Today on this episode I want to revisit what carne asada means, as it relates to getting together. If you ever get invited to a carne asada consider yourself special. That event is seasoned and the experience would just make it taste better.

I also want to tell you what this meat, or rather the saying, “carne asada” really means to me. How my experience moving to the United States helped shape how I see this meat and more importantly, how it has helped shape my life.

Carne asada just makes everything better.

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TAQUOTE: “When life throws you a cow, make carne asada!” 

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Taco Freakin Holders  

Today on this episode we explore my opinion of taco holders. Not going to lie, I freakin hate them. I think taco holders are superfluous at best and colonial hierarchy at worst. But on this episode we’ll just focus on the good.

I tell you a quick story of how taco holders are like scheduling apps that don’t work if you are not going to deliver on what was promised.

I also flip the tortilla and tell you about a recent trip to Kansas City, Missouri. On this trip, my wife and I went to a highly recommended barbeque spot that served me two pork belly tacos made of flour tortillas and served on taco holders. In short, I was served……..  And it made me change my mind (just a little) about taco holders.  

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TAQUOTE: “There are tacos that delight the eye but don’t captivate the heart!” 

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Welcome to the season finale of our podcast! This episode closes out a sazon of amazing conversations, topics, and of course, tacos. We’re about to wrap up, no pun, with some fun tasting insight from our hosts.   

We’ll revisit some of the good takes from this season, introduce a new guest host, and look forward to what’s coming next. Yes, new hosts – we welcome a new member of our 10kTacos podcast, Rodrigo Bravo.

Get ready for an unforgettable finale through discussion, reflection, and of course taco fun!

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TAQUOTE: “Tacos are like a parade, and nobody sits at a parade wishing that  everybody would stand still!” 

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Isidro - Instagram  TikTok twitter facebook

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It that time of year! If you look around you, almost everywhere you go, you will see festive lights, crowds gathering at Christmas parks, packed ice rinks, and, of course, tons of suckers, I mean, people at shopping malls. Yes, the holiday season is in full swing!

But there is another season that is in full swing. A type of activity that involves tons of minutes of prep time. Perhaps tons of pair of hands and definitely tons of love, graciousness, and tons of gratitude.

The season I'm referring to is TAMALE Season! Most call it TAMALES! TAMALADAS "We're making tamales," to be more precise.

Making tamales around this time is special to a lot of people. It's a time to gather around in a small kitchen and spend the next several hours making tamales. And we're not talking making a dozen or two. We are talking big numbers here. In some cases, some people will make up to the hundreds. 

TAQUOTE: “Tamales, just like their twin-the tortilla, have a deep rooted tradition and have helped get us to where we are now!” 

Please subscribe www.tenthousandtacos.com or www.tacopodcast.com - to our mailing list for the latest updates and be the first to be notified when we start offering newer merchandise – to help support the show.

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Please let us know what you think of the show by sending us a note - [email protected]

When I think of Mexican sports and athletes, I think of golfer Lorena Ochoa or boxer great Laura Serrano. Speaking of boxers, I think of Canelo Alvarez and Julio Cesar Chavez. I also think of the relationship Mexicans have with their futbol (soccer) greats. I don’t ever think of winter sports when it comes to Mexico and its athletes.  

Today on the show, we speak to Regina Martinez. She is attempting to become the first Mexican woman to qualify for the winter Olympics in her sport, Cross Country Skiing. She’s also a medical doctor specializing in emergency medicine.

Regina joins us today from her current home of Miami. And she shares with us not just what she thinks about burritos being tacos, chile rellenos, and tips on how to stay grounded while chasing a dream.

TAQUOTE:

“Never be afraid to ask a taquero for more chile”

If you want to send us a message, have an ideal guest suggestion, or even want to send us hate mail, click here!

 LINKS

Regina's website

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Facebook

Today, we not only get to talk tacos, we also get to talk barbecue and where the two intersect. Today we speak to Joe Zavala from Zavala’s Barbecue.

Zavala’s Barbecue is in Grand Prairie, Texas. It’s owned by Christan and pitmaster Joe Zavala. Zavala’s, the barbecue joint, began as a backyard pop-up before moving into a brick-and-mortar in 2019.

It’s been a hit ever since, finally gaining the esteemed honor of a spot on the 2021 Texas Monthly’s Top 50 Barbecue Joints list, something he had been striving for since opening and celebrated by drinking champagne out of his shoe, after the F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo’s signature celebratory move. I find it disgusting. Joe Zavala, however, is amazing. 

Joe has his own podcast, Brisket and Main, named after the intersection where Zavala’s is. He has a YouTube video series with Meat Church barbecue rub and sauce company. He’s been a featured chef at Dallas Cowboys and Dallas Mavericks games. He also hosts regular barbecue classes at Four Corners Brewing Co. 

Perhaps most importantly, after being diagnosed with cancer in 2019—the same year he opened his restaurant—Joe and his wife established the Zavala Family Foundation, which helps restaurant industry families dealing with cancer. Joe is currently in remission. Here’s the kicker, Zavala’s Barbecue and everything connected to it is a side hustle.

So download and enjoy some of the takes of this episode like some of the briskets he throws down on a weekly basis.

TAQUOTE:

“When life throws you a cow, make carne asada”

If you want to send us a message or have an ideal guest suggestion, or even want to send us hate mail, click here!

 LINKS

Click here for his story

Map (Google)

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Instagram

TikTok

YouTube

Today on the show we bring you someone who studies TACOS, specifically the culture and food. As we’ve said before, “Tacos are bigger than us.” Perhaps no one knows this better than Steven Alvarez. A poet and professor at St. John’s University in Queens, New York, Dr. Alvarez hails from the small mining town of Safford in southeastern Arizona.  

Alvarez is a literacy scholar who walks the line through his academic books, including Brokering Tareas: Mexican Immigrant Families Translanguaging Homework Literacies, and in real-life applications—not just in tacos but also in his poetry in books like the Codex Mojaodicus. His work doesn’t differentiate between English and Spanish nor is it, as previously mentioned, constrained to convention when it comes to layout, much less narrative. Literacy and typographical mestizaje

TAQUOTE:

“If at first you don’t succeed, warm up another tortilla”

BONUS TAQUOTE:

“Like the heated tortilla, you too shall rise!” (Steven Alvarez)

If you want to send us a message or have an ideal guest suggestion, or even want to send us hate mail, click here!

 LINKS

You Can Now Study Tacos at the University of Kentucky - VICE

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instagram

tacoliteracy on Instagram

Today on the show we speak to Ali Khan, a native of St. Louis. Ali Khan has been in food writing and showbusiness for a long-o time. He went to film school at USC. He’s written for L.A. Taco. And he got his big break in 2015 with the Cooking Channel series Cheap Eats. The show ran for five seasons and visited almost 60 cities in 40 states. Ali is currently the host of the Spring Baking Challenge on Food Network and a recurring judge on the Chopped series. 

Ali also has a big online presence with series with Travel Texas, his own YouTube channel, Good Sauce, and podcasts, including one about Major League Soccer team Austin FC. He also recently began a brand partnership as an official spokesman for FARE, a non profit organization dedicated to helping 32 million American who live with food allergies. 

TAQUOTE

“Live life like a taco, always be open to whatever life can fill in it”

 LINKS

https://alikhaneats.com

Ali's Podcast

Ali's Instagram

Ali's You Tube

Tacos In Verse

This week’s guest infuses culture, food–which is culture—and Spanglish in inspiring ways. His work has appeared in chapbooks, anthologies, and the streets of San Antonio. He’s traveled the country to perform his work, including, most recently, Louisville, KY, where he won a haiku contest. He is the host of the Sunday open mic at Dakota Ice House in San Antonio, a native of Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, a longtime resident of the Alamo City, a high school teacher, a co-founder of the International Taco Council, and a good sport when it comes to criss-crossing San Anto for tacos, allow me to introduce Eddie Vega. 

FACO

Denver’s taco scene

TAQUOTE

In the world of tacos, there has never been evidence of discrimination when it comes to yellow, white, blue, and/or brown tortillas.

Links: @eltacolico on all social media, including IG (https://www.instagram.com/tacolico/?hl=en)

Today’s show is a special one. We’re going to talk about one of Jose’s articles, specifically, his review of The Mexican, a fancy new restaurant in Dallas, specializing in—wait for it, yes, you guessed it—Mexican food.

But not just any Mexican food: Overpriced Mexican food with commodity tortillas and a $250 margarita named after a famous revolutionary. That revolutionary was Pancho Villa.

The cocktail and the tortillas, we’ll get to those shortly, underscore what José calls cognitive dissonance.

TAQUOTE

“Don’t waste your sauce on Tacos you will never eat!”

Your sauce is your energy. There are tacos out there that aren’t worth your energy. Your sauce is precious so guard it and use it wisely!

NOTE

If you want to be considered as a guest or would like to comment, please send us a note

            [email protected]

            [email protected]

LINKS

Review: https://www.texasmonthly.com/food/the-mexican-dallas-review/

Today on the show, José and I welcome Martha Niño, a Silicon Valley veteran who has a good story to tell. It’s a story I’m very familiar with.

Beneath the Silicon Valley lies the Santa Clara Valley, which really should be called TACO VALLEY.

When I first met Martha, I referred to her as my Silicon Valley twin. 

Martha’s story is one of cracking the code - making it past a barrier. A barrier that gets established by the gatekeepers. And sometimes, a barrier that may be self-imposed.  

Martha shared her story on stage in front of hundreds of her coworkers in 2019. Today you’ll be hearing some of that day’s talk as well as her take on how tacos influence the tech world. 

FACO

A FACO is a person or an organization that misrepresents the taco and or the culture. 

This week’s FACO: Santa Monica police mobile command center in a parking lot near the Santa Monica Pier on Jan. 22. The city is pushing out unlicensed vendors who sell on the pier on weekends. To enforce the rules is one thing but the response to this was similar to BLM protests in D.C. back in 2020. OVER the TOP! 

TAQUOTE:

“A TACO sin nada is still better than a FACO con todo!”

SOCIAL MEDIA

Isidro Salas: https://twitter.com/10ktacos

José R. Ralat: https://twitter.com/TacoTrail

* This episode was originally recorded on FIRESIDE .