Tacos of Texas

Oh,

can you hear me?

Taco. Taco.

Alright, here we go. Here we go.

Mando Rayo: What’s up Taco World? I’m Taco journalist Mandore, and welcome to the Tacos of Texas podcast Cinco, produced by Denny Productions in partnership with KUT and KUTX studios. So grab yourself, uh, good corn or flour tortilla, and maybe some good cumbia beets. Let’s get this conversation started.

We ready? Here we go. Uh, okay. So today, thank you so much for being here. We’re at the, uh, at the bonus track stage at ACL weekend two. And, uh, we’re here for the tacos. Who’s here for the tacos? Let’s go. If you’re here for like that chicken and a cone, you could just leave, go, go. Uh, but we’re here with, uh, Rosa and Danny from La Santa Barcha.

And if you’re a fan of Barbacoa if you know, you know, right. So let’s get the conversation started. Yeah. Danny, Danny.

Mm-hmm. So.

Daniela De Lima Hernandez: We are from Mexico. I’ve been here for eight years. We saw tacos of barbacoa. Our business is Lata Barcha and we’re so proud to be here on the bonus track at ACL. My sister over here. Thank you so much for the invite. Yes, we do barbacoa tacos. The barba tacos that we make is coming from beef and maga leaf and all the recipe that we have for generations and it’s coming through, um, all our family and yeah, we are so happy to be here.

Beautiful. Beautiful. I’m multitasking here. So here we go. We can see you right here. Hey. Alright. Alright. So, okay,

the rest the

chi, the,

um.

Oh wow.

That’s nickname.

If you’re not familiar with barbacoa, it’s basically steamed either beef or lamb or even goat. And you know, they mentioned, and pretty much anything that’s cooked, usually traditionally underground. Uh, in the underground oven traditionally, but it could also be cooked on the, on the stove top in the, in the, in the oven.

And so how do you cook, uh, your, your, um, your barbacoa?

Our barbacoa is cooked. Uh, we do bra right now because the city don’t allow us to do something different. So we cover everything, all the meat we get, we cover everything with the Magee leaf. And then we season everything with garlic and more things.

Everything, uh, that we use, we try to bring it from Mexico, for example. Something really important to us is the garlic. So we bring everything from there, we peel it off, and then we are very careful on all the techniques. Same thing with the salsas and everything we do, tortillas, NIC, Sama, everything we do in the house, we try to keep alive.

All those traditions and all the techniques even we are food trucks and stuff and people. Always want the food so fast. We have tell people like, give us the time. We are doing, uh, fresh tortilla. We’re doing everything homemade. We are doing everything at the moment, how we do it in Mexico. Every single tortilla, every single taco is made carefully for you and with, uh, full, I mean full of love.

Every single person that is in our team. We are like, we are from Mexico. Okay. We want to bring people the experience. It’s exactly, uh, what we do in Mexico. Whenever you are driving to different little town, you stop by the, by the road and then you get a taco Orita and you just got it from there. And we just want to bring that even people here are always busy.

We want to give you a little bit of our culture and our, like our heart and all the things through our food. That’s the main thing. Like we want to do that.

Beautiful, beautiful. We are doing that. Yeah. Yeah. No, it’s great. And, and if you haven’t been, uh, they have a couple locations, but the main one is on East Mainor, right?

Yeah. So, uh, so Dani, Dani, um, you all were, um, named to the Michelin Guide. KI

was so proud of my family, my whole family. I think

I got the email and I call her. Because before we just got one, one email

and I was like, oh my God, are you real? But since he was the first one, like

Michelin,

no.

Um, Rosa.

Yeah.

Before and after. Wow. Wow.

Rosa Houston, I think.

I think since it was the first time in Texas, nobody knew it. I remember I was calling, uh. Beto Fromto and other people like, did I call you? Because we don’t know what to expect. We don’t know what we are gonna say to do or anything. But overall, I think, um, being recognized for Michelin more than go to the ceremony and then party today, the most important thing is that uh, it opens a lot of opportunities for us, uh, to grow the company or to grow as a business.

And that way we can help our. Our team, our employee, get more customers, we get more attraction so we can have more things coming for all of us, and then we can get our company more solid and staff. So in general, I believe that. After mic invite us and we got the award. It was a little bit more people coming and I really appreciate that they recognize Mexican food.

Yeah. They recognize people like us, that we move from another country. No, knowing English, we don’t need nobody. We never thought that we were gonna start a new life and, uh, different, like completely different people, culture and things. So we are so grateful that. Things like that happen into our life. And then of course how that affect in a good way.

Our team. Yeah. And everybody just got too motivated and they’re like, Rosa, what’s gonna happen next? Let’s, let’s keep working. Yeah. Yeah. We need a restaurant. And everybody, every single person that is part of our team, we didn’t even like realize it’s not mine, it’s for me. For me, it’s just motivation.

Right. But for all my people, that’s the award for it. Yeah. Like all my team, all my par, my parents are happy. My son, everybody around me is just like, Rosa, you got, you know, you got this. And I’m like, okay, that’s not me. It’s for, for all the Mexican people out there. Mm-hmm. All the Mexican woman, single woman like me, that like, like single mom like me that I’m always working like all the time.

Like right now, my son is over there at the house waiting for me, but he knows that I’m here speaking with people about what we’ve been doing and then what is gonna be next. So I am very like, happy that how in Texas, since I moved here, how many things have changed and now people can go to a festival like this and they can go straight just to get a taco, a plate, a taco.

I can cry for this. I never thought that I’m gonna be in a big festival doing tacos with my whole family and team and all the people that have support us. Um, Javi is here that he runs a lot of really good businesses, Patrick and. All my friends, of course Patrick is scared, but a lot of people that we have known now for uh, years, they are there for you.

You know, they’re sitting there, over there listening to our interview because they trust us. Yeah. And then we always do everything for, for the, you know, for the, like we do. Everything on is just gonna be a, a gift.

Yeah. Beautiful. Beautiful. So, Dani, uh, woo. Yes. Give it up. I love you, buddy. Yeah.

Representation. You know, it’s been a long time coming for Mexicano, Mexicanas, ROS Latinas, uh, in, in the culinary space. You know, for a long time it’s been about like the white chefs and the owners and all that. And, but now like you’re seeing that, you’re seeing that and, and Donny.

Drink so.

Uh.

You didn’t see nothing.

He’s with me 24 hours. You know, how do you get along and who does what and where’s the yin and where’s the yang? And you know.

I’m a real Mexican over here. Well, I think, I think I know her like very, very well. And then I always tell Pat, because Pat is here, I always say my sister is have on my brain. Like she knows what’s gonna be the next step. Um, it is been a challenge, like, and a question about business. It’s been a little difficult in the beginning because we have.

Both of us are very creative and both of us have the same vision and mission, and we can get along very well, but sometimes, uh, we get distracted with other environments on our lives, and then it can cause a little bit of Plato, but just a little bit. And then we are like, okay,

we don’t,

we don’t challenge each other.

It’s just like, okay, I know her very well that I need to calm down. And I’m like, I’ll talk to you in another time. I’m not gonna get to. To Plato? Yeah. Yeah. Like when I was little things like now she does more like the kitchen and stuff. Uhhuh and I do more like the PR or accountings and new businesses and stuff.

Yeah. So I think in life we just kind of got a little divided, but we still talk a lot of meetings or text uhhuh. And then in the beginning it was hard because she’s like, don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t call me no more. Like, I love you so much. I was at three in the morning.

Daniella, do we have

a green spot

tomorrow?

And I was like, man, I’m sleeping. We were growing the business. I was like, Daniella, please.

It was hard, but now it’s cool. Now it’s cool. So I have a lot of different group chats and now I can talk to her normal. And then we got to enjoy diff different little moments. So we pick a restaurant, we can go like little events, we network together, stuff like that. Uhhuh, or she just got new house, so she is

a,

a new, can you see?

That is how. But she’s got a new house, so she says she’s gonna invite us for Thanksgiving.

We’re going to her house Thanksgiving.

Yeah. Now, now we get to enjoy more different, um, a little bit, bit different.

Yeah.

At the beginning. Yeah. We fight a little. Yeah.

That’s,

I know.

I love it.

Tacos.

Now they wanna go. I, um.

I can.

Oh, wow.

Let’s talk a little bit about ACL Eats and all the tacos here. Obviously they can, you know, you can go, go to La Barcha and get yourself some good, uh, Barba, uh, what are the, the ones that stand out for you here? Uh, at ACL. Tall cheese man. Tall cheese, man. Okay.

As a good take a Mexican, you always, um, are looking for a good taco and a good bite.

And as I said, I’m really happy that ACL have a lot of different options this year. It’s our first time in ACL Eats and we are so grateful that we have a big line that now people get to know what is our taco for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. We are so, so grateful, first of all. Thank you. Yes. But also I feel like a good taco place.

It is really important. Yes. Tortilla, salsa, protein, everything you wanna say. Yes. But it’s also really, really important to know who’s behind the business. Yeah. If you have a really good business or your favorite business and you know that that is wrong by a good family, Mexican family, with a lot of, uh, good roots, roots.

You know, like good, like base culture and things, you know, that you’re not, you’re not gonna get wrong. Yeah. And I’m not saying nothing like Malo, I’m just being real. Like I’m just being real. I can make a salsa from nothing. I can go camping and I can make it, and then it’s just authentic. But I’m not gonna say it’s authentic.

Yeah.

Anyway, so my favorite ones from, um, the ACL. And it’s been forever. Of course it’s gonna be quintos. How respect for them. I really love everything that they do. Um, I got to try last week, uh, Vera Cruz. They were offering really good taco too.

Yeah.

So,

uh, carne.

Yes, Daniella got the car. Ada. Uh, I’m a really good friends with everybody of course.

And then, um, I also have Taco REOs and DJA. They have really good tacos as well. And what else I got? Do you know

Rice bowl barbecue.

Oh, KG barbecue is really good. Oh my God. Is his first. Uh, I got kg barbecue and then, but I bring my own tortillas.

This is first, I think. Yeah, it’s really good. Well, I, I know you asked us for tacos, but I think this festival is just getting better and better and we have really good options now.

Yeah. Um, just talking about food, as I said, I am really the whole experience. I’m really surprised that, um, a lot of people came here today. Yes. We’re just talking about tacos.

Okay. Now music festival.

Feelings.

Oh.

Just to let you know guys, I had a speaker and they were like, sorry, if you are a TA and you don’t have behind, you’re not gonna make the tacos. I’m so sorry. You’re cooking. You go

to Song

Fern? No, I’m virtual. Yes. Yo. I, I love her faith. Yeah. Yes. Oh, we love faith. Daniel have always is virtual. The guy always Corridos Corridos, Mexicano Ranch, MBMB mb love mbia.

Bad bunny Of course. Bad bunny first. Yes, that’s right. We, we just, uh, we, you, we put a bunny like the first day, all day. Yeah. And then I start hitting everything. Behind. And then the only thing I did, I was just putting a more out and I was, I’m just giving you a little bit of what is gonna happen next year.

I’m so, so sorry. Okay. You just get to know this. And then the next day I brought a shirt that it had like the bad bunny concert and everybody was just like, Rosa, down the thing down. I was like, baby, okay. And then they like, it was just causing me a little bit of trouble.

Uh, but this is very important.

Para

Los.

Taco.

Barbacoa

Crisp. You’re a big fan of that one. Super. Yeah.

Vaquero la Los Really good too.

Oh my God.

Re

what’s, what’s, okay, you’re here, you’re on the Michelin Guide. Uh, what’s next for you? Like next? Is it opening up tomorrow? Is it like another, you’re invited to a lot of different festivals now, Alberta.

Say, say

no,

you’re you. A lot of surprises don’t talk.

I don’t know anything.

Okay. Yes, Rosa. I will say, I’m gonna tell you something about I’m something, but don’t tell nobody.

Okay. Okay. That is like Dino’s right here.

Just we’re friends. We’re all amongst friends. Oh, yeah.

So next week we’re gonna do a big event with, uh, hosted va and it’s gonna be three day festival. Fridays are, and Sunday. And it’s gonna be open for everybody in, uh, I think it’s, uh, congress. It’s, it is gonna be an activation of F1.

They’re gonna bring, uh, F1 carro and then they have a driver’s appearance and we’re just gonna do tacos. And then, um, on Thursday also, we have a big event of F1. And then, then following week we have another other event supporting. Single, single moms like I am. And we’re gonna do, uh, VIP. So we’re gonna do a barba remember with and things like that.

Oh wow. Nice. So we always focus on barbacoa because it is, uh, the thing we always had in our house and always on our table and everything. ’cause my dad always had the business. With the barbacoa. So Daniella said it was a new life because we moved here, we moved from Mexico here. Yeah. And we wanted to be all together.

We wanted to be working as a family when it was hard at the beginning, but we wanted to be all together. Yeah. And then that’s why we do barbacoa because it’s like. Truly a representation of our family. You cannot be on a Sunday after church with a Barba tacos. You cannot go get a PE and then the next day not have Barba tacos.

You cannot go Barco to soak it up if I ever get married. Barco, of course, and MO things like that, like Barba coin and a celebration Barba coin. Now it’s in Austin and a breakfast. Taco Barba is an a chili killers bowl. Barbacoa is everywhere. It’s all, all, it’s because at the beginning, people didn’t want to to eat that much, uh, Barba in the morning and now we are very like, very happy.

You know, people go and get breakfast, lunch, dinner and they’re there. So. Awesome. And I mean, I’m just gonna be barba for everybody. Everybody.

We, we have time for maybe, uh, one or two questions from the audience. Anybody have a question for Rose Howard? Dan, you have a question buddy? Here, come here. Come here. Daniel Got it. Tell, tell us your name and your question.

Uh, I am Wilder and I’m fit. And, um, why? Why did you talk about all of that?

Why do we talk about all of that?

Oh my God. Because, well, I’ll tell you one thing because I love it. It tastes good. It’s part of my culture. Right? And then we might, we wanna make sure we spread the taco love. What do you all think? Why do we talk about all of that?

Yes, we’re very proud from where we are. Um, that’s, uh, how we grew up and that’s our, uh, experience.

And because we love to cook and we love to get, uh, cook for y’all, especially for all the kids that are visiting us, uh, every morning. Um, so we love to cook and that’s why we are talking about tacos.

Beautiful. Beautiful. If you go, you, we, one, one more question. All right. Come here. Wait, wait. We got this one lady in the back.

More questions. Tell me your name and your question please. I’m just kidding.

My name’s Barbie Jeffrey. I love KUT and my kids and I hear you all the time. I need you to tell me your favorite taco in Austin.

Favorite taco in Austin. Oh my God. Uh, I have to go probably like if I had to pick one, uh, taco, say Charlie.

Uh, that’s my favorite one as well, pastor, you know, on, uh, Austin, taco Mile, Romberg and Lamar. Y’all gotta just get out of the central area, you know what I mean? Say, yeah. It’s, it’s very hard to to

say like, what’s your favorite taco? Because it’s like, what’s your favorite movie? What’s your favorite, uh, art?

You gotta favorite say one. No, you’re kidding. But I, I really like, uh, the Taco Charlie, uh, the, uh, past ones and also the tripa from, um. What is, um, um, Rosa, I didn’t know you like trip? No. I’s kidding. Uh,

Ram,

sorry. Uh, taco. The trip from

Ram de Barrio

is

really

good. Oh, Ram de Barrio. Oh yeah. You gotta check them out. I,

I think the taco, if I, if you ask me what’s my favorite taco, it all depends on the vibe. If I am, of course going out and things, okay, 10 outta 10, I go to Taco Charlie. Depends where I’m at.

If it’s in the morning, of course I’m gonna go get a breakfast taco and then my coffee and continue my day. I don’t know. I get it from where I am. I, you know, if I am a cru I get it from there. If I, if I am not there, I get it on my truck or I, you know, it just depends. And then lunch tacos, of course. Next stop.

You are in a fancy dinner. You know, it all depends. I think Austin have a lot, uh, to offer. Austin have a lot of like now to offer and different kind of vibes. So if you are open to go a nice patio. We already mentioned contos.

All right, beautiful. That’s good. And then we have another question. Alright, we had one more question and then that’s it.

We gotta go. I don’t, I don’t wanna deny you. Love your shirt. Thank you.

I heard y’all cooked for someone here at ACL.

You cook with? For somebody here at ACL, somebody special. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, yes. For fate.

Yes. So it was a dream to cook for virtual for fate. The Colombian artist dance. Oh. ’cause we make green tortillas and everything and we always wanna cook for him.

And then we did it last week. I was crying. Beautiful. I was crying too. Love

it. Love it. Oh, the crew was crying. Beautiful. Will everybody give it up?

All right, now I’m gonna do my outro. And just like the Musika tacos have their own style, and as all and as, as I always say, tacos taste better when you know the story. Gracia this, this week’s episodes guest, Daniella and Rosa Deli Hernandez from La Santa Barcha.

Louisa Van Assche: This has been the Tacos of Texas Podcast developed and produced by Identity Productions. If you enjoyed today’s episode and are craving more taco content, go to our website at Identity Productions or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube at Identity or United Tacos of America. This is your host, Mando and Taco journalist Rayos.

The Tacos of Texas Podcast is presented by identity productions in partnership. With KOT and KOTX studios, our host and producer is Mando. Our audio is mixed by Nicholas Weden. Our story producer is me, Louisa VAAs, and our creative producer is Dennis Burnett. Music was created by OSA in Austin, Texas, and King Benny Productions located in the Quinto Barrio of Houston.