Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Go out to la Comin from the city where no pity is. Shell.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: Shell.
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Somebody need to do a song for la.
[00:00:06] Speaker C: Straight up.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Hello, my name is Elaine, and I'll be your tour guide through South Central Los Angeles.
[00:00:18] Speaker A: Look, count my nose. Smoke up. I'm from California. Where you from?
[00:00:23] Speaker D: So what?
[00:00:24] Speaker A: I'm from California.
[00:00:26] Speaker D: California.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: California. California. This is Los Angeles.
[00:00:30] Speaker C: Well, where we going?
[00:00:31] Speaker A: West Worth. My fellow Americans, tonight I come before you not as a podcaster. No, that as a husband. Not even as a concerned citizen.
I come before you as a man who recently discovered that this country is far more divided than I'd ever imagined.
East coast, west coast, Midwest, the South. For years, I thought.
I thought our differences were music, slang, sports, maybe even some fucking barbecue. Nah, I was wrong.
Ladies and gentlemen, we need to talk about these taco shells. Because apparently I've been living inside a la bubble my entire life.
See, where I'm from, it was a taco night.
You got the tortillas. You got that grease going.
You put that. You put that tortilla in there. You folded that motherfucker and you let it get crispy. Boom, nigga. Taco shell. That's what I knew. That's what I trusted.
That's the America I believed in. But recently, I spoken to some people from parts of this great nation, and this is what I discovered.
Y' all putting these in the oven.
Apparently, some of y' all ain't even making the shells.
[00:01:59] Speaker D: Huh?
[00:02:00] Speaker A: Y' all buying a box of 12 little yellow envelopes already standing at attention. Pause.
And before. Look, before anybody get offended, I'm not here to tell anybody how to live their life. Nah.
If you and your family enjoy little envelopes, God bless y'. All.
But I do believe every American deserve the opportunity to experience a tortilla coming fresh out that grease at least once.
Because you may discover you haven't been eating bad tacos.
You just haven't met the final form.
[00:02:44] Speaker D: Foreign.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: I'm not judging you. I'm not. I'm just. I'm just gathering information at this point, see, because apparently Taco Tuesday has different. They got different bylaws depending on the time zone. I guess I thought Taco Tuesday meant we were all participating in the same program, you know what I'm saying? Like, you mean to tell me that the oven is involved?
Bro, that's. That's a casserole department.
Why is it in taco business, huh?
Somebody told me we just buy the shelves. Buy the shelves.
You buy the shelves.
You out.
So you. You were outsourcing now, huh?
That box shell, that got structural integrity of a Nature Valley bar.
One bite, that whole operation is just on your plate.
Shut it. Falling down. All right, you bite the front of that. Damn you. You bite the front of that box. Taco in the back of it. Files for divorce, huh?
I'm not saying. I'm not saying throw the box away. I'm just saying keep the receipts.
I'm trying. I'm trying to bring this country together one skillet at a time. This isn't criticism.
No, King Germ. This is cultural exchange, brother.
12 count. I'm not. I'm not asking you to abandon the traditions, y'. All. Traditions. I'm asking you to heat up some goddamn oil.
That's all I'm asking for you to do. Don't not. Don't knock it until you at least tried it.
You gotta at least try to come out that hot ass grease with them crispy edges, but still got a little. Got a little bend to it.
That's the architecture.
The shell shouldn't shattered her because you looked at it aggressively.
See that? And look, this is another thing, though. This is another thing that I caught that. That kind of caught me off guard. Somebody told me.
Somebody told me that they. They really didn't fool with tacos like that because they looked at it as like poor people's food.
Poor people's food, My man. Tacos were what was an event.
You know what I'm saying? Is a. An event at my house. You told me we having tacos tonight. I'm looking forward to having dinner. Okay?
I mean, you gotta.
How. And how poor can a taco be? You know?
It's got his own day.
Meatloaf ain't got Thursdays.
Hamburger Helper ain't got. Ain't got Wednesdays. The taco has a secured weekly national appointment.
You.
You know what?
Maybe.
And maybe that's why I'm learning as I get older, some of the things I thought were black traditions just weren't necessarily black traditions. They might have just been LA traditions, you know, west coast traditions. Hell, some son and some of them could have or might have just been traditions in somebody's mama's kitchen. Who knows?
You know, that's my little heart.
My little heart.
Look, man.
Beautiful. Different regions, different traditions, different experiences. I respect all of it.
But y' all gotta explain this oven shit to me. Y' all do.
Y' all absolutely do.
So tonight, my message is this. America as simple can be.
I'm not asking the Midwest to change.
I'm not asking the south to change.
I'm not asking the east coast to change.
Continue making your tacos, however your family has always made them. Put them in the oven by that box.
Do what makes you happy, my nigga.
All I'm asking is that one Tuesday. Just one.
You come over to our side, get you some tortillas, put a little oil in that skillet, Drop that, that. Drop that thing up in there, fold it, let those edges get crispy. Season the meat however you want. Pause.
Put your cheese, put your lettuce, cilantro, tomatoes, hot sauce, whatever y', all, sour cream, guac, whatever you want to put on your taco. My nigga, do your thing. But take that first bite and then.
I don't need an apology.
I don't need you to admit I was right.
I don't even need you to tell anybody what happened.
Just look towards the west coast and give us a little nod. We'll know.
This is President btg.
God bless you, God bless America, and God bless Taco Tuesday.
Stay interested.
Now, look, I fuck with y', all, man. I really do. I really do mess with y'. All.
But we have to have some understanding here.
And that. That understanding can be something as.
[00:08:16] Speaker C: My mama made me black people California tacos for dinner. And you might be wondering, what's black people Californ tacos. Well, I'm so glad you asked. I'm going to tell you. So, first off, we fry our own tortillas. We don't go to the store and get the corn tortillas that are already made. Like Taco Bell. No, we go get the flour torch. What are they? Flour, corn. The corn tortillas. And we fry them in the shape of tacos ourselves. And then you get your meat, you get whatever toppings. I forgot the lettuce. We ain't gonna talk about it. She made some really good pico. And then we put whatever hot sauces and stuff we want on them.
And I understand y' all think black people tacos are just white people tacos with seasoning, and that might be true, but you know what? The seasoning is what matters here.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: You hit that crunch. You hit that crunch.
[00:09:01] Speaker D: Instagram, right? Or it might have been Facebook. Anyway, it was this guy, he was eating those, like, hard shell tacos, and he was like, nothing like black people tacos. I don't know about you, but I grew up not eating that as black people tacos. Like, Mama, she never made that. Like, we never ate that. I mean, I never said I never wanted them, but we just never Made them. She never made them. We'll cook about three pounds of ground beef. She wouldn't drain it, so it would be greasy as hell. She would put like three or four packs of the lorry seasoning. You know, the one that would turn to me orange up. And as you ate the taco or whatever, the. The oil would drip down your wrist. Back then, I used to put hot sauce and ketchup on. I can't. I tried it with the ketchup again. I couldn't dare.
But yeah.
What do you guys think? Do you.
[00:09:46] Speaker A: Hey, first of all, drain the grease, okay. Pat it down with some paper towels, something like that. Don't. Don't you. Don't get me wrong. You could have greasy tacos. I know a lot of people that like greasy tacos. Packed a lot of flavor. Impactful. But don't do that to yourself, okay? You don't need all that grease. And then second of all, there's a certain section of people within the black delegation that still or have put ketchup on a tacos. I don't think I've ever had ketchup on my tacos. I know. I never done it on purpose. Now, what goes inside your tacos, That's a different conversation. Right now we just focus on the shells, okay? What y' all put in your tacos is. It should be the same thing as what happens behind closed doors in your bedroom, your business.
You know what I'm saying? The difference is we got a lot of taco spots out here. And even if you don't have a lot of talk, a lot of taco spots where you're from, it's still a public thing, you know, Unless you order some tacos to go and you take them home, you eating them in a, you know, inside your. Your place, then you're back to privacy.
But I'm not judging you what you do behind closed doors with your tacos. But if you in public and I see you pouring Heinz ketchup on your taco, I'm gonna look at you different.
I don't mind judging people. I don't mind being judged. But I'm going to tell you how weird you are in my life and where I place you at in my life based on the shit that you do. You see what I'm saying? You don't need all that grease. Don't put ketchup on your tacos. Whatever else, all the fixings and stuff like that. It's a million of things that you can put on your tacos. A million you know what I'm saying? We actually season or like this is this. If you want Baylor's tacos, we already know. I'm putting my shells in the grease. Both flour and tortilla, right? Corn.
So put that to the side. The shells is ready. All right? Some people still eat they tacos ghetto. I'm not gonna put em on blast. But I do know this person personally. They like putting sliced cheese on their tacos. That's some ghetto. I'm telling you. That's some project right there. I'm just letting you know that out the gate. But it is a thing. I like shredded cheese myself, okay? All types of shredded cheese, from sharp, sharp cheddar to white cheddar to gouda.
Yeah. Just different type. I like the Mexican mix blend. I know y'. All. I know y' all have seen that before, okay?
That's it for the cheeses. You know what I'm saying? Now, as far as the. They call it. We call it pico de gallo, but in my household, we call it salsa because we had an option to blend it up and to make it into a salsa. But sometimes we don't do it. Sometimes we just cut up the tomatoes, green onions, cilantro, and that's basically it. Sometimes I don't do it as much because my wife's heart burned, but I would squeeze a lemon or lime. Or I might do the cheat way and get the juice, the lime or the lemon juice, and pour it into my salsa, and I mix it up, and I season it as well.
Seasoning salt, pepper, sea salt, sometimes garlic. You know, I season up my. My pico de gallo, right?
Sour cream is involved.
I said cilantro. That's part of the salsa. And that's. And that's. And that's pretty much. That's pretty much it. That's. We keep it real. We keep it real basic. Now, sometimes we do ground turkey we've never made. I'm not gonna say I've never made, but as far as my adult life, I just. I fuck with.
I fuck with the ground turkey over the ground beef. If I eat a ground beef taco, I bought it from an establishment, but if I'm at home, is ground turkey, chicken, grilled chicken, or shredded chicken, shrimp.
And we've done potato tacos before. If y' all never had. Y' all never had potato tacos, those is fire, too.
I can't think of no more right now. But. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, technically, you could. I don't want to do that to y'. All right, now. But again.
[00:14:29] Speaker B: So it took me moving to Georgia to realize all black people do not eat their tacos the same. Because they're calling these taco shells, these crunchy taco shells, Black people tacos. And I've been black my entire life, and a lot of black people in California make tacos regularly.
Never seen a black person have a taco shell like this. No shade, no tea. Because I love lavelle.
So I'm gonna show y' all how black people in California, or at least all the black people I know how we make our taco shell. So you want to start off with some hot oil, Crisco oil in a pan. Okay?
[00:15:05] Speaker A: You get.
[00:15:06] Speaker B: This is a corn tortilla shell.
Okay? You see, I put it on one side so it could get like, a little cook.
[00:15:14] Speaker A: And don't let them cook nothing over here, okay? Cook that shell. We want them crispy edges.
Let me. And I'm just gonna teach y' all a little something. Go get you some tortilla shells. Go get you a skillet. Pour some grease in there. Pour enough. Pour enough to where? If you press down on the tortilla that the grease can cover it. And make sure you keep it press. Keep pressing it down to the middle so it can cook the whole shell evenly. If not, then the outside is gonna be more crispier than the inside. And if you don't want crispy tacos, guess what? Don't leave them in oil too long. Just cook them long enough.
Okay? I don't see how y' all niggas cook if you have. If I can understand you not eating tacos as much, but if you eat. And let's just say you eat enchiladas more than you eat tacos, news flash is the same thing is just prepared in a different form. I hate. I hate to break it to y'. All, okay? I hate to break it to y', all, but literally, if you eat enchiladas out here from somebody's house, nine times out of 10, they're going to be frying their shells in the grease. They're not going. And they don't fry them as long as they would for a taco. Because if you. If you do that, then it's going to be not. It's not going to be that difficult. But it's more difficult to roll other than, you know, just cooking it just long enough to. To where it's cooked and you can still roll it. You know what I'm saying? That's all you eat. That's an enchilada is just a rolled up taco. I'm sorry I had to break it down to y' all like that, but that's the truth. Okay? Now we also do something like when we don't feel like forming those tacos in a roll like that or perfectly in a roll like that, we do something called enchilada pie, where we still cook the shells, but we cut them up or tear them up into like, twos or four. We might cut it in half, or we might cut it in fours, and then we'll layer it. Now you. Now here's y' all got. Y' all probably was offended by the casserole in the oven joint joke, but here's where. Almost turns into a casserole type of serving. Because the enchilada pie, you cut up and you layer the Pyrex, you layer that motherfucker.
Then you, you know, you put the enchilada sauce. I think I said this on one of my episodes before.
And then you. You layer it just like you would a casserole. But it's called an enchilada pie.
Anybody that comes to my house, just. Just know that our go to.
Our go to is tacos.
I was shocked to believe that my nigga 12 cow does not eat tacos like that again. That's me living in the LA bubble. Cause this whole time, I never thought la. I knew we have the best. I know we have the best tacos. That's without a fact. I mean, that's without a fact.
That's without a doubt.
What I didn't know was that there were people on this planet that did not eat tacos like that.
In my head, I'm thinking that this is a universal thing, not just a West coast thing. I just thought we just did it better. Kind of like basketball.
Everybody plays basketball. We just play basketball better.
So I'm looking at tacos that way. I'm thinking tacos is all across the board.
You know, maybe not in the rural areas, maybe not in the Midwest and shit like that. Places like Wyoming and Idaho and, you know, places like that. Maybe not, but damn sure when it comes to the south, to the east coast, certain places on the East Coast, New York, Florida, you know what I'm saying? I can't for Atlanta, I don't know. I was. I was. I would think that they had a little bit more soul food going on than anything. I know we're very diverse over here, and. And the dominant dish over here is Mexican food. You got Chinese food. That's big out here.
Mediterranean is cool.
It's a lot of. Yeah, we got. And barbecue. So it's very diverse over here. We got everything.
You know, it's just not. It's just not one thing that's dominating the whole region, you know I'm saying? But tacos is what we going to put up against anybody best dish. That's a fact.
And you know, California is Mexico, Texas technically. But I thought Texas is a part of that tech. You know, they got text me.
They do complain about Tex Mex food, but y', all, at least y' all should have an idea of how the tacos are prepared and made.
See, y' all went about this whole thing. I talked to Drake. Drake was actually talking to me as if I was in a room.
No, I'm. He doesn't understand where we. No, we looking at you like you talking to yourself and nobody else is around.
That's what we're trying to say. And again, I had to realize this might be a regional thing, this might just be an LA thing. You know what I'm saying? My whole thought process could be off. But I do know for a fact that if y' all not putting them in a grease, y' all not cooking them, they're raw, you gotta do something.
Okay? And then I'm not gonna even. I don't even want to talk to the niggas that's going to buy the pre made envelope tacos.
I don't want to talk to y'.
[00:20:50] Speaker B: All.
[00:20:51] Speaker A: No.
Like, it's not even.
You not even getting in the game to guard me.
We're going to let coach know he's got to sit this one out because. No, because y' all don't want. We don't want to talk. We don't want to go down that road of being authentic.
And y' all eating these cardboard pre made shells.
God bless y'. All.
God bless y'. All. I love y'. All. And look to anybody else that I didn't talk to directly because I could talk to a few people directly, shout out to my Paco. I talked to Paco that started laughing. He was like, I ain't talking you. And like he exaggerated because I have talked to you. I have talked to Paco. I know you listening. We spoken within at least year or so.
All right?
Then he said, I ain't talked to you in two years. The first thing you asked me about is tacos. Yeah, the said, yeah, I'll put my taco. He said, he another one that didn't eat tacos a lot. He don't. He doesn't eat tacos a lot. But he said when he does make them, he puts them in the oven. Hey, man, don't invite me over. If that's how y' all prepare your tacos, this is no judgment. This is me telling you I have standards.
I love you all, man, but do me a favor, my nigga, turn on the grease.
Turn on the grease.
