tacosoftexas

H-E-B’s road to Mi Tienda

What led H-E-B to go full Hispanic aisle? With the Mi Tienda brand, HEB went full into target Latino consumers from barbacoa, salsas y tamales. Guest is Manny Colunga, store leader at Mi Tienda in Houston, Texas.

Tools of the Taco Trade 

Cazos, Discadas y parrillas, oh my! Take a tour of La Tia Pancha Flea Market in the northside of Houston as we discover the tools that taqueros y taqueras use to create their muy ricos tacos.

Are Chico’s Tacos actually tacos?

This might be controversial but those drowned tacos are actually flautas or are they? We’ll dig into this highly debated issue in Chucotown. Guest is Ivan Enriquez, owner of El Perrito Austin.

On a mission with Chef Ana Liz Pulido

Let’s talk with Ana Liz Pulido, winner of Best Chef – Texas, on how she went from a small town, Mission, TX to the national stage of the James Beard Foundation.

Ultima Palabra con Mando Rayo

It’s 2022 and yes we’re still dealing with taco tropes, Latino stereotypes & pendejadas. But in between all that hot mess, we still have lots of tacos to enjoy. Today we’ll tackle some of the highlights and low lights of 2022 with Ultima Palabra with special guests from the Taconet, Lucy Flores from Luz Media and Junior Taco Correspondent, Samuel Franco.

Taquiando y Hablando: The ingredients to making a taco podcast

Producer and host, Mando Rayo talks with story producer and filmmaker Sharon Arteaga on the steps they took to create the Tacos of Texas Podcast, Season Dos, from research to guest interviews and specialized segments to eating ojos, cabritos, all the tortillas, finding vendedoras along the borderlands, decolonizing our maíz, all while listening to taco beats and traveling over 2000 miles without leaving the state of Tejas.

Tardeadas

Move over Sunday brunch! Today we are vibing at a Tardeada in Seguin, Texas. Travel with us as we fill our panzitas with Tacos and our soul with good music y good afternoon vibes at Burnt Bean Co. The Pope of BBQ Ernest Servantes will guide us through a Sunday ritual of some sacred tacos of Texas. We talk tardeada traditions, memorias, and some of our favorite tardeada tunes y comida.

Taco Gentrification

In Austin, East of IH-35 is considered the great divide, from the wealthy and the poor, the whites and Black and Latino communities. With Austin’s growth and gentrification comes even more displacement. You can literally experience it through the city’s tacos, where you can buy tacos for $2.00 at one location and $9.00 at another, all within 5 blocks of each other! In this episode, we’ll explore Taco Gentrification and how it impacts taqueros and the communities we live in. We will take a taco tour of the east Cesar Chavez and 7th Street and also hop over to East Riverside, a place of dos mundos where one side of the street is home to immigrants and families while the other side is inhabited by millenials and new condo dwellers. Guests include Regina Estrada from Joe’s Bakery & Mexican Restaurant, Mincho Jacob from BASTA Austin and Samuel Franco, East Riverside resident and advocate.

Las Jefecitas: using comida to sustain immigrant households.

Many immigrants have leveraged the delicious cuisines of their países as a means of income and work when they first arrive in the United States. Even before setting up a taco truck or even a brick and mortar, we see vendedoras earning their income by selling tacos out of their hieleritas in grocery store parking lots or wherever they know they’ll find foot traffic. In this episode we explore what motivates these women to leave their kitchens and go out into these parking lots. We discuss these informal economies and how they look in today’s digital age. We also spend time at La Mujer Obrera and Cafe Mayapán to see how the organization supports immigrant and indigenous women by training and employing them.

Decolonizing Maíz

Corn is the most important crop of the Americas. It sustained the Western Hemisphere for centuries, and with the colonization of its lands, came the colonization of corn. In the past century, corn went from maíz production to mass production, with companies modifying it and depleting it of its natural riches. In this episode we rally with masa makers on a journey to reconnect our comunidades with the nutrients and flavors of the superfood in a more pure form than the mass-produced maseca, with which many of us are familiar. We talk to Andres Garza, now Nixta Taqueria’s Director of Masa Development and Fermentation, Olivia Lopez, chef and co-owner of Molino Olōyō in Dallas, Texas, and Julian Maltby of Mercado Sin Nombre in Austin, TX about decolonizing the once magical maiz and the many shapes of tacos being made with their corn tortillas.

Politi-tacos: The Politics of Tacos

As some politicians take more notice of the voting power of the communidad Latina, we see our cultura make its way into campaign slogans, hear Spanish being spoken from debate podiums, and even Tacos being used as an effort to rally up support! While some taco tactics may just be lip service, others have made sincere connections with the communities they go into. In this episode we talk tacos and politics with Councilmember Vanessa Fuentes, AISD Trustee Ofelia Zapata and Jilma Palacio from Taqueria King as we get to know the Dove Springs neighborhood in Austin, Texas.

Smoked Beef Barbacoa

Barbacoa, from Sunday traditions to everyday goodness, barbacoa continues to evolve and surprise us. In this episode, we talk barbacoa basics before chatting with Joel Garcia, owner and pitmaster at Teddy’s Barbecue in Weslaco, Texas. Joel shares his barbecue and barbacoa story and how smoking beef heads takes barbacoa to the next level.

Cabrito y Familia: Rebecca’s Mexican Restaurant

The tradition of cooking cabrito goes back centuries. For Rebecca’s Mexican Restaurant, in McAllen, Texas, it goes back over 30 years, for a mother and her two daughters. In this episode we stop by this G.O.A.T. of a restaurant and talk cabrito traditions of the RGV with both hijas, Jessica Gutierrez and Laurie Johnson and some fellow taco-loving customers at the restaurant.