Next time you drive into the Van Nuys-adjacent park that holds Balboa Lake Park on the weekend, you may be distracted from the lake views and swan boats by the unholy mountain of Colombian meats amassing under the ad hoc food stand named Asados To Go.
There, you’ll see fresh, fat links of chorizo cinched in rough thread dangling from the crossbar of a gaucho-style parrilla (grill). Its black grates sizzle with homemade morcilla (blood sausage), crisp-skinned chicharrón (skin-on pork belly), tri-tip, and pork ribs, all fighting for space beside hand-shaped arepas and wedges of pineapple, plantain, and salted potatoes.
A trio of guys in leather aprons weave through the tent, variously smoking, slicing, and boxing the tempting proteins, while Colombian families play ball, chill inside tents, and snuggle on picnic blankets across the nearby grass. They stuff themselves with gondola sandwiches and fingerfuls of steak as Pastor Lopez’s cumbias and Grupo Niche’s salsas blast out of unseen speakers.
Asados To Go is the dream of 36-year-old Camilo Valero, who came to the States roughly four years ago from Bogotá. Unsatisfied with finding consistent, well-paid work, he looked to the asados (barbecues) he prepared with friends back in Colombia for a unique business venture that had appeal for L.A. carnivores across its wide swath of cultures.
After a brief stint selling skewers in a Northridge farmers market, Valero struck upon his current concept, which uses pit barrel smokers to turn out tender, smoked meats that would look as familiar to barbecue-loving people from California and Texas as it would to Colombians, who have seen the popularity of such barriles ahumadores spread, from Medellin to Villavicencio and beyond.
“It's very traditional,” Valero tells L.A. TACO. “Every place in Colombia, in every spot, every kitchen, every backyard, has pit barrels. I want to share our tradition and good food and every taste from Colombia. Not just for Hispanic people, but for everyone, American people, Indian, Asian, every kind of people around L.A.”
Valero’s steel barrels combine the sleek aesthetics of a keg with some kind of advanced pressure-cooking droid. Slow-burning, Diablo-brand lump charcoal is packed into a metal charcoal chimney at the bottom and above that, a network of optional plates, hooks, and grills allow you to hang, rest, and arrange meats in a number of configurations.
Catching eyes at the entrance of the massive Valley park, smoking and boxing a bevy of meats and sides, Valero quickly hit upon a problem for a guy who never cooked professionally or even for big groups before: People loved it, so the crowds just kept coming. So, the good kind of problem.
“It’s a challenge for me because it's a lot of food, and the cooking takes a lot of time, and your technique, um, you have to do your best when you're cooking for people [who aren’t] your family or your friends,” he says.
So Valero enlisted help. Now he has that burning grill in front, finishing the meats and sides over the same charcoal just a little quicker so he can restock the barrels with new meats for a fresh smoke. Also at his side is a chef from Medellín named Andres, who makes the morcilla and chorizo at home by hand, tapping his own Cottage Food Operation certification.
Asados To Go offers barbecued meats by the box, with options of a small box for $25 and a box big enough to feed 3-4 for $45. My clan picked the latter, receiving a brown cardboard box of various meats and fruits about ten minutes after ordering, as we took in the park from some provided beach chairs.
There were thick, creamy cuts of morcilla, its black skin swollen to the point of fissure with blood-engorged grains of rice, plus chicharrón, its crackling skin yielding to supple planes of juicy fat and muscle. The box was filled with flavorful slices of red-and-yellow chorizo stuffed with bell pepper and garlic, tri-tip rubbed with salt, pepper, and lime that wouldn’t taste out of place at a Santa Ynez/Maria hoedown, and pork ribs to die for. Traditional Colombian salted potatoes studded the box, soaking up all the leaky juices, while the grilled pineapple and subtly sweet plantains helped stave off whatever effects so much meat might have on the mind and palate.
The boxes are a thing to behold, like some rough, red meat inversion on the bento boxes at Downtown’s Hayato from way out of the L.A. food multiverse. They make for a perfect pre-made picnic in the lovely Valley park or back home.
In addition, Asados To Go offers an $18 steak sandwich stuffed with picanha, a cut from the beef round often associated with Brazil and popular in many South American countries. Another sandwich features gondola, the tender, fatty cut of pork shoulder credited to the Argentines and beloved by pork-adherent Colombians. The cut, with its shivering fat rimmed with black bark, is not to be missed.
You can also get the chorizo and morcilla inside of arepas that the crew makes using arepa-specific masa from Vallarta Market, which is taken straight from the hot grill. Valero likes to experiment with different offerings, too, and usually adds something new to the pit barrels each week. Next weekend, he’s introducing his take on bandeja paisa, the Antioquia-originated national dish of Colombia featuring a massive cable of chicharrón and other meats for breakfast.
Asados 2 Go offers its ornate asado to provide a taste of Colombia to the homesick and food-loving Angelenos alike, endowing everyone with their own requisite friend who happens to make a kickass asado.
You can come grab a box with family and friends and enjoy the scenery, the music, and warm hospitality before jumping onto a paddleboat on the lake, casting a rod, or waltzing through its array of street vendors, who sell everything from Bluey-shaped backpacks and Bang Snaps to Salvadoran yucca paired with tiny fried smelt and elote, smoldering in their husks above an entire tree branch awkwardly stuffed beneath the grill.
Being here, serving food from his home country, Valero feels honored in what he’s been able to establish at Lake Balboa while serving between 100-300 customers each weekend.
“It's been four months ago when I start with this dream,” Valero says. “But I know we make a lot of things better every day, every weekend. I feel happy that a lot of people come now, from Colombia, and different countries. I'm really happy when the people come from Korea, Central America, Mexico, and also, of course, American people. This country is so beautiful, man.”
Asados To Go ~ Sat. and Sun., 6300 Balboa Blvd. Lake Balboa, CA 91406
