turkey, with their German leaders, killed three million Assyrian-Chaldeans and Armenians.
They were eradicated from their own country, and they went out to emigrate.
How did the family come to start making tacos here in Puebla? So the Greeks came and they placed a meat spinning top.
Traditionally, originally, it was made with lamb.
But in accordance with Mexican tradition, we started to use pork.
It's something similar to the shawarma, but it was adjusted to the Mexican culture.
When my father came to Puebla, he began to make "Arab bread".
The name "Arab taco" came from the tortilla.
The tortilla is Arabic.
One day, a cousin of his passed by and he told him, "You know what? Here, grab these pieces of bread.
Put some meat in them, and go sell them.
" In that moment, some lady approaches and told them, "Please, give me two Arab tacos.
" Yes, since then the two families came together, the bread family and the taco family.
And they create the perfect marriage to create a new type of food.
Are there immigrants coming to Mexico now, coming to Puebla, making new food, adding to the food culture of the city? Is that still happening? Yes, now here in Puebla, you can see dishes from all over the world.
There is a lot of diversity.
A lot of immigrants bring their food and end up having successful businesses.
So, how long will that trompo last? Will you be done with that by tonight? Yes, this spinning top should be gone around 6:00 or 7:00 p.
m.
- Do you like it? - I love it.
It's fantastic.
And so much like a taco, but different.
It's its own thing.
I mean, isn't the taco kind of the most amazing canvas for fusion of cuisines and cultures? Even within Mexico? I mean, Peking duck is one thing.
Tacos is a universe that keeps expanding.
The fact that almost every culture has some type of food that is wrapped, I don't think that is any ethnicity or any culture.
It's just What is the Ur-wrap? What is the king of all kings when it comes to the wraps? - Is it the ssam? Is it taco? - I have no historical data, but I will venture to say it's Korean.
You guys are the Mexicans of Asia, man.
Yes.
This is the first truck, uh, number 69, that started Kogi.
This is the one that I was driving when we only had four people on the team.
This is the windshield we looked through before we even knew what the hell we were going through.
When we started Kogi, the economy had just crashed in LA.
And so our idea was to provide this experience which was normally expensive.
Like, 50 bucks a portion Korean barbecue, into street taco at $2.
So when you eat it, it doesn't taste Korean or Mexican, right? - It just tastes like Kogi.
- It just tastes good.
Yeah.
I think that's the thing that made Kogi so special.
I remember when you were, like, the first chef to use Twitter.
And it wasn't that long ago, but it seems like ages ago.
As significant as that was, in terms of you using technology - and using food trucks - Uh-huh.
to me, you were creating new American food and doing it in a style that represented Los Angeles.
We're still treated as outsiders, in a way.
I kind of love that shit, man.
I love that, because this is who we are.
We're still immigrants, we're still out here on the street, cooking.
They are a part of Kogi's flavor now more than I am, you know? Maria Lena's been cooking on this truck for almost eight and a half years.
And they use our recipes, but they've put twists on it that have evolved Kogi without me.
How is this expression of freedom and finding your voice and representing the voice of immigrants, community, street culture? - Yeah.
- Why is that best represented in a taco? Nobody hates tacos.
It's this portable kind of like vessel of love, in a way.
So when we're handing this taco out to people in the middle of the night all those things that led up to that moment, whether you called us a chink or a wetback or beaner, all these things that separated us, all of a sudden, washed away.
The Mexicans and Latinos in East Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, South LA, all gave us respect, because they just said this shit is the bomb.
The Koreans, they all just wanted to copy our business model.
There were a lot.
There were a lot, but they loved the food.
And everyone writing about it could never pigeonhole it.
It just became Los Angeles.
If you understand Korean food, if you understand tacos, - there are a lot of similarities.
- Yeah.
I don't think Kogi could've existed anywhere else except for here in a taco truck.
It's because of the deep Chicano, Mexican culture here in Los Angeles that goes back all the way, you know, almost 100 years.
The cruising culture.
The graffiti culture.
The tattooing culture.
The gang culture.
The Korean culture here.
I think it's like, you can't recreate that experience, just like I couldn't recreate the Italian-American, New Jersey experience.
- Right.
- You know what I mean? That had to happen over there and this had to happen over here.
This is our test kitchen here.
- This is where - The Caribbean is here, the test kitchen here.
And in the back of all of this, that's where the jungle starts and that's where our restaurant will be.
This is just all the beginning of actually some sort of creative work to start.
What's different cooking Mexican food in Mexico? All the products.
Everything tastes better, everything tastes fresher.
This is the seed of the mamey.
A very, very common fruit here.
I've never had a star fruit that tasted of anything.
Are they good? Have you tasted them down here? And just like that? Take a bite.
- You'll be shocked.
- Wow.
Cooking here, it's a completely different ball game.
You get all the ingredients I've never seen before.
This is called annona.
It's like pudding.
- It's vanilla-y and custardy and almondy.
- Yeah.
At home we also have red things.
They're just beets.
It's a difficult, difficult task.
But like, in Copenhagen, you're, like, Mexican? In Yes.
But in Mexico, you are "American.
" It's the story of my life.
I feel like I grew up Mexican.
As Mexican as I could.
I'm trying to cook something that I think is close to me.
We want, actually, to challenge ourselves.
To do something different.
You've never tasted a texture like this.
- It's sprouting coconut.
Isn't it weird? - Wow.
Yeah.
Right now, we're trying not to think too much.
- Right.
- Just open up, taste, store the memory.
Wow.
It looks like cheese, right? He says when you peel them, you should soak them in salt water for a minute.
Then their acidity and the astringency, that sometimes burns you a bit, goes away.
Yeah.
- Yeah? - Yeah.
The salt water is amazing for it.
A few years into Noma, I told my dad, "I'm gonna go to Mexico and work in Mexico.
" Right.
He's like, "I don't support that at all.
" And this is coming from an immigrant father.
His idea is that, "I came to the States so you can have a better life.
You don't have to go back.
" Things like that.
But my point is, I wanna learn about the culture, I wanna cook.
I can figure out some other way.
So, you gonna go to Noma in Tulum? I've heard nothing but good things about that guy, but we can just come here.
This is my Noma for tonight.
It's different.
It is a different style.
It's a different concept, for sure, but is it appropriation? Should Mexican food be that expensive? And if it is, is it still Mexican food? What fine dining does, or at least you hope it does There's a synthesis that takes place.
You're not reproducing this.
Redzepi obviously cares.
In that sense, it's awesome that you do have that acknowledgment from some of the best chefs in the world that Mexican cuisine is it.
At the same time, I don't know if putting it into the echelon of high dining necessarily does anything to the cuisine.
What are you guys doing, coming out to Yaxunah? Something like this is very important to kind of the development process.
Being aware of what's a tradition in a place like Yaxunah, in a place like Mexico, um, where they already eat very delicious all the time.
Hello, how are you? Excuse me.
- Everything is grown by you? - Yes.
- And everything it's fresh.
- Everything it's fresh.
Everything around here is what goes in to the cochinita.
Which I feel, to some degree, is the reason Noma became so good.
Is 'cause René was trying to make food of that place and like, get into all the weird, green, bitter herbs along the beach and figure out how to make them delicious.
- Can I grab one? - Sure, go ahead.
So when you are going to cook, you take it from here? Yes.
- And so that's - So, these are the seeds.
And that's the seed that gives the red color? It just gives it color, right? Yes.
And they also use it for makeup.
How nice.
So And the lips? Is it a little rouge? Now you have some color.
There we go.
Look better? - Now it looks like you are healthy.
- Yeah.
Giving a little color to my cheeks.
They're gonna grind it by hand.
- There's a magic about that.
- Right.
That it's all just Everything's here, everything's grown and harvested whenever they need it.
So you can rest a little.
- You can do it too.
- I can grind? So we're making the paste here, that's the annatto seed.
A little bit of water, garlic, onion He really wants to eat.
Then he better work.
How normal is it for men to be involved in this I said, "You wanna eat, you better work for it.
" - You're very good at this.
- I don't know if that's true.
It was an extreme privilege to be able to taste, talk about ideas and how we're gonna cook.
It's like a cook's dream.
I do think people don't realize how much time goes into a lot of Mexican food.
And especially, like, tacos and moles.
You know, people will eat it and just go, "Oh, okay.
" So it's a huge effort, and I think, um, sometimes it gets lost.
I think the hard-shell taco is one of the most unfairly maligned foods in the United States, but specifically in Mexican cuisine.
Everyone loves to talk crap, "Oh, hard shell's not authentic.
It's for gabachos, for white people.
For dumb white people for enjoying that.
" - What's that term? - Gabacho.
- Gabacho.
I gotta use that.
- Gabacho.
Oh, yeah.
Gringo doesn't work.
Nobody calls anybody gringos anymore.
- Only gringos call gringos "gringos.
" - Yeah.
- So, where are we going? - We're going to Taco Bell.
- You serious? - Yeah.
It's garbage food that they serve at Taco Bell.
It's too bad we're not going to a combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.
Oh, we're going to KFC-Taco Bell.
- Oh, there you go.
- Oh, what a nightmare.
Hi, welcome to KFC and Taco Bell.
How can I help you? Let's just leave.
There's so many fucking choices.
I feel like I've entered Dungeons & Dragons and I'm on level two.
- Who are you? Are you the elf? - Yeah.
Uh, two Dorito Locos Tacos, please.
We'll get one Crunchwrap Supreme as well.
Wow, the menu's changed.
Total is $7.
42 at the window.
Thank you.
- Thank you.
- The menu has changed.
What do you eat here? KFC or Taco Bell? Neither.
I don't like them.
Mmm-mmm.
What I don't like about the Doritos Locos Taco, it needs more Doritos flavor.
And what kills it is the "beef" that they use in it.
That throws off everything.
You know what would be better? If it was a bag of Doritos.
Yes! I feel like, by bringing, uh, Taco Bell in here, it's like having three Lester Bangs talk about Led Zeppelin.
So we're in San Bernardino, California.
Old Route 66.
This is, like, the cradle of Mexican food in the United States.
Across the street, Mitla Cafe, one of the oldest Mexican restaurants left in the United States.
80 years old.
First started in 1937.
Great tacos, birrias, chile relleno soup.
Oh, my God.
- All right.
Thank you.
- You're welcome.
But then, right across the street, that was the original taco spot for Glen Bell of Taco Bell fame.
There's no plaque there.
I just know it 'cause, I don't know, I wrote the book on Mexican food.
This is where Glen Bell got the idea to mass produce tacos.
Mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm.
He wanted to make hamburgers, but just up Mount Vernon, towards Baseline, that's where the original McDonald's hamburger stand was.
So he figures, "Okay, the way I'm gonna get rich is by making tacos.
" He didn't know how to make tacos.
He's a white guy from San Bernardino.
Every night after he'd close up shop, he'd go right across the street to Mitla Cafe, order some and try to figure out, "How can I deconstruct those tacos?" But this is actually where the taco lost its soul.
The tacos are amazing.
They're just old-school, hard-shelled.
Then you got the blizzard of the cheddar cheese, the repollo, the tomato, and then the meat inside.
But then, when you describe it to, like, a "real Mexican," they're like, "That's not real Mexican food.
" - Right.
- "That's fake Mexican food.
" How do you respond to people when they say that? So my grandmother came here from Tepatitlán, Jalisco, and that was her recipe.
That's what she was making when she was in Mexico and that's what she was making when she came to the United States.
The ingredients changed a little bit.
Those are the things that were available to her.
- Yeah.
- Ground beef, cheddar cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, iceberg lettuce.
So she made it work and she made it great.
What I've always said about Mexican food, that staying power, it always adapts.
No matter where it is.
When my grandmother opened the restaurant, she wanted to have American-style food on the menu.
The first item is a T-bone steak.
How do you feel that your family's recipe, like, your heritage, was basically taken by Glen Bell and turned into a multi-billion dollar empire? We don't talk about it in terms of what could have been or what he did to us or anything like that.
It's more of, "Look at our connection to the history of food in this country.
" When you hear stories like salsa is the number one condiment, or tortillas are right there next to the Wonder Bread.
That's what the country's about.
That's what the immigrant story is about, is assimilating.
But not only assimilating to the culture, but having that predominant culture assimilate some of your beliefs, some of what you do well, and make it part of the general population.
To me, the problem with Del Taco and with Taco Bell is you can eat a taco and it's completely separated from the people who cook it and the culture that produced it.
I view Taco Bell, Del Taco, they're the gateway drug.
They're the restaurants that Americans know the idea of Mexican food.
So at this point now, where there's Mexicans all over the United States, people are more willing to try it.
I once put away a couple of white supremacists, in jail, and I found pictures of them that they had posted on Stormfront of them, uh, eating Del Taco burritos, which, that's awesome to me.
When you have white supremacists gorging on Mexican food and thinking that's part of who they are, that's a small victory unto itself.
This is tortilla making? Yes.
No machines, all hand.
- The corn, it's the basis of their diet.
- Right.
And you're eating it for breakfast and you're eating it for lunch and you're eating it for dinner.
- How they work - Right.
What they're harvesting, how they spend their days, it's everything.
- I'm just gonna fail honorably.
- No.
No, no, no.
- No? Go back again? - She's looking at you weird.
What's this? I feel like you're not translating.
- Can't just leave me out here in the cold.
- I wanna win.
People are hungry, Peter.
Ah See, that's how you win, is you get somebody to help you right at the end.
- Mine's fat.
- Mine's ripped.
Theirs are perfect.
And so these are the tortillas that're gonna be at the pop-up that you guys do.
When we arrived here, we were extremely inspired after we ate here and talking to everybody.
So we asked a lot of these women if they wanted to come and work for us and kind of be a part of the project and do what they do best.
What do you think of when you think of South Philly, Mike? Uh, I think of the good people.
The sports complexes.
The, uh, cheese steaks you can get there.
Well, it's not just home to all that, it's also to one of the best new restaurants in America.
- According to whom? Oh.
- Bon Appétit.
Yeah.
- Hey.
Good to see you.
- Excited to be here.
The story is really Cristina, because she's been cooking barbacoa since she's six years old.
She's learned how to do everything, you know? Is barbacoa cooked all over Mexico or is it a specific place? We made barbacoa in Capulhuac.
That is a specific location.
It's a traditional family food.
It was my gift to Philadelphia.
I'm not sure how I figured it out, just that I saw a need for this kind of food.
Can I get four tacos? Two lamb, two pork? - Sure.
Is it for here? - For here.
Nice.
It's what I grew up with and Cristina really makes it a bit like home.
This is how I get most of my experiences with a lot of immigrants is by coming to places like this.
The place they've created has transcended borders.
There's no stopping her from cooking barbacoa.
We had our little apartment, and she just started selling it to guys, like on the weekends, Sundays.
She would just, like, tell them, "Yo, I cook barbacoa.
" People just kept coming and coming.
We got so busy in our little apartment that we had to move into the food car.
That got busy, too.
This place is almost ready for an expansion, too.
You guys gonna take over the next building? Ah.
I don't know what we're gonna do.
I mean, it's tough because I feel like we don't really have stability in this country, you know? Because of my wife's legal status.
Cristina came here, walked across the desert, so she could put her daughter through nursing school.
And she's here and her daughter's, you know, a nurse.
And she can't go visit her, because she wouldn't be able to come back.
Even though we're legally married, she would have to go and live in Mexico for ten years before she could even apply for a green card.
This is the way that the law is set up.
It traps undocumented people here with no rights and then they get put into this exploitable working situation.
You immigrated here in a way that most people only find out about on the news or newspaper.
You actually, you know, did it.
When someone decides to immigrate by crossing the desert, there are rattlesnakes.
It's really hot and really cold.
You risk your life.
It makes it hard to have the strength to walk here.
But when you have the goal of changing your family's life, you can do difficult things.
Being silent about something that affects you is being complicit.
Everyone that's worked in the restaurant industry has worked with undocumented people.
If these voices started to come out of the woodwork, that could create a sea change, it could create a culture shift, and bring the conversation to the public.
It doesn't scare me to be public, because someone has to tell the story and change it.
You guys pay your taxes.
Yeah.
You guys employ people.
- You guys create jobs.
- Yeah, we create jobs.
We offer our space for the community.
We are hardworking people.
We are not doing bad things.
We're helping the country.
Either we're going to change the system or we're gonna be deported.
I guess I'm just still questioning the validity and the power that food can actually change things.
Right? I don't know how much people actually really care about food.
It's a long struggle.
You know? - Just one person by one person.
- But acceptance takes time.
- Yeah.
- Takes years.
I wanna live in a society that people are not afraid and not being kept under the shadows and people can be themselves.
Because I know and you know diversity is strength.
And we need that diversity.
That's the American Dream.
But we need to continually work to get there.
- One taco at a time.
- Yeah, one taco at a time.
I always think about my dad.
He came to this country, he washed dishes bussed tables, was a handyman for years, right? It was the one job he could get without having to speak English.
So I've always had, not just a soft spot, but being able to empathize with people who wanna better their place in the world.
How did you come back to Mexico? I was deported twice from the States.
- Twice? - Twice.
The first time I got deported, I was going to stay in Mexico, and, uh, my father was diagnosed with cancer.
So, my mother All my family are Americans except me.
She told me, "You have to come back, because your father is very ill.
" And I took that chance.
If I was to be caught crossing that border, I would have been put back in jail for however many years.
And after seven years of living in the States, I was deported again.
This time, because I was becoming well-known.
I was in newspapers and magazines.
And they just came for me.
I left a family behind.
I left a son behind.
Enrique gave me an opportunity, and I worked for him for three years as his chef de cuisine.
After that, I opened my restaurant with my wife.
And five years later, here we are.
120 employees Wow.
and we're about to open one in Dubai.
Can you go back to the States? - Never.
- Never? I can never go back to the States.
I am banned for life.
There are so many people like me Living that life.
A lot of times, people think, "Yeah.
I am an illegal.
I'm gonna hide, because I don't want society to know that I'm a bad person.
" But it's okay, and it's okay for you to succeed.
- This is why I tell my story.
- Right.
I just want people to understand that a taco is not just a taco.
A taco is culture.
A taco is history.
A taco is migration.
A taco is, you know, resistance.
Politics.
All of that stuff.
But it's hard because, too often in foodie culture, people just want to eat.
They don't wanna think about what they eat.
- Do you think that's gonna change? - Let's hope.
Do you feel that people are more receptive to learning about food and the history behind it? I think that it's become a currency, so that's made it more interesting.
The way people talk about sports or the way people talk about bands, you know? If you're the guy who knows what that place serves and why it's good, then suddenly, that's worth something.
I think that that's an incentive for the improved cultural position of food.
When I was writing about restaurants for the Times, I watched cheeseburgers go from something that you ate at fast food restaurants to be something that like, fine dining chefs took seriously, but, like, it's a cheeseburger.
There's a lot of foods that have transitioned over time, and it's about cultural awareness and it's about cultural acceptance.
The role that chefs like Enrique play in it is challenging people's conception of what a taco can be.
And part of that is just putting it in a more refined setting and saying, "You know you wanna be eating fucking tacos, so, like, come to my fine restaurant, have some nice wine and have tacos.
'Cause that's what you wanted, anyway.
" This is a project we have been working on for a couple of years.
I have always been obsessed with how the Japanese treat rice and fish in an almost life-changing way.
So we decided that we wanted to do that with tacos.
It's four components, always.
A single-origin tortilla.
The main component that is cooked over the coal.
The herbs.
And the salsa.
So this is only for the omakase.
Is the omakase what you're doing at the taco bar? - Yes.
- Okay.
- For lack of a better word.
- No, yeah.
Soft-shell capeado, which is the butter with the soft shell, powdered chili, and the - The mix of garden herbs.
- The mix of garden herbs.
So, it's always the same format.
- Amazing, no? Mmm-hmm.
- Fantastic.
I want 12 more.
This is cauliflower deep-fried in chicken fat.
And then the chicken chicharron and onions.
And then, this is a salsa macha.
Use a lot of the salsa.
That's my favorite.
There's like a mix between respect and understanding that there's a few things you can call Mexican.
Because there's so many influences.
I think being Mexican is also being open to other ideas.
It's almost like they've done this before.
It looks amazing.
Oh, look at - Ooh! Wow.
- It's hot.
Mmm.
The whole thing together is pretty fucking amazing.
It's just that idea of like, getting to taste something that's from a place.
Ooh! I've had this in Chicago and New York and Los Angeles, and escalating versions of it being better or worse, but to like, be sitting here and eating it in the place that it's from, surrounded by all the things it's made from - This is stunning.
Right? - It's amazing.
- Qué rico, eh? - Yeah.
- It does something, right? - Yeah.
It really does.
I mean, it feels, like, purposeful and connected and right and just, like it's the perfect place to be eating and experiencing this.
I'm just gonna put this here, please? 'Cause I'm gonna use it over there, if that's okay? Thank you very much.
This is the first time I've actually had the chance to cook in Mexico.
And it's been insanely inspiring.
I'm taking so many references and flavors to my palate and new flavors.
So it's been an incredible experience.
So we just put a little bit of this tropical chile salsa with ginger and coconut fat.
It's very spicy, pretty.
Kind of resonates a lot with where we are right now.
Then we do an egg yolk salsa.
So it's a spicy egg yolk.
Just the egg yolk and a little bit of, uh, habanero.
Why Mexico? What is it about your culture that makes you guys so open? I'm just, again, floored at how willing and accepting you are of other ideas.
We're not afraid of new things.
Let's put it this way.
Everyone likes to mythologize America as a melting pot, which, yeah, it's true to a certain extent, but there's always been that xenophobic streak.
In Mexico, we love everyone.
Everyone.
Yeah, I kinda wanna, I hope, one day move to Mexico.
- What? - I mean, I would love to.
- But, like - It definitely has me thinking.
So what changed? It just feels right, you know? And it feels right to be alongside those products.
And you get to Mexico, and suddenly everything's there and everything's perfect, you know? And for me, it's just given me a little more confidence to Like I said, "Fuck it.
Just gonna do it.
" And it's amazing to feel like that.
- Cheers, guys.
- Cheers.
To tacos, to Rosio, to all of us.
- Thank you.
- To the mexicanos.
All right, David.
We have a gift for you that all the kids are gonna beat up.
Ah I think it looks like you.
What do you think? It definitely has the head size right.
I'm too tough.
- I'm the Terminator.
- Too tough to die! Yeah! Whoo!
I think this is the most romantic lighting we've ever been in together.
Who's coming tonight? - Gold.
- Who else? - Gustavo.
- Have you met Gustavo? - I've never met Gustavo.
- Gustavo is awesome.
I've read his column a lot.
I eat a lot of tacos with Gold.
I think we're gonna go to, like, three of his favorite places tonight.
Okay.
Is it true that you like quesadillas more than tacos? I've had a lot of good tacos.
I just don't love tacos as much as everyone else.
I would rather eat a more delicious Peking duck than a taco.
- Why is it, uh, one or the other? - 'Cause the world is binary.
- Your world is binary? - Yeah, my world is binary.
- I love tacos.
- Yeah.
But I would rather have a burrito or a torta.
You're from New York.
Of course you don't like tacos.
You haven't had good tacos.
The taco there is just more deliciousness per square inch.
More deliciousness per second than there is almost anything in the world.
- Totally agree.
- Wow.
Pound for pound.
When you have a row of places with street vendors here making food, what are some tell-tale signs where you'd obviously wanna go to try? Go to the places where you do not understand some of the words on the menu.
If you don't know that word, that's where you wanna go.
'Cause that's gonna tell you immediately this is regional stuff.
I would also say the salsas.
You know, if you just have red or green Meh.
Or the chiles toreados.
- Oh, yeah.
- What's that? Uh, chilies that are basically blackened on a grill, good places will, like, just give 'em away.
- Secrets of the trade.
Yeah.
- Secrets of the trade.
And I would say, if you go there and there's a big mound of masa, and somebody is making tortillas, score.
Probably, still What would you say? 80% of the trucks just use - Just use junk tortillas.
- Oh, yeah.
Way too many.
Horrible tortillas.
So these are the three things.
One is, don't understand the language Good sign.
- Good sign.
- Yep.
- Two Salsa game strong.
- Salsa game strong.
Three, tortilla game strong.
- Someone is making it, right? - Yeah.
If you see a packet of tortillas right next to your taquero, run.
I mean, you wanna talk about regional cuisine, this is as regional as you get.
You're gonna get a shrimp taco from one town in Jalisco and it's gonna be absolutely amazing.
You're getting the tacos de camarón.
That is what we need to get.
- Yeah, that's the order.
- That's the king.
I think everyone's gonna get their own order.
I wanna get camarón.
- Tacos de camarón.
- Tacos de camarón.
- Yes.
- There's your name twice.
You know it's good.
- Your order's ready.
- Order's ready.
Thank you.
It's a hard-shell taco.
But in a completely different way than the "Taco Night in America" type of taco.
Yeah.
The most celebrated "fish taco" in Southern California.
It's like har gao.
There's no food you can't find an Asian parallel for.
That's exactly what it is like.
Fried, a little bit of salsa with that aguacate.
That is tremendous.
You approve of it.
Yeah, it's delicious.
I want to order another one right away.
That to me, again, I don't think taco.
- How can you not think taco? - You don't think taco 'cause you've never had a taco like it.
Well, in my head, I'm definitely thinking Cantonese dim sum.
You're gonna imagine that there was a magical history of Chinese There has been a long migration of Chinese to Mexico.
There was Chinese in Mexico just, like, 20 years after the conquest.
- It's already 1530.
- I'm just saying it tastes Chinese to me.
All right, shall we eat on? - Yes.
- Let's do it.
That was really fucking awesome.
This is sort of like discovering I'm Asian food's not all, you know, General Tso's chicken.
Well, you're not Mexican.
Yeah.
"Hija de Sanchez" means "Daughter of Sanchez.
" I'm the daughter of Sanchez.
My parents are Mexican.
They were immigrants to the States, to try to give me a better life.
And then, here I am in another country and, in a way, an immigrant myself.
And somewhere along those years, I realized I just wanted to get back into my roots and reflect the flavors that I really believe in.
I really wanna bring up what people think of Mexican food, or, in general, Mexicans in Europe.
If I'm not gonna do it, who's gonna do it? You know? Who's going to show people how great Mexican food can be, even as simple as a well-made taco? Which is just simply a well-made tortilla, even though it's not that simple.
It's, like, hours of work.
I've seen you grow through this process of, like, trying to find who you are, 'cause that's one thing that you've always been.
You are hard as fucking nails.
So, do you feel like you can become the best taco-maker in the world? Yeah, I want to be.
And I think, you can't say that.
You can't say, "I'm gonna be the best taco-maker in the world.
" - But you definitely think - But I definitely want to make Don't play the humble card.
That's not your strength.
I know deep down inside, you're like, "Fuck everyone else.
" I'm gonna fucking kill them! "I'm gonna be the best motherfucking taco-maker in the world.
I'm in Copenhagen, so no one thinks I can fuckin' make the best taco in the world, and I'm gonna show everyone that I can.
" We go like this, press it through.
When did you go back to Mexico the first time? Well, I went to Mexico when I was younger, but then I didn't go again until I started working at Noma.
Did you start to go back when René started to go back? Yes.
René Redzepi is one of the world's great chefs and loves Mexico and has spent a lot of time in Mexico.
He's done pop-ups in Australia, in Tokyo, and feels that Mexico might be the best representation of what Noma could be.
Going to Mexico was a real moment for me.
They have this highly developed cuisine that blew my mind, and there was spice in it.
You know, it's hot.
You're touching a food that is, like, sacred to Mexico.
We're not gonna be traditional Mexican.
We're inspired by what they do.
Is there one dish that you think you can explain how it sort of bridges the gap? We actually took the masa and we made a ferment of it.
And it's so good.
And to me, that's a perfect mix of a Noma thing with this quintessential, most important factor of Mexican food, which is the masa, the Mex tortilla.
Are you gonna put a taco on the menu in Noma Mexico? If you ask Rosio, she's gonna say yes.
Because we're doing it with Rosio and she has a taqueria.
Imagine the training she has.
Five years in our kitchens.
She's putting all that knowledge into her history.
It can only be good.
Are you gonna feel weird, cooking in Mexico? Weird in what way? Like you don't belong? Like, in Korea, they call me a gyopo, like a foreign-born American, that I don't belong, right? Do you feel like they're gonna talk shit? Mmm.
I think they will.
Of course they will.
They have a huge history beyond what we recognize.
It would be insulting not to acknowledge that, right? I think what you guys are presented with is a very, very difficult task of doing something respectful but new.
Well, I hope it'll transition into Hija as well, to harness all the flavors a bit better here.
That's tremendous.
Is this, like, the signature here? - No.
- What? There are better fucking tacos than this? I think most people like the carnitas the best.
- I have room for one more.
- This is not very traditional.
- Fish skin taco.
- Fish skin taco.
So, this one is also made with salsa, with gooseberries, since we were talking about it.
- Oh, this is the gooseberry one? - Yeah.
Danes love the fish skin taco, right? Yeah.
- Why? - So predictable.
Why do you say that? I wanna know when you're gonna drop your faux-Danish accent - and come back to an American one.
- What are you talking about? You'll watch this and be like, "Wow, I sound like an expat traitor.
" No way.
Goodbye, Noma.
In the trash.
Where are we going? - Mexico.
- Oh, come on.
Mexico! Maize was born in what we now call Mexico, 9,000 years ago.
Seven thousand years later, pre-Hispanic communities discovered that if you cook maize with an alkaline solution, you create nixtamal.
When you grind it, it becomes masa, which is what makes corn tortillas so nutritious.
By the time conquistadores arrived, the Aztecs were chowing down on tortillas, which means they were probably eating tacos, too.
But the Spanish missed their bread.
So after they conquered the Aztecs, they introduced wheat, which is how we got flour tortillas.
Flash forward a few hundred years, after the Mexican-American war, and taquerias are popping up all over Mexico City to feed the workers who flocked there looking for work.
Understanding that tacos are a great food to eat doesn't take anything other than eating tacos.
And having never been to Mexico before, it at least gave me a window into how many different styles and approaches to tortillas and fillings and toppings that existed.
It's ridiculous to restrict tacos to being a cheap food that you eat quickly, which they are and they are amazing at, but why can't that still be a vehicle for the best cooking in the world, for the best restaurants in the world? It happens to a lot of Mexican chefs.
A lot of times we don't see what we already have in our country and the richness of our food.
It's extremely unique, you know? When I first came to Mexico City, I was very impressed how Mexicans are so educated when it comes to really, really amazing food.
So, yeah, there's a big demand.
Huge demand.
I grew up in the States.
I'm just as patriotic about the States as most Americans.
I lived there for 27 years.
- Were you born there? - No, I was born in Mexico, in Guanajuato.
I was meant to come back to my country.
I kept finding more and more ingredients, all these signs that said, "You belong in Mexico.
" You know, the market in Mexico City is the largest open market in the world.
Central de Abastos has its own police force, it has its own transportation system.
So it's the central point for all - fruits and vegetables.
- For all of Mexico and the world.
If you find something in China that came from Mexico, it left Central de Abastos.
- England, the US, wherever.
- It all goes through Abastos.
- It all goes through Central de Abastos.
- Wow.
I love markets in general.
Because it's where you actually start to think about what you're going to be cooking.
This is guanabana.
It's one of my favorite fruits.
Not only do I love what we produce in Mexico, but I love the markets.
Because it gives you an idea of what Here, take some of that.
Right there.
It's almost like overwhelming.
So, you cooked in the States, right? Mmm-hmm.
When you came here, what was the difference in what there was to cook with? When I came to Mexico, I was kind of shocked of how much fresh ingredients we can find all year round.
Because of all the different climates and Because of the climate, because of the cultures.
It took me a few years to actually, like Acclimate to what was here - and how to cook with it.
- Yes, yes.
Lima.
I wanna buy some of this.
Señor! That first taco was fucking extraordinary.
Yep.
It was one of the best bites of food I've had in a long time.
All right, so my theory that it could be Chinese or Asian - It is not completely insane.
- Thank you.
- Not completely insane.
- You're saying there's a chance? Anyone who comes to Mexico, they put in their little bits and pieces of their culture.
The Germans, the Czechs, the Poles, they gave us the beer.
Uh, Lebanese gave us al pastor with tacos árabes that we're gonna eat soon.
You go to Mérida, and you go into the mercado, where there are giant mounds of Edam cheese in the red wax because they always had, like, a big trade with Holland.
You know, so all these different cultures are bringing in their cuisines.
That's what makes Mexican food so delicious and, again, so long-lasting.
Hey, Gustavo, you wanna tell me what's going on in here? Yeah, so these are gonna be people from Puebla, making what's basically a taco árabes.
Taco árabes, most people would compare it to shawarma.
They're doing it off the spit.
And what you're gonna see looks kind of like pita bread, but it's a completely different bread.
It's called pan árabe.
So it's gonna be a little bit thinner than a pita, and that all comes from the Lebanese migration that came to Puebla in Central Mexico from the 1920s onward.
I had no idea of anything about that history.
Mmm-hmm.
I feel like a total fool and it's awesome.
No idea what's happening.
Ooh, this is so good.
- Oh, look at that.
- Oh, my God.
So, what happened to this meat? Why is it so delicious? The marinade.
It really feels like a kebab.
That's crazy that there is such a a clear line from that food to this food.
Is there anything Chinese about it that you can find yet? I hope you choke.
Okay, I had no idea this is Lebanese in origin.
And the al pastor tradition came from that? There's only so much food you can fucking know.
I know nothing about certain food cultures and, unfortunately, all of Mexico is one of them.
That very much goes to the stereotypes Americans have always had about Mexico.
That Mexicans can only be of Indian descent and Spanish descent, and that you don't have all these different traditions coming in and making Mexican food what it is.
This is my mother.
- Your mother? - My mother.
My father.
Countrymen, cousins.
I think that story began when my grandparents came here to Puebla.
They came in 1928.
Due to the First World War, they became refugees.
Turkey, with their German leaders, killed three million Assyrian-Chaldeans and Armenians.
They were eradicated from their own country, and they went out to emigrate.
How did the family come to start making tacos here in Puebla? So the Greeks came and they placed a meat spinning top.
Traditionally, originally, it was made with lamb.
But in accordance with Mexican tradition, we started to use pork.
It's something similar to the shawarma, but it was adjusted to the Mexican culture.
When my father came to Puebla, he began to make "Arab bread".
The name "Arab taco" came from the tortilla.
The tortilla is Arabic.
One day, a cousin of his passed by and he told him, "You know what? Here, grab these pieces of bread.
Put some meat in them, and go sell them.
" In that moment, some lady approaches and told them, "Please, give me two Arab tacos.
" Yes, since then the two families came together, the bread family and the taco family.
And they create the perfect marriage to create a new type of food.
Are there immigrants coming to Mexico now, coming to Puebla, making new food, adding to the food culture of the city? Is that still happening? Yes, now here in Puebla, you can see dishes from all over the world.
There is a lot of diversity.
A lot of immigrants bring their food and end up having successful businesses.
So, how long will that trompo last? Will you be done with that by tonight? Yes, this spinning top should be gone around 6:00 or 7:00 p.
m.
- Do you like it? - I love it.
It's fantastic.
And so much like a taco, but different.
It's its own thing.
I mean, isn't the taco kind of the most amazing canvas for fusion of cuisines and cultures? Even within Mexico? I mean, Peking duck is one thing.
Tacos is a universe that keeps expanding.
The fact that almost every culture has some type of food that is wrapped, I don't think that is any ethnicity or any culture.
It's just What is the Ur-wrap? What is the king of all kings when it comes to the wraps? - Is it the ssam? Is it taco? - I have no historical data, but I will venture to say it's Korean.
You guys are the Mexicans of Asia, man.
Yes.
This is the first truck, uh, number 69, that started Kogi.
This is the one that I was driving when we only had four people on the team.
This is the windshield we looked through before we even knew what the hell we were going through.
When we started Kogi, the economy had just crashed in LA.
And so our idea was to provide this experience which was normally expensive.
Like, 50 bucks a portion Korean barbecue, into street taco at $2.
So when you eat it, it doesn't taste Korean or Mexican, right? - It just tastes like Kogi.
- It just tastes good.
Yeah.
I think that's the thing that made Kogi so special.
I remember when you were, like, the first chef to use Twitter.
And it wasn't that long ago, but it seems like ages ago.
As significant as that was, in terms of you using technology - and using food trucks - Uh-huh.
to me, you were creating new American food and doing it in a style that represented Los Angeles.
We're still treated as outsiders, in a way.
I kind of love that shit, man.
I love that, because this is who we are.
We're still immigrants, we're still out here on the street, cooking.
They are a part of Kogi's flavor now more than I am, you know? Maria Lena's been cooking on this truck for almost eight and a half years.
And they use our recipes, but they've put twists on it that have evolved Kogi without me.
How is this expression of freedom and finding your voice and representing the voice of immigrants, community, street culture? - Yeah.
- Why is that best represented in a taco? Nobody hates tacos.
It's this portable kind of like vessel of love, in a way.
So when we're handing this taco out to people in the middle of the night all those things that led up to that moment, whether you called us a chink or a wetback or beaner, all these things that separated us, all of a sudden, washed away.
The Mexicans and Latinos in East Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, South LA, all gave us respect, because they just said this shit is the bomb.
The Koreans, they all just wanted to copy our business model.
There were a lot.
There were a lot, but they loved the food.
And everyone writing about it could never pigeonhole it.
It just became Los Angeles.
If you understand Korean food, if you understand tacos, - there are a lot of similarities.
- Yeah.
I don't think Kogi could've existed anywhere else except for here in a taco truck.
It's because of the deep Chicano, Mexican culture here in Los Angeles that goes back all the way, you know, almost 100 years.
The cruising culture.
The graffiti culture.
The tattooing culture.
The gang culture.
The Korean culture here.
I think it's like, you can't recreate that experience, just like I couldn't recreate the Italian-American, New Jersey experience.
- Right.
- You know what I mean? That had to happen over there and this had to happen over here.
This is our test kitchen here.
- This is where - The Caribbean is here, the test kitchen here.
And in the back of all of this, that's where the jungle starts and that's where our restaurant will be.
This is just all the beginning of actually some sort of creative work to start.
What's different cooking Mexican food in Mexico? All the products.
Everything tastes better, everything tastes fresher.
This is the seed of the mamey.
A very, very common fruit here.
I've never had a star fruit that tasted of anything.
Are they good? Have you tasted them down here? And just like that? Take a bite.
- You'll be shocked.
- Wow.
Cooking here, it's a completely different ball game.
You get all the ingredients I've never seen before.
This is called annona.
It's like pudding.
- It's vanilla-y and custardy and almondy.
- Yeah.
At home we also have red things.
They're just beets.
It's a difficult, difficult task.
But like, in Copenhagen, you're, like, Mexican? In Yes.
But in Mexico, you are "American.
" It's the story of my life.
I feel like I grew up Mexican.
As Mexican as I could.
I'm trying to cook something that I think is close to me.
We want, actually, to challenge ourselves.
To do something different.
You've never tasted a texture like this.
- It's sprouting coconut.
Isn't it weird? - Wow.
Yeah.
Right now, we're trying not to think too much.
- Right.
- Just open up, taste, store the memory.
Wow.
It looks like cheese, right? He says when you peel them, you should soak them in salt water for a minute.
Then their acidity and the astringency, that sometimes burns you a bit, goes away.
Yeah.
- Yeah? - Yeah.
The salt water is amazing for it.
A few years into Noma, I told my dad, "I'm gonna go to Mexico and work in Mexico.
" Right.
He's like, "I don't support that at all.
" And this is coming from an immigrant father.
His idea is that, "I came to the States so you can have a better life.
You don't have to go back.
" Things like that.
But my point is, I wanna learn about the culture, I wanna cook.
I can figure out some other way.
So, you gonna go to Noma in Tulum? I've heard nothing but good things about that guy, but we can just come here.
This is my Noma for tonight.
It's different.
It is a different style.
It's a different concept, for sure, but is it appropriation? Should Mexican food be that expensive? And if it is, is it still Mexican food? What fine dining does, or at least you hope it does There's a synthesis that takes place.
You're not reproducing this.
Redzepi obviously cares.
In that sense, it's awesome that you do have that acknowledgment from some of the best chefs in the world that Mexican cuisine is it.
At the same time, I don't know if putting it into the echelon of high dining necessarily does anything to the cuisine.
What are you guys doing, coming out to Yaxunah? Something like this is very important to kind of the development process.
Being aware of what's a tradition in a place like Yaxunah, in a place like Mexico, um, where they already eat very delicious all the time.
Hello, how are you? Excuse me.
- Everything is grown by you? - Yes.
- And everything it's fresh.
- Everything it's fresh.
Everything around here is what goes in to the cochinita.
Which I feel, to some degree, is the reason Noma became so good.
Is 'cause René was trying to make food of that place and like, get into all the weird, green, bitter herbs along the beach and figure out how to make them delicious.
- Can I grab one? - Sure, go ahead.
So when you are going to cook, you take it from here? Yes.
- And so that's - So, these are the seeds.
And that's the seed that gives the red color? It just gives it color, right? Yes.
And they also use it for makeup.
How nice.
So And the lips? Is it a little rouge? Now you have some color.
There we go.
Look better? - Now it looks like you are healthy.
- Yeah.
Giving a little color to my cheeks.
They're gonna grind it by hand.
- There's a magic about that.
- Right.
That it's all just Everything's here, everything's grown and harvested whenever they need it.
So you can rest a little.
- You can do it too.
- I can grind? So we're making the paste here, that's the annatto seed.
A little bit of water, garlic, onion He really wants to eat.
Then he better work.
How normal is it for men to be involved in this I said, "You wanna eat, you better work for it.
" - You're very good at this.
- I don't know if that's true.
It was an extreme privilege to be able to taste, talk about ideas and how we're gonna cook.
It's like a cook's dream.
I do think people don't realize how much time goes into a lot of Mexican food.
And especially, like, tacos and moles.
You know, people will eat it and just go, "Oh, okay.
" So it's a huge effort, and I think, um, sometimes it gets lost.
I think the hard-shell taco is one of the most unfairly maligned foods in the United States, but specifically in Mexican cuisine.
Everyone loves to talk crap, "Oh, hard shell's not authentic.
It's for gabachos, for white people.
For dumb white people for enjoying that.
" - What's that term? - Gabacho.
- Gabacho.
I gotta use that.
- Gabacho.
Oh, yeah.
Gringo doesn't work.
Nobody calls anybody gringos anymore.
- Only gringos call gringos "gringos.
" - Yeah.
- So, where are we going? - We're going to Taco Bell.
- You serious? - Yeah.
It's garbage food that they serve at Taco Bell.
It's too bad we're not going to a combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.
Oh, we're going to KFC-Taco Bell.
- Oh, there you go.
- Oh, what a nightmare.
Hi, welcome to KFC and Taco Bell.
How can I help you? Let's just leave.
There's so many fucking choices.
I feel like I've entered Dungeons & Dragons and I'm on level two.
- Who are you? Are you the elf? - Yeah.
Uh, two Dorito Locos Tacos, please.
We'll get one Crunchwrap Supreme as well.
Wow, the menu's changed.
Total is $7.
42 at the window.
Thank you.
- Thank you.
- The menu has changed.
What do you eat here? KFC or Taco Bell? Neither.
I don't like them.
Mmm-mmm.
What I don't like about the Doritos Locos Taco, it needs more Doritos flavor.
And what kills it is the "beef" that they use in it.
That throws off everything.
You know what would be better? If it was a bag of Doritos.
Yes! I feel like, by bringing, uh, Taco Bell in here, it's like having three Lester Bangs talk about Led Zeppelin.
So we're in San Bernardino, California.
Old Route 66.
This is, like, the cradle of Mexican food in the United States.
Across the street, Mitla Cafe, one of the oldest Mexican restaurants left in the United States.
80 years old.
First started in 1937.
Great tacos, birrias, chile relleno soup.
Oh, my God.
- All right.
Thank you.
- You're welcome.
But then, right across the street, that was the original taco spot for Glen Bell of Taco Bell fame.
There's no plaque there.
I just know it 'cause, I don't know, I wrote the book on Mexican food.
This is where Glen Bell got the idea to mass produce tacos.
Mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm.
He wanted to make hamburgers, but just up Mount Vernon, towards Baseline, that's where the original McDonald's hamburger stand was.
So he figures, "Okay, the way I'm gonna get rich is by making tacos.
" He didn't know how to make tacos.
He's a white guy from San Bernardino.
Every night after he'd close up shop, he'd go right across the street to Mitla Cafe, order some and try to figure out, "How can I deconstruct those tacos?" But this is actually where the taco lost its soul.
The tacos are amazing.
They're just old-school, hard-shelled.
Then you got the blizzard of the cheddar cheese, the repollo, the tomato, and then the meat inside.
But then, when you describe it to, like, a "real Mexican," they're like, "That's not real Mexican food.
" - Right.
- "That's fake Mexican food.
" How do you respond to people when they say that? So my grandmother came here from Tepatitlán, Jalisco, and that was her recipe.
That's what she was making when she was in Mexico and that's what she was making when she came to the United States.
The ingredients changed a little bit.
Those are the things that were available to her.
- Yeah.
- Ground beef, cheddar cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, iceberg lettuce.
So she made it work and she made it great.
What I've always said about Mexican food, that staying power, it always adapts.
No matter where it is.
When my grandmother opened the restaurant, she wanted to have American-style food on the menu.
The first item is a T-bone steak.
How do you feel that your family's recipe, like, your heritage, was basically taken by Glen Bell and turned into a multi-billion dollar empire? We don't talk about it in terms of what could have been or what he did to us or anything like that.
It's more of, "Look at our connection to the history of food in this country.
" When you hear stories like salsa is the number one condiment, or tortillas are right there next to the Wonder Bread.
That's what the country's about.
That's what the immigrant story is about, is assimilating.
But not only assimilating to the culture, but having that predominant culture assimilate some of your beliefs, some of what you do well, and make it part of the general population.
To me, the problem with Del Taco and with Taco Bell is you can eat a taco and it's completely separated from the people who cook it and the culture that produced it.
I view Taco Bell, Del Taco, they're the gateway drug.
They're the restaurants that Americans know the idea of Mexican food.
So at this point now, where there's Mexicans all over the United States, people are more willing to try it.
I once put away a couple of white supremacists, in jail, and I found pictures of them that they had posted on Stormfront of them, uh, eating Del Taco burritos, which, that's awesome to me.
When you have white supremacists gorging on Mexican food and thinking that's part of who they are, that's a small victory unto itself.
This is tortilla making? Yes.
No machines, all hand.
- The corn, it's the basis of their diet.
- Right.
And you're eating it for breakfast and you're eating it for lunch and you're eating it for dinner.
- How they work - Right.
What they're harvesting, how they spend their days, it's everything.
- I'm just gonna fail honorably.
- No.
No, no, no.
- No? Go back again? - She's looking at you weird.
What's this? I feel like you're not translating.
- Can't just leave me out here in the cold.
- I wanna win.
People are hungry, Peter.
Ah See, that's how you win, is you get somebody to help you right at the end.
- Mine's fat.
- Mine's ripped.
Theirs are perfect.
And so these are the tortillas that're gonna be at the pop-up that you guys do.
When we arrived here, we were extremely inspired after we ate here and talking to everybody.
So we asked a lot of these women if they wanted to come and work for us and kind of be a part of the project and do what they do best.
What do you think of when you think of South Philly, Mike? Uh, I think of the good people.
The sports complexes.
The, uh, cheese steaks you can get there.
Well, it's not just home to all that, it's also to one of the best new restaurants in America.
- According to whom? Oh.
- Bon Appétit.
Yeah.
- Hey.
Good to see you.
- Excited to be here.
The story is really Cristina, because she's been cooking barbacoa since she's six years old.
She's learned how to do everything, you know? Is barbacoa cooked all over Mexico or is it a specific place? We made barbacoa in Capulhuac.
That is a specific location.
It's a traditional family food.
It was my gift to Philadelphia.
I'm not sure how I figured it out, just that I saw a need for this kind of food.
Can I get four tacos? Two lamb, two pork? - Sure.
Is it for here? - For here.
Nice.
It's what I grew up with and Cristina really makes it a bit like home.
This is how I get most of my experiences with a lot of immigrants is by coming to places like this.
The place they've created has transcended borders.
There's no stopping her from cooking barbacoa.
We had our little apartment, and she just started selling it to guys, like on the weekends, Sundays.
She would just, like, tell them, "Yo, I cook barbacoa.
" People just kept coming and coming.
We got so busy in our little apartment that we had to move into the food car.
That got busy, too.
This place is almost ready for an expansion, too.
You guys gonna take over the next building? Ah.
I don't know what we're gonna do.
I mean, it's tough because I feel like we don't really have stability in this country, you know? Because of my wife's legal status.
Cristina came here, walked across the desert, so she could put her daughter through nursing school.
And she's here and her daughter's, you know, a nurse.
And she can't go visit her, because she wouldn't be able to come back.
Even though we're legally married, she would have to go and live in Mexico for ten years before she could even apply for a green card.
This is the way that the law is set up.
It traps undocumented people here with no rights and then they get put into this exploitable working situation.
You immigrated here in a way that most people only find out about on the news or newspaper.
You actually, you know, did it.
When someone decides to immigrate by crossing the desert, there are rattlesnakes.
It's really hot and really cold.
You risk your life.
It makes it hard to have the strength to walk here.
But when you have the goal of changing your family's life, you can do difficult things.
Being silent about something that affects you is being complicit.
Everyone that's worked in the restaurant industry has worked with undocumented people.
If these voices started to come out of the woodwork, that could create a sea change, it could create a culture shift, and bring the conversation to the public.
It doesn't scare me to be public, because someone has to tell the story and change it.
You guys pay your taxes.
Yeah.
You guys employ people.
- You guys create jobs.
- Yeah, we create jobs.
We offer our space for the community.
We are hardworking people.
We are not doing bad things.
We're helping the country.
Either we're going to change the system or we're gonna be deported.
I guess I'm just still questioning the validity and the power that food can actually change things.
Right? I don't know how much people actually really care about food.
It's a long struggle.
You know? - Just one person by one person.
- But acceptance takes time.
- Yeah.
- Takes years.
I wanna live in a society that people are not afraid and not being kept under the shadows and people can be themselves.
Because I know and you know diversity is strength.
And we need that diversity.
That's the American Dream.
But we need to continually work to get there.
- One taco at a time.
- Yeah, one taco at a time.
I always think about my dad.
He came to this country, he washed dishes bussed tables, was a handyman for years, right? It was the one job he could get without having to speak English.
So I've always had, not just a soft spot, but being able to empathize with people who wanna better their place in the world.
How did you come back to Mexico? I was deported twice from the States.
- Twice? - Twice.
The first time I got deported, I was going to stay in Mexico, and, uh, my father was diagnosed with cancer.
So, my mother All my family are Americans except me.
She told me, "You have to come back, because your father is very ill.
" And I took that chance.
If I was to be caught crossing that border, I would have been put back in jail for however many years.
And after seven years of living in the States, I was deported again.
This time, because I was becoming well-known.
I was in newspapers and magazines.
And they just came for me.
I left a family behind.
I left a son behind.
Enrique gave me an opportunity, and I worked for him for three years as his chef de cuisine.
After that, I opened my restaurant with my wife.
And five years later, here we are.
120 employees Wow.
and we're about to open one in Dubai.
Can you go back to the States? - Never.
- Never? I can never go back to the States.
I am banned for life.
There are so many people like me Living that life.
A lot of times, people think, "Yeah.
I am an illegal.
I'm gonna hide, because I don't want society to know that I'm a bad person.
" But it's okay, and it's okay for you to succeed.
- This is why I tell my story.
- Right.
I just want people to understand that a taco is not just a taco.
A taco is culture.
A taco is history.
A taco is migration.
A taco is, you know, resistance.
Politics.
All of that stuff.
But it's hard because, too often in foodie culture, people just want to eat.
They don't wanna think about what they eat.
- Do you think that's gonna change? - Let's hope.
Do you feel that people are more receptive to learning about food and the history behind it? I think that it's become a currency, so that's made it more interesting.
The way people talk about sports or the way people talk about bands, you know? If you're the guy who knows what that place serves and why it's good, then suddenly, that's worth something.
I think that that's an incentive for the improved cultural position of food.
When I was writing about restaurants for the Times, I watched cheeseburgers go from something that you ate at fast food restaurants to be something that like, fine dining chefs took seriously, but, like, it's a cheeseburger.
There's a lot of foods that have transitioned over time, and it's about cultural awareness and it's about cultural acceptance.
The role that chefs like Enrique play in it is challenging people's conception of what a taco can be.
And part of that is just putting it in a more refined setting and saying, "You know you wanna be eating fucking tacos, so, like, come to my fine restaurant, have some nice wine and have tacos.
'Cause that's what you wanted, anyway.
" This is a project we have been working on for a couple of years.
I have always been obsessed with how the Japanese treat rice and fish in an almost life-changing way.
So we decided that we wanted to do that with tacos.
It's four components, always.
A single-origin tortilla.
The main component that is cooked over the coal.
The herbs.
And the salsa.
So this is only for the omakase.
Is the omakase what you're doing at the taco bar? - Yes.
- Okay.
- For lack of a better word.
- No, yeah.
Soft-shell capeado, which is the butter with the soft shell, powdered chili, and the - The mix of garden herbs.
- The mix of garden herbs.
So, it's always the same format.
- Amazing, no? Mmm-hmm.
- Fantastic.
I want 12 more.
This is cauliflower deep-fried in chicken fat.
And then the chicken chicharron and onions.
And then, this is a salsa macha.
Use a lot of the salsa.
That's my favorite.
There's like a mix between respect and understanding that there's a few things you can call Mexican.
Because there's so many influences.
I think being Mexican is also being open to other ideas.
It's almost like they've done this before.
It looks amazing.
Oh, look at - Ooh! Wow.
- It's hot.
Mmm.
The whole thing together is pretty fucking amazing.
It's just that idea of like, getting to taste something that's from a place.
Ooh! I've had this in Chicago and New York and Los Angeles, and escalating versions of it being better or worse, but to like, be sitting here and eating it in the place that it's from, surrounded by all the things it's made from - This is stunning.
Right? - It's amazing.
- Qué rico, eh? - Yeah.
- It does something, right? - Yeah.
It really does.
I mean, it feels, like, purposeful and connected and right and just, like it's the perfect place to be eating and experiencing this.
I'm just gonna put this here, please? 'Cause I'm gonna use it over there, if that's okay? Thank you very much.
This is the first time I've actually had the chance to cook in Mexico.
And it's been insanely inspiring.
I'm taking so many references and flavors to my palate and new flavors.
So it's been an incredible experience.
So we just put a little bit of this tropical chile salsa with ginger and coconut fat.
It's very spicy, pretty.
Kind of resonates a lot with where we are right now.
Then we do an egg yolk salsa.
So it's a spicy egg yolk.
Just the egg yolk and a little bit of, uh, habanero.
Why Mexico? What is it about your culture that makes you guys so open? I'm just, again, floored at how willing and accepting you are of other ideas.
We're not afraid of new things.
Let's put it this way.
Everyone likes to mythologize America as a melting pot, which, yeah, it's true to a certain extent, but there's always been that xenophobic streak.
In Mexico, we love everyone.
Everyone.
Yeah, I kinda wanna, I hope, one day move to Mexico.
- What? - I mean, I would love to.
- But, like - It definitely has me thinking.
So what changed? It just feels right, you know? And it feels right to be alongside those products.
And you get to Mexico, and suddenly everything's there and everything's perfect, you know? And for me, it's just given me a little more confidence to Like I said, "Fuck it.
Just gonna do it.
" And it's amazing to feel like that.
- Cheers, guys.
- Cheers.
To tacos, to Rosio, to all of us.
- Thank you.
- To the mexicanos.
All right, David.
We have a gift for you that all the kids are gonna beat up.
Ah I think it looks like you.
What do you think? It definitely has the head size right.
I'm too tough.
- I'm the Terminator.
- Too tough to die! Yeah! Whoo!