After eating and cooking tacos for a combined 99 years, we decided to give it a shot.
Rigo grew up in Sonora and James lived in Mexico City as a teenager. They connected on their passion for tacos, but there were some battles on the direction to take this passion.
Q. What kind of tacos should we make?
A. We agreed on this one. We wanted to bring an authentic Mexican taco stand experience to our friends in Arizona. We draw on all parts of Mexico to bring the best. The flavors of Northern Mexico are obvious in our carne asada. Our al pastor flavor and process comes straight from a Mexico City street corner. We also love mulas and vampiros. Be sure to try everything “Con Todo”, which means that it includes salsa, guacamole, onion, and cilantro.
Q. What salsas should we make?
A. James likes hot and Rigo likes medium. What we agree on is that we only use fresh ingredients. Ultimately we decided to go with Grandma’s recipes for the salsa.
Q. What kind of tortillas should we serve?
A. In Sonora, it is all about the flour tortilla. In Southern Mexico, it is all about the corn tortilla. After a tough battle, we decided to make corn and flour in house. This was much more complicated than we thought. The process for making corn tortillas from scratch involves boiling corn, grinding it, and mixing it, all just to get the masa. This process, called nixtamalization, unlocks an incredible amount of nutrients not found in “add water” masa powder. Then the masa is pressed into tortillas and cooked. For flour tortillas, ingredients are mixed, the dough is permitted to rise, and the dough balls are are pressed and cooked. Flour tortillas are very temperamental! Everything has to be perfect to make the perfect flour tortilla.
Q. Where should we put the taco shop?
A. We needed more space than the typical taco shop to prepare all of our menu items from scratch. We also felt that a drive thru was important. We settled on 2815 East Indian School Road in Phoenix.
Q. Ingredients?
A. This one was easy. When it comes to taste, fresh ingredients make all the difference. We agreed to cook small batches often so that everything is always fresh.
Q. Should we do fries? What about chicken? What about mushrooms?
A. Why not?! Give the people what they want!
