[dropcap size=big]I[/dropcap] knew this day would come: When somebody would challenge me to defend my moniker of “El Tragón de Los Ángeles.”
“Come on, do it!” Lucy of Pez Cantina pleaded, who with Trejo’s Tacos puts on a Taco Eating competition every year that has somehow existed under L.A.’s food media radar. I said no on two different occasions. Until Sunday morning, five days before the competition, at approximately 8:45 AM Pacific Standard time, Lucy wrote the magic words to me...“but you’re El Tragón! You gotta live up to your name; you’ll be the greatest Tragón of all time!!!” That did it. But for the next five days up until I stared down that first plate of chicken tinga tacos in front of me with a crowd of IG livers behind them, sitting shoulder to shoulder with seven other competitors, Danny Trejo pacing behind me, the only thought that rang through my head was, “What the fuck did I get myself into this time, pinche Tragón?”
And there I went.
If you find yourself in this predicament, either because you were challenged to it or you wanted free tacos, or you’re out to prove your taco-loving dedication, here is everything you’ll go through and how you will survive it. It happens to the best of us, I think.