There was no way for me to listen to the Dodger's first playoff game in a couple of years last week at the office, so I signed up for 'plant inspection', to basically drive around town checking up on various properties owned by the management company I work for. It's not exactly a fun job, but I would have the radio on and could probably catch the whole game before I had to check back into the office.
Well the game was pretty exciting and I was getting into it, but I was in Brentwood and no reputable taco trucks around. Wanting to both conserve time and maximize my chances of getting a decent taco, I hit each truck one at a time to find something decent, radio turned up loud enough that I could hear Vin Scully even outside my vehicle. The daytime trucks around West LA are not taco trucks exactly, their menus are large and need to accomodate many different tastes-- more like the roach coach that may have hit your high school then the fine LA taco trucks of legend. I stepped up to the taco plate three times and was 0-3, every taco I tasted was worse then the next-- greasy, stringy beef, tasteless pork, boring salsas. My belly was full but angry.
The last spot I had to hit before heading home, with the Dodgers down by a couple, was in Culver City. I hit the very first truck I saw, desperate to wipe the bad taste out of my belly. My luck, unlike my beloved home team, was excellent-- I had stumbled into the truck commonly called Cemitas Poblanas (can't remember its real name) which parks on Venice Blvd. during the day. These guys know how to do it right, providing great service and great tacos-- the carne asada here is just how you like it, real chunks of beef, slightly blackened and full of juicy flavor. I washed it down with a cold Mexican coke and drove on back to the office, belly finally satiated but heart heavy knowing the Dodgers would be hard-pressed to come back from an 0-1 defecit in a 5 game series.
The taco that made my day, even though the Dodgers lost
