Tacos of Texas

Chef Edgar Rico: I think the taco is the funnest thing to kind of get to mess around with. Yeah. And there’s so many different ways you can make a taco and different styles and I’m just glad we get to, you know, put it front and center. Yeah. Every single day and represent taco culture to the fullest and Yeah. Especially here in Texas.

Mando Rayo: What’s up Taco World? I’m Taco Journalist Mandore, and welcome to the Tacos of Texas podcast, El Cinco, produced by Denny Productions in partnership with KUT and KUT studios. And we’re back exploring taco culture in Texas through the eyes of the people in the Lone Star state. So grab a Florida calabasa and a tortilla de maiz and get ready for some Mui tasty taco conversations.

Cue that. Cumbia Beach.

Today on our show, we’re talking Tacos Michelin Guide with Chef Edgar Rico, co-owner of RIA in East Austin. He shares how corn shaped his cooking, how he earned a spot in the Michelin guide by staying true to his roots. And we’ll get a primer into the Michelin guide and how tacos took over the list in Te.

What’s up, taco World? Mando? Here. El Taco journalist. Now look, we all got our second love for food, right? Because moms always comes first. Maybe it’s your late night RIA or rela that hits after a good night out, or that first bite of a greasy breakfast taco from your favorite Mexican diner that hits harder than that morning cafecito boom.

Even though it, it is a, you know, diner coffee. And to see some of your favorite taco joints on the most recent Michelin guide. Now that’s worth a conversation. So what is the Michelin guide? It’s basically a super famous food guy that tells people where to find the best restaurants around the world. It was started by the Michelin Tire Company over a hundred years ago to help people on road trips, a him to sell tires maybe.

But now it’s all about finding top-notch places to eat. Uh, if a place gets in the guide, it’s a big honor. And in today’s episode, we’re doing a primer into the Michelin Guide and how Tacos took cover the list in Texas. Of course, we had to invite El Taro, chef Edgar Rico, a James Beard Award-winning Michelin honored taro behind N Ria and Eat sauce.

So let’s get into it.

It is taco time. And now here’s a word from our sponsor, bamo. Visit El Paso. It’s a hometown of this taco journalist, the James Beard Awards, known as the Oscars of the food world, our prestigious culinary honors that recognize exceptional talent and achievement in the culinary arts, hospitality, media, and broader food system in the United States.

Congratulations to local chefs and restaurants, including LME and Taco Netta, chef and owner of LME. Emiliano ES was a semi-finalist for the James Beard Foundations outstanding Chef Award in 20 22, 20 23, and 2025. His restaurant emphasizes locally sourced ingredients and traditional Mexican flavors. Was a semi-finalist in the 2025 Outstanding Wine and other beverages program category of the James Beard Awards.

The award is for the restaurants that do an exceptional job of pairing wine and other beverages with food. Gracias to our friends at Visit El Paso for sponsoring this podcast episode. Follow visit El Paso on Instagram and Facebook at visit el Paso or on their website@visitelpaso.com. Mark your calendars for.

It’s my Park Day Austin Parks Foundation, biannual community LED day of service. Their fall event is happening on Saturday, November 1st, join thousands of your fellow Austinite to improve our city’s parks through litter cleanup, tree mulching, invasive species management. More volunteer registration opens soon.

Learn more@austinparks.org slash ipd for It’s my park day. Gracias to our friends at Austin Parks Foundation for sponsoring this podcast episode. Follow a PF on Instagram and Facebook at Austin Parks Foundation or on their website@austinparks.org.

Chef Edgar Rico runs RIA in East Austin with his wife and partner, Sarah Martin Biggie. A James Beard Award winner, Michelin Young Chef, award recipient, and time 100 honoree. Edgar says Corn runs through his DNA and it shows at nsta. He blends deep tradition with bold twists from heirloom corn tortillas to duck count, beat tacos.

Chef Edgar Rico, Gilda, back on the podcast. Excited to be back here. Hey. Hey. We’re here at, it’s been a few years. We’re here at, uh, the re

Chef Edgar Rico: It’s like the, the, I, it’s like it’s giving me all the vibes. I, if I could smell the pasta in the background, I know, right? Right. It feel like I’m there, you

Mando Rayo: know. Well welcome.

Today we wanna talk about not only your journey, kind of where you’ve been and introduce folks to you and nta, but also the Michelin guide, right. And the impact of that.

Chef Edgar Rico: Yeah. Came to us last year and you know, had a big precedent I feel like, on taco culture and Right. Mexican food in general here in Texas.

So excited to see it come back this year and see what kind of things they’re gonna shake up and. Who will be honored and yeah, that whole jazz. Yeah.

Mando Rayo: Love it, love it. Well, let’s start like your early beginnings, right? Like what influenced you to open up nta?

Chef Edgar Rico: So, prior to living here in Austin, you know, I had a lot of training living in Mexico, uh, living in New York, LA and kind of doing a mixed match of different types of kitchens, whether it was like sushi to like Michelin starred fine dining French restaurants.

And then at the end of the day, I think. The thing that I always, I loved the most was the end of the night kind of taco with your friends. Yeah. And something about tacos just being that, that great equalizer. Yeah. You know, it doesn’t matter if it’s a man that’s rich or poor, you can go to any RIA around Mexico City and you’ll see dudes in suits.

Yeah. To like, you know, some theo with her whole family there. And it’s just a beautiful thing to see and everyone loves a taco, so yeah. You know, I thought, man, why not try and do atria? But yeah, you know, put your own spin on it and do something that create that still creatively could push you uhhuh and give you, you know, new opportunities to do something that’s exciting and fun And, you know, deciding on where that was gonna be.

It kind of led me here to East Austin, um, just. Because there, I feel like there is no other like taco culture, city like Austin, like people, I feel like truly eat, breathe and sleep tacos here in Austin. Oh my God. Yeah. It’s a

Mando Rayo: whole thing I tell you. Yeah. Uh, and I remember back in the day I was sitting in a coffee shop and they, you guys came up like, Hey, you were doing this.

Thing I remember. I remember, yeah. Yeah. It was like on East sixth, uh, I forget where, but yeah, it was in a coffee shop. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So you were kind

Chef Edgar Rico: of exploring, right? Yeah. I remember, you know, your podcast was honestly one of the first things that kind of gave me a little intro to Texas Tacos as a whole, like the documentary series they did kind of gave me like a good idea of like, okay, like where the taco regions are, the valley and how different, like each part of Texas.

Is represented in terms of like taco culture. And it was cool to see, and I think when we decided to try to do this, we were like, all right, well let’s try and, uh, get with the people that, you know, know about tacos. It can maybe give us an assist in some way, shape or form. And, you know, your podcast was kind of a big reason.

Nice. It was awesome little r and d in a, in a, in a sense to kind of listen in on, and it’s all

Mando Rayo: free anywhere you get your podcast. Yeah, I can subscribe all of the above. Uh, okay. So when people come to nsta, what can they expect?

Chef Edgar Rico: So when you come to nsta, I mean obviously corn is the emphasis of what we do.

Mm-hmm. Um, why,

Mando Rayo: why

Chef Edgar Rico: corn? Well, corn, why not

Mando Rayo: flour? We are in Texas, bro. Come on. You know, hey, it’s not to say I don’t love a good flour tortilla, you know?

Chef Edgar Rico: But I think for myself, when I was opening this, I wanted to do something that was a little outside the box. And I just, when, when you came, when I came to Austin, especially, you know, there’s a lot of TAs here.

So it was like, how were we gonna stand out? How are we gonna differentiate ourselves from any other RIA in the city? And. Thing that I thought was that missing piece was like, well, why don’t we do something that, you know, we’re not only just putting like fancy stuff on tacos, like sure. But it’s like, why don’t we take that extra process of izing and doing something that’s a little outside the box?

’cause the thing I did notice when I came to Austin, it was like, yeah, flour is king. Flour Flo tortillas. People have a, a love for flour tortillas here in Austin. People slap you with a tortilla. Yeah. And you know. Our favorite, you know, chain that everyone knows and loves, probably sells so many of those flour tortillas, HEB, you know, with those butter tortillas.

I know. Yeah. And people have a really soft spot here for flour. But I wanted to do something that I felt just was true to me and the training I had gotten in Mexico was. Literally all about corn. Like learning from, you know, from Aita, Andaz in Mexico to like Michel and starred restaurants like is ol to like understand like the intricacies of how beautiful corn is.

And that was for us, the thing that we wanted to present to Austin was like. Introducing, you know, Nixon lies corn tortillas from heirloom varieties of corn from Mexico to Texas. And then what went on, it was, you know, uh, whatever was kind of going on in my brain and that and that moment in time. And But

Mando Rayo: you had won that hit, right?

Chef Edgar Rico: Yeah. I mean, and it still hit, I mean, the taco that hits and the pays all the bills every day is the duck nitas. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The duck is that thing that when everyone comes in, if it’s your first time, we’re like, yeah. You should get the duck carita. It’s, it’s one of those tacos that’s like simple and in essence, but it just, when you eat it, it gives you all the warm and fuzzies, you know?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So like,

Mando Rayo: what didn’t you do like a traditional, like, I guess a traditional Carita taco? Um, what, what got, what, what got the duck

Chef Edgar Rico: completely to that? So, the duck actually kind of came as an accident. Before we had opened the restaurant we were doing testing. Anyone that would hire us to do like a quinceanera or like a birth.

Day or anythings trying to booked you. But yeah, we were trying to take anything we could get. And I remember this lady had asked us to do, it was like her five-year-old’s birthday party, and we were like, sure, we’ll do it. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and it just so happened to be like one of my purveyors. We, as we were getting ready to open, he had sent me like tons of duck to like r and d with, and we were like, well, they wanted a protein for this event.

And we’re like, well, let’s, let’s mess around and kind of, yeah. Use some of this duck. And I remember seeing a recipe that you could turn it into Caritas. And I was like, well, only way, one way to find out, let’s try it on these people and see kind of how it hits. And I remember that taco specifically, people were coming back for like fourths fifths, and we were like.

Oh, okay. I think we got something here. Uhhuh. You know, Uhhuh. Yeah. And then, you know, from the moment we open from day one, it, it has always been our literally bestseller every day and nothing has ever trumped it. And Nice. It’s, it’s cool to see that that reaction that we people can get from duck. ’cause especially ’cause some people are like, mm-hmm ah, I don’t like duck.

It’s really gamey. And we’re like, dude, trust me. Like, eat this and talk to me in a few minutes. Yeah. Yeah. And like most people are like. That tasted just like nitas. I like, if I closed my eyes, I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. Right. Right. Yeah. I, you know, duck has that same qualities as like a really nice pig pork, you know?

Right. It’s got all that fattiness, that richness. Yeah. Yeah. So I. Yeah, the duck caritas is definitely the way, if you want to come in Anta and kind of get a good intro, it, it’s a good way where it’s not something that’s too outside the box, but still kind of going outside the lines of what a taco can be.

Yeah.

Mando Rayo: And you got a vibe too, going on. It’s a, it’s a vibe. It’s

Chef Edgar Rico: it, it is. It feels like when you come into the restaurant, it very much so, feels like you are in someone’s backyard in Mexico. Yeah. Um, but it didn’t start that way, you know, when we originally opened it, you know, me and my wife, and still to this day, we are the people that are always designing the restaurant.

There is no restaurant designer. Our restaurant is very DIY. Yeah, yeah. Um, for sure.

Mando Rayo: It was actually, it was an old record shop.

Chef Edgar Rico: Yeah. You know, so I,

Mando Rayo: I went there. Oh. When it was a record shop. No kidding. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chef Edgar Rico: I heard they used to sell like screw tapes out of there. Yeah. Yeah. So, I don’t know. I mean.

East 12th is a beautiful, vibrant community. We’re very lucky. We actually live on it as well. Yeah. And we get to see, you know, different people that we get to feed throughout, whether it’s them coming to the restaurant or them coming through the free fridge. Like we get to support different kinds of communities.

Yeah, I love that. I see it’s

Mando Rayo: right there, front and center of the free fridge for anybody in the community. No questions asked.

Chef Edgar Rico: Absolutely. Yeah. We always say it’s like. You know, the things that we can control. You know, people always get all in their heads of like, how, how, what can I do for my community?

What can we do? And it’s like, you know, you can control what you can control in your little circle, your little ecosystem. And you know, for us, the thing that we can do is. So something so simple as plugging in a fridge and it, the rest kind of does its own magic. Love it. And the community does its own thing, so love it.

Love it. It’s a beautiful

Mando Rayo: thing

Chef Edgar Rico: to get to see.

Mando Rayo: Yeah. Yeah. And so now you received a lot of accolades, obviously, James Beard, uh, award winner times 100 honoree, and most recently best young chef for the Michelin Guide. What do, what does that mean for you? I mean,

Chef Edgar Rico: you know, for myself, I’m always kind of in awe.

It’s like sometimes you gotta like pinch yourself uhhuh and just like realize, you’re like, whoa. How lucky are you to get to be doing what you love? Mm-hmm. Every single day in and out and doing it, like the one thing that moves people or gives people some kind of like, uh, a feeling and the taco representing tacos and tattos doing that.

Yeah. I feel like. I hope for anything that it’s breaking down barriers for people. Mm-hmm. And hopefully young cooks and future people that wanna be on this thing, though, to say that like, Hey, you don’t have to have the fancy Michelin starred like, you know, tasting menu French kitchen anymore to get all these things.

You can do it. Be true to yourself, true to your culture. Mm-hmm. And still get to have fun with it, you know? Yeah. I think the taco is the funnest thing to kind of get to mess around with. Yeah. And there’s so many different ways you can make a taco and different styles, and I’m just glad we get to, you know, put it front and center Yeah.

Every single day and represent taco culture to the fullest. Yeah. Especially here in Texas, you know? Yeah. I love

Mando Rayo: it. Love it. And so for you, like being not only for you, I guess. As an honoree for the Michelin Guide, but there’s a lot of Taos on there now. Right. And TAs. Yeah. Ta

Chef Edgar Rico: Texas represent you. Yeah. So

Mando Rayo: you have like Ramen del Barrio La Santa Barcha, ada, right.

What is that story around. Texas that so many guedos receive this honor.

Chef Edgar Rico: It was cool. Like, man, I remember that night of the awards, like getting to see everyone in the room, all dressed up. It, it’s so cool to like, because, you know, all of us, we’re usually always like working our butts off at our, at our respective businesses and we never really get that moment to all just kind of hang out amongst each other and like, and get to celebrate, you know?

Accomplishments and all that, and to just seeing everyone in that room together on that night. It was a really beautiful feeling for me just to get to see that tacos are finally getting the recognition that they deserve and people finally feeling some respect on taco’s names, you know? Right. And for each.

You know, business that is respective of theirs. You know, each one of ’em also, they get to share a story. They share their family’s culture, they share their family stories through those tacos and right to see it be so well received by not only just Texans, but you know, an established, you know. A steam prestige location or Yeah, business like the Michelin.

It’s cool to see, and I can’t wait to see as people continue kind of breaking down barriers and continue to innovate tacos, you know? I think we’re in a unique place here in Texas where you’ll see people kind of doing some stuff that’s outside the box. Yeah. You know, ramen del Barrio is a really great example of one of those things that.

You’re like, when you would pull up. The first time I went there I was like, well, you’re doing Jaka Tori on a taco. Like I know,

Mando Rayo: right? Yeah. Amazing.

Chef Edgar Rico: It’s, and it’s so beautiful to see like that mix mash of like Japanese, Mexican, or even like a place like DCA where they just literally do one taco. Yeah, that’s it.

But they have mastered that taco to the fullest in terms of skill and yeah, I’m just excited to see where taco culture is going into the future. ’cause we’re in uncharted territories, I feel like. Yeah. Um, in the best way. Yeah. Yeah. Um, because people, you know, a lot of us are, are all kind of first generation immigrant, first generation Americans.

Right, right, right. And we know a lot of us, we grew up here in the US. And we ate hamburgers and we ate hot dogs and all that. But like we were still eating. Our mom’s got for dinner, you know, in the middle of summer. In the middle of summer. You know, mom’s making avocado. But it’s cool to have seen, to get, to see now what we can do with tacos.

’cause we’re, you know, we’re not. Mexican or American, we’re kind of like this in between. I think what people are gonna start doing with tacos in the next few years is really exciting to see. Yeah. Yeah. And we’re excited we get to be a part of it. Nice. And tell some of that story as well. Yeah.

Mando Rayo: Well, I mean, I would say you’re both, we’re both, you’re this and you’re that.

You’re from there and you’re from here ’cause you’ve seen the best of your lived experiences. You know what I mean? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So let’s flip that conversation around like. When you think about a Michelin guide and this idea that it’s, it’s French, it’s really maybe traditionally has been fine dining focused, right?

So are they gentrifying the taco?

Chef Edgar Rico: Ooh. You know, it was cool for me to see last year, like a place like. Last year when the Michelin came out from Mexico at Khalifa de Leon, like one of those places, right? That literally just does a taco, that they’re just searing, like some beautiful ribeye or like a pork chop on a, on a Blanca, a tortilla and a salsa.

That’s it, homie. Don’t even give you cilantro or onions. It’s just those three things, and he let that. Those three things just really shine really beautifully. And to have seen a place like that, God have gotten a Michelin star, I was like, wow. Like yeah. We are truly in a new era. And I don’t know, I really hope to continue to see that Michelin just released their guide yesterday from Mexico.

Mm-hmm. Um, no new taqueria that went on there. Okay. Which is kind of a bummer, but Yeah.

Music: Yeah, yeah.

Chef Edgar Rico: Um. It’ll be cool to see as tacos continue to evolve mm-hmm. All throughout the us what will be added to it. Um, but are, are they gentrifying tacos? I don’t know. I would say most of the people that were up there mm-hmm.

On the list last year were all places that I felt like were doing tacos. You know, like look at a place like Santa Barcha or Yeah. Yeah. Cuo di I feel like. Those people are doing, they, all those businesses are doing tacos that you would find in Mexico, so, right. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And you know, they’re all kind of heartfelt and they’re all kind of family recipes in some ways, shape or form, so, mm-hmm.

I don’t think so. Yeah, I think, I think hopefully it’s just giving people like. A better understanding of tacos and hopefully get people curious to, once they discover this one part of tacos mm-hmm. To continue digging deeper and seeing Totally, you know, the different regions, the different regionalities of, of Mexico is, Mexico isn’t just one country.

There’s states, just like here in the United States, you know, every place does their own little region of taco.

Mando Rayo: But people, people’s people definitely tend to categorize. Uh, all Mexican food as not high worth or value. Right. Things are changing, but the history has been like, oh, if a a white chef makes a taco, then it’s worth it.

Sure, sure. Right. So what are your thoughts on that?

Chef Edgar Rico: Yeah, I think there has always been, I feel like this notion that, that it should be cheap. Sure. It should be, you know, $2, $3. You know, back in the days, I think that was the case, because you know those that. Generation before us was a lot of immigrants that were just assimilating here in the US and they were trying to get the ingredients that they could just to put some food on their table.

Like they were just trying to feed those people were just trying to feed their families, right? They were feeding their communities. Um, and you know, they weren’t thinking about like, how was I gonna honor my family’s heritage? Yeah, yeah,

Music: yeah.

Chef Edgar Rico: They’re just trying to make it and they were just trying to make it.

Yeah. And you know, I think for a while in the US I think people were kind of accustomed to that, but a prop, A new generation. Yeah. People like us who I think wanted to dive deeper into our culture and now we’re starting to see, yeah, this. This changeup of people making tacos who are also now probably not even Mexican anymore, you know?

Mm-hmm. There’s gonna be some dude that is white that went down to Mexico and learned, learned the craft. Right. And I don’t know, for me, I, I never get upset if another culture is doing tacos. Yeah. Because I think tacos should be for everyone. Yeah. Been very lucky to get to go around the world and get to see tacos.

Like when I went to Japan, it blew my mind to get to see Japanese. This Japanese dude, I remember specifically, I met, he had went to the us, went to Mexico, and ended up living there for 20 years. And the way this guy went about tacos was kind of like that sushi mentality. He’s like, all I did was I swept the floors.

Did did like the dishes for three years before this guy taught me how to make salsas. Like he spent 20 years in Mexico and Guadalajara in Mexico City learning the craft of, of tacos and then took that back to Tokyo and was making some of the most mind blowing tacos I had ever had. And I was like, that’s awesome.

I’m eating tacos in Japan right now. Yeah, yeah. Right, right. By this guy who speaks perfect Spanish also. And I’m like, also what

Music: the,

Chef Edgar Rico: um, so it’s cool to get to see like how to. People are really now like respecting our food and like wanting to learn this craft and taking it to their own and putting their own little spin on it.

Mm-hmm. Putting their own, putting their own thing on it. So, I don’t know. It’s cool to see tacos just continue to go throughout the world and continue to spread that delicious, you know, I just love it, you know, that delicious culture of, of Mexico represented on a plate and I hope it continues and I hope.

People continue to discover our cuisine and you know, just keep putting more respect on it more than anything. Yeah, yeah. Well, you

Mando Rayo: know, like there’s a famous singer, um, well I know the Quo is like, Mexicans are born, are born every, everywhere.

Chef Edgar Rico: We, we, we spread it and we go, you know, we go everywhere we can.

Mando Rayo: All right. So, so what’s next? What’s next, uh, for you in regards to kind what you’re doing here in Austin? You know, like how long has NTA been around and, and what’s next?

Chef Edgar Rico: So we celebrated our five year anniversary. Okay. I thought it was gonna in October. Okay. Um, and this year is year six. And you know, Sarah and I.

Uh, we always kind of had a five year plan of like, what, what do we want for the business and what do we hope we can, you know, goals that we can continue to reach. Um, one of ’em was writing a cookbook. Um, we are in the midst of writing a cookbook right now. Nice. Um, that should be out sometime next year.

Mm-hmm. Um, for me it’s been probably like one of the hardest. Things personally I’ve ever done because writing a recipe for an everyday consumer is very, it’s very hard to like change your mindset of writing recipes. So that’s been a really fun challenge. Okay. Um, and then also the other thing I think. We wanna just continue expanding NSTA as far as we can.

And like we always said, we wanted to take it outside of the four walls of Sure. Where, where Nysa could go. And this year we get to take it internationally. So we’re going to do a popup in London for two weeks. Nice. Uh, and they need the

Mando Rayo: help. Yeah, they really do. Uh,

Chef Edgar Rico: tacos out there, apparently it’s. Slim and far and few in, be few and between.

So it’s gonna be cool to get to take That’s cool. Kos out there and get to present it to a different crowd.

Mando Rayo: And so obviously you’ve been mentioning Sarah, your partner. Mm-hmm. Not only are you business partners, but you know you’re married and Yeah. You share every, like we share everything. What

Chef Edgar Rico: is,

Mando Rayo: what is that like,

Chef Edgar Rico: you know, uh, how do you guys collaborate?

Yeah. I think in the beginning I think it was. I think we kind of ran into a little like rough patches of like trying to distinguish like what our, I think, kind of roles would be. And then it took, you know, it takes a lot of communication, you know? Yeah. I’m not gonna say every day

Mando Rayo: takes work. Takes work. I know that

Chef Edgar Rico: it does.

You know, not every day is gonna be like super easy and like, oh my God, like this is all flowers and roses. But you know, as we’ve kind of grown in the past few years, I think. We’ve continued to establish, kind of delineate those roles and where you know, we’re gonna do best in that part of the business.

And it’s cool to see. I feel like now we have a really good dynamic in terms of where we are with the business. And I think no one, neither one of us will ever. Do something before consulting one another. Sure. It’s been cool to get to see, you know, you get to grow this. I can’t believe you

Mando Rayo: put that car without telling me.

Yeah,

Chef Edgar Rico: yeah, yeah. You know, you’re like, wait, you bought an Escalade? What? No. Uh, no. But it’s, it’s been amazing to get to like, build something with the person that you love the most. Yeah. Build that up together and build something. Truly special. And you know, I couldn’t have done this without her and like vice versa.

And you know, we just want to continue seeing where we will take this some, we have some other projects that are in our back pocket right now mm-hmm. That we’re testing out at the moment, um, with some like Persian food, but That’s nice. Not Mexican food at all, you know. It’s definitely something a little different, but, and it’s part

Mando Rayo: of her cultural background too, so, right.

Yeah. So

Chef Edgar Rico: yeah, her parents immigrated here from Iran in the late seventies, and you know, they had restaurants here in. Arkansas where she’s from. Oh wow. So, you know, we now are kind of, are exploring some of that by doing popups. And we actually went to Iran three years ago, Uhhuh to get to really understand the culture and the food of Iran.

Yeah,

Music: beautiful.

Chef Edgar Rico: And yeah, now that’s something we wanna kind dabble with and see also where it takes us, but Nice, you know.

Mando Rayo: Yeah. Yeah. That’s great. I love it. Okay, one last question. Going back to the Michelin guide, if there was one taco to represent outside of your own, like this ideal Michelin guide, um.

What, what would that be?

Chef Edgar Rico: Ooh. Like one that would impress a judge or just Yeah, sure.

Mando Rayo: Or from your, from your kind of experience and, and like, okay, this taco needs to be, now you don’t have to say the place, but like, this is the taco they should honor

Chef Edgar Rico: man, a bean and cheese taco. I mean, a bean and cheese taco for me is one of those tacos that.

It’s just so comforting, but I feel like it’s a good showman of like craftsmanship of like, how well can you cook beans? Yeah. How well can you season beans? Yeah. Because it’s like, it’s like really simple things that you can do. You don’t have to add a lot to beans to make ’em taste delicious, but if you can properly season a bean really well make.

You know, put some good manca on it. You got, gotta gotta, you gotta have a manca, it doesn’t matter where you’re getting it from, but some kind of manca and then, you know, whatever sasan you’re putting in there, whether it’s adobo, whatever, you know, your heart’s desire. Mm-hmm. Um, but that, and then the cheese that you put on it, I think those, it’s one of those things that’s like, you know, if you look at something that’s so simple, like if every one of those elements are done right, I think.

Taco be. Even something as simple as a bean and cheese taco I feel like can just hit so well. Yeah. So I don’t know. Bean and cheese taco, a

Mando Rayo: bean cheese is like the ultimate comfort food.

Chef Edgar Rico: Yeah.

Mando Rayo: You know, just like Absolutely. Just makes you feel good. It’s like a hug. Yeah. Hug from your mom. Exactly. When I eat that, you know, I feel like, oh

Chef Edgar Rico: yeah.

Yeah, you’re getting just like a warm and fuzzy, so nice, nice, nice.

Mando Rayo: Well, uh, Edgar, thanks so much for being on the show. I always appreciate coming to your shop or we running to each other in the community or, or here at the re

Chef Edgar Rico: Yeah, it’s always good. It’s always good hanging with you too, so I appreciate you.

Thanks brother. Thank you Ross.

Mando Rayo: I wanna thank Chef Edgar Rico for being on the show. It was great to reconnect with him and talk about kind of what inspired him and really this focus on Horn as well as like what he’s doing in East Austin with N Ria and how that one very specific Duck Carita kind of put him on the map. And as well as thinking about the Michelin guide and how many Taros.

We’re honored and featured, uh, in this past year and, and what that does for the culture. You know, the idea that, you know, it’s a new day for what people think of tacos, uh, especially here in the United States. And with that, I wanna do some shout outs to some of those honorees, including ria. I. Test in Fort Worth, Texas.

Garcias Mexican food in San Antonio, Texas, and Ada right here in Austin, Texas. This has been the Tacos of Texas podcast developed and produced by Identity Productions. If you enjoyed today’s episode in our Craving More taco content, go to our website at www dot identity productions or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, and identity productions and United Tacos of America.

This is your host. Mando El Taco journalist

on the next Proximo Tacos of Texas. Take one part Mexican, add Japanese Re. What you’ll get is an incredible combination at Ramen del Barrio.

Louise Van Assche: 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, Vanessa, 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.