Where carne asada is a crime
Mexican street food has been a part of California for over 140 years. Why do officials still harass vendors?
Headlines From The Times · Frankie Tinoco, Ashlea Brown, Kasia Broussalian, Shannon Lin, Shani Hilton, Jazmin Aguilera, Melissa Kaplan, Gabriel San Román, Denise Guerra, Mario Diaz, Kinsee Morlan, Angel Carreras, Gustavo Arellano
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Show Notes
For over 140 years, street vendors hawking Mexican food have been a staple of life in Southern California. Horse-drawn tamale wagons turned into taco trucks, turned into hot dog carts, turned into pop-up tents — …and, eventually, hipsters caught on and these trends went national.
But even as SoCal has become famous worldwide for its street food scene, government officials have amped up their war on it.
Today, we examine one city’s crackdown on street vendors. And we also talk to an East L.A. taquero affected by code enforcement.
More reading:
Column: He’s L.A. food royalty. He began with a taco cart. Let street vendors thrive
Anaheim teams with county to take down taco stand pop-ups
Where to get beef birria, and a haircut. Seriously.