[dropcap size=big]L[/dropcap]os Angeles’s own master of carnitas, Romulo “Momo” Acosta, has been making Mexican confit-style pork for more than a half century: it’s a craft he began a lifetime ago in his father’s butcher shop in Salamanca, Zacatecas. Carefully managing the cooking times of various cuts slowly frying in a sweet, seasoned bath of pork…

Highlights From the Rogue 99 ~ Carnitas El Momo

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One of L.A. TACO&#8217;s co-founders, Hadley Tomicki is a writer and editor on food, travel, and culture whose work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, UrbanDaddy, High Times, and many other places.

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Lexis-Olivier Ray is an award-winning staff investigative reporter for L.A. TACO known for holding powerful people in Los Angeles accountable and his reporting on Los Angeles culture. As well as an artist and filmmaker. In 2022, the Society of Professional Journalists&#8217; Los Angeles chapter named Ray one of their &#8220;distinguished journalists.&#8221; In 2023, Ray won a second place Anthem Award in their Health Innovation category for a texting service geared towards the unhoused community and service providers that he launched in 2021 with L.A. TACO and Subtext. Ray was a 2020 USC Center For Health Journalism (CHJ) Data Fellow. As well as a 2022 CHJ Impact Fellow. As a freelancer, Ray has contributed to the L.A. Times, Men&#8217;s Health Magazine, KCET and SFGATE.

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Memo Torres is the Director of Engagement and multimedia journalist for the James Beard award-winning L.A. Taco. He is also the host of the Daily Memo and writes for Apple Maps’ ‘Where Memo Torres Eats in L.A.’ You can see him on Netflix&#8217;s Taco Chronicles and Pressure Cooker.  You can hear him on KCRW’s ‘Good Food’ occasionally. He was a finalist for the Ruben Salazar Award for Latino journalists and a former third-generation landscaper.

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<div>Ivan Ehlers is an Ecuadorian-American cartoonist and writer. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker, MAD Magazine and the Los Angeles Times.</div>
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Bill Esparza is a professional musician, writer, and blogger whose travels throughout Latin America have made him a leading expert on Latin American cuisines.