[dropcap size=big]T[/dropcap]hree nights a week, Filemon Daniel Vasquez steps out onto Santa Monica Boulevard to spread the gospel of tlayudas to West Los Angeles. You’ll find him Tuesday, Thursday and Friday evenings in front of La Flama, the Oaxacan carnicería and market he’s partnered with for the business they are calling Tlayudas La Flama.
We’ve tried every tlayuda in this neighborhood at one point or another, from sit-down restaurants to food trucks, and find none comparable to the immediacy, structure, and flavor of those at Tlayudas La Flama. Multi-textured and bold, sometimes the multiple ingredients join together in one balanced bite, yielding a microcosm of the Mexican flavor universe.
More often, the ingredients mix and mingle, forming miniature pairings of textures and flavors in infinite and delightful combinations. You might get a mouthful of chorizo wrapped in a webbing of salty, melted quesillo, the flavors and feels merging like queso fundido. The next nibble may be notable for a congruent clash of creamy avocado and fierce salsa complimenting a tender mouthful of tasajo.
The combinations feel infinite.
