Taco Truck Throwdown 15 was held this past Saturday, and for the first time since 2016, I had the opportunity to judge. “Local taco coverage can never be too thorough” is one of those adages I take to heart, and so on that note, I’d thought I’d take this time to share my perspective as taco judge and list my personal favorites from the competition, alongside other observations and things I learned along the way. Plus, a rundown of every taco eaten.
[Also, don’t miss Fresnoland’s first “Taco Crawl,” this Thursday. Still a few tickets left!]
This year, 21 local taco trucks packed Chukchansi Park downtown to compete for the crown (you can skip to the winners here). We judges sampled all 21 (there were supposed to be 22, but one had to drop out at the last minute due to illness), which was actually a reasonable lift compared to the 32 I sampled last time I judged, in 2016.
Back then, the competition was still staged during a Grizzlies baseball game, in the blazing heat of late August (does a taco taste better when you’re sweating from your eyelids? discuss). While TTT is still a Grizzlies promotion, these days it’s a stand-alone event, complete with a concert, a michelada contest, and a salsa throwdown. Too $hort and Waka Flocka Flame performed, but tacos were arguably the main event (and rightfully so).
If 21 tacos or 32 tacos seems like a lot of tacos to eat, trust me, it is. And yet, it still barely scratches the surface of the true taco variety on offer in the Central Valley. We’re positively lousy for choice, with TTT co-founder and organizer Mike “Mike Oz” Osegueda estimating that on any given night, there are “at least a hundred” trucks operating within a 30-mile radius.
I can crow about such things, and do, but I’m also a born-and-bred local, not to mention a semi-professional chronicler of the Fresno food scene. So don’t take it from me, take it from columnist and author Joe Mathews, writing for Zocalo back in 2016 (emphasis mine):
“In recent visits to Fresno, I am hearing Fresnans begin to talk with obsessive pride about their city—and the subject that stirs that pride is tacos.
“California is a state of great tacos, and let me stipulate now that you readers are justifiably proud of tacos in your hometowns. But it has long been hard to beat Fresno when it comes to both quantity and quality of tacos. Taquerías—either brick-and-mortar shops, trucks, or pop-up stands—seem to be at every corner, as ubiquitous as gas stations in L.A. or coffee shops of laptop-open entrepreneurs in the Bay Area. The competition and the nearness of agriculture keep the quality of the food high, and the diversity of taco styles reflects how the agriculture industry, over the generations, attracted people from every corner of California and Mexico to the San Joaquin Valley.”
Indeed. And that was a full decade ago. That Fresno has a great taco scene and that we take pride in it no longer feels like something we have to prove. These days, hopefully, it’s a given.
Fittingly, this year’s Taco Truck Throwdown was something of a legacy event. Joining me at the “judge’s table” were the owners of El Premio Mayor, Taco Pinto, and Tacos La Vaporera, multiple-time past champions all, with 16 Taco Truck Throwdown trophies between them.
Judge’s table was only metaphorical this year, as we judged from the dugout – standing, sitting, and leaning against railings – with few tables in sight (the way taco truck tacos are meant to be eaten). This was actually a departure from 2016, when the judges were still doing a walking tour from truck to truck. Milling in place instead also allowed us to judge “blind,” not knowing from which truck each taco came.
The blind-tasting format provided a level playing field, but in some senses the walking tour was more “fair.” Just like a restaurant, a taco truck’s “vibe” is an ineffable part of the experience, something you think you can’t taste but sort of can. Plus, taking your tacos directly from the pickup window (rather than having them schlepped over in a big ol’ platter) is truer to the real-world taco experience. But in the end, logistics won out.
“In the past, we would lose at least one judge at every truck,” Osegueda says of the old format. “It was a disaster.”
A contest is never quite the real world, but you do your best. At the very least, every competitor was on even footing. Still, it’s worth acknowledging that tacos probably aren’t meant to be served 20 at a time (planchas, and the trucks running them, are only so big), and sometimes two or three minutes can be the difference between a perfect tortilla and a stale/dry one.
Limitations of the format aside (did I mention that your sixth quesabirria taco is inevitably going to hit differently than your first?), here were some of my takeaways from this year’s competition.
Tacos are sneaky complex.
Tacos, that’s tortilla and meat, right? It seems simple, but it’s really not.
Every taco should have: tortilla, meat/filling, and salsa. But then, on top of that, there are both included condiments (cilantro, onions – which might be white, red, or yellow; served raw, grilled, or pickled – maybe cabbage, lettuce, or avocado) as well as optional ones (optional toppings? Other salsas?). Often there are garnishes (radishes, carrots, jalapeño), and accoutrements, like consommé. The type and method of tortilla also matters, and everything has to be in balance, in terms of proportion, moisture, seasoning, and textural contrast.
That’s… a lot. Tacos are arguably more complex than sandwiches or burgers, and far more nuanced than pizza or barbecue. The crazy thing about a taco is, you can put together five individually fantastic elements and still end up with a bad taco.
Pick a salsa.
This observation is probably unique to judging, but at a taco truck, the taquero having four or five different salsas to choose from is probably a good thing. You can mix and match with your four or five tacos, build your own, and it’s a fun little thing.
When you’re eating 21 tacos in a row, while trying to get pictures, take notes, and maybe make content, a taco that comes with a separate consommé, guac, and two salsas, is like being asked to solve a Rubik’s Cube at knifepoint. Judges can only really take one or two bites if we want to get through 21 tacos without dying, and so, how to squeeze four different sauce combinations into two bites of what is usually a fairly small taco becomes an intimidating brain puzzle. Please, make the decisions for us. Stick your best salsa or salsas on there and call it a day. Leave the mixing and matching to the paying customers.
Griddled cheese is having a moment.
Taco trends wax and wane. A “new” style hits, everyone copies it, then it becomes old again. Old styles are rediscovered, etc. Every truck wants to put their best foot forward, and sometimes that means chasing the hot trend. In 2016, most trucks were serving traditional, street-style asada or al pastor. This year, there were only a couple of each of those.
Instead, the big trend this year was griddled cheese.That’s where you put shredded cheese directly on the grill, stick a tortilla on top, and wait for the cheese to brown and unstick before flipping – that way the cheese comes out crunchy and browned on one side and gooey and melty on the other. You can also grill the tortilla in the oil from the cheese.
Usually, the taqueros would combine their griddled cheese tortilla with a plain one (sometimes with the griddled cheese facing out, sometimes facing the other tortilla – yet another choice!) and then add filling to the double-tortillas-with-griddled-cheese layer.
By my count, nine of the 21 tacos this year had a griddled cheese element. That seems like too many as a whole, but I can’t hate on the trend individually. Every year I think “cheese on tacos is overrated,” and every year a great, cheesy taco ends up in my top three.
Quesabirria-fever is waning, but only a little.
Quesabirria – a braised, shredded beef-filled cheesy taco often grilled in its own juices and/or served with braising liquid for dunking (the consommé) – arguably peaked a few years ago as a trend. See El Pollo Loco’s 2022 birria menu for evidence of this (which is not a knock on EPL, easily my favorite fast casual chain).
But quesabirria tacos are still around, and still, for the most part, thriving. They made up somewhere between seven and 10 of the 21 tacos served (depending on how strict one’s definition of “quesabirria”). Which was more than enough to get very tired of quesabirria if you were a judge, but with quesabirria tacos winning two of the top four spots in the Judge’s competition and two of the top three in the People’s, the incentive is obviously still there. That people still like quesabirria tacos seems fairly indisputable.
Some more variety would be nice, but a good taco is still a good taco.
“Fusion” tacos are getting better.
Without getting too deep into a history lesson, arguably most types of modern tacos are a product of some kind of cultural “fusion” (the maize in corn tortillas, and the idea of wrapping it around a filling from Indigenous Americans; beef, pork, cooking on vertical spits and in fat from Europeans and the Middle East). That’s just food in general.
That said, I think we all have a pretty good idea what we mean when we say a “fusion” taco. Which is to say, a taco that doesn’t really read Mexican or Central American, and maybe doesn’t try to.
In 2016, that meant a couple of Korean tacos (never going to win, but sure, why not), and one ungodly combination of brisket and mac and cheese. I still remember that one, mostly for how little I wanted to eat it. Mac and cheese is not a topping, please don’t do this.
This year, fusion was both harder to pin down as a concept and generally more successful. Was El Taco Macho’s Judge’s Prize-winning “brisket taco” a fusion? “Brisket taco” sounds like fusion, but the taco looks otherwise traditional. Ditto the smoked pork belly taco from Vega Bros (third place Judge’s, fourth place people’s), which strayed arguably further from tradition, but not too far (it still had salsas and traditional taco toppings).
Then there was the Asada taco with griddled cheese, guacamole, and a bacon-wrapped jalapeño from Cocula’s Taqueria. That one felt very Mexican (like a riff on a Sonoran hot dog inside a tortilla) but still its own kind of fusion – inarguably a Frankenfood. (A little too busy for this judge’s tastebuds, but it placed fifth overall with the judges, which is pretty good).
Elsewhere, Los Toritos served a “ribeye and shrimp with house sauce” taco, which both me and my plus one agreed “tasted like a white-person taco, but also like the beau ideal of a white person taco.”
That one didn’t make my personal top three, but it was very good. Probably the only unsuccessful fusion taco of the night was the smoked brisket with griddled cheese and some kind of queso topping served on a big flour tortilla, from Harry’s Mexican Grill.
It just seemed so intimidatingly big, not to mention meaty, aggressively smoky, and decidedly not a “taco” (more like an open-faced burrito). I think we all groaned when we saw it. The fact that we sampled it seventeenth surely didn’t help (it ended up finishing second to last in the Judge’s vote), but I don’t think it would’ve done that well even if it had been first. Ultimately, it was a classic example of how some individually great ingredients can combine to make a middling taco.
The great hard-or-soft tortilla debate rages on.
Ten years ago, almost all the tortillas were soft – either grilled or steamed, meant to lay flat on the plate with the filling on top. That was seen as the “traditional” or “authentic” version. A “crunchy” taco shell was some bastardized Frankenfood you got at Taco Bell – it didn’t matter that plenty of taqueros in Mexico crisp their tortillas too.
Credit to the quesabirria craze here again, but that too seems to have changed. About half this year’s entrants had a crispy tortilla, and half the soft floppy kind (exact numbers hard to say, a handful landed somewhere in between).
My take? If you’re judging a taco contest and you’re on your 15th taco, you’d definitely rather get a nice soft tortilla than another greasy fried one. As someone buying one or two tacos at a taco truck or stand… both types are great. Just make sure the tortilla is moist. And a single tortilla is better than a double, if you can make it work, in this writer’s opinion.
My personal favorites
1. Taco Al Pastor, Taqueria Arely’s
We tasted this taco fifth, so I don’t think I was biased too much in either direction. It placed a respectable seventh in the judge’s competition overall, but for me it was the best. A nice, fairly traditional al pastor with visible layers from the trompo (you can find our list of trompos here), with a salsa, a bit of grilled pineapple, some onions and cilantro, on a single soft tortilla. The meat alone gives you sticky, charred, crunchy, and sweet.
There was another, arguably prettier al pastor taco in the competition (from Tacos Ah Carbon) with three types of onions (pickled, raw, and carmelized), a nice green salsa, and some pickled chilis. I loved the idea and the toppings, but the meat itself was just overcharred and not quite as good. With 21 tacos, the judging involves a lot of nitpicking.
2. Quesabirria, Tacos El Mandilón
Even as tired of quesabirria as I was, this one just couldn’t be denied. It had a perfect fry, griddled cheese (with double tortilla), and a nice charred jalapeño garnish (I don’t believe it came with consommé, but I could be wrong). It also placed first in the People’s competition and fourth in the Judge’s, so I know I’m not crazy for thinking so.
3. Brisket Taco, El Taco Macho
I was probably biased against this one, just on account of it being called “brisket taco” and me imagining that that made it somehow less “authentic.” If they would’ve called it “asada” I probably would’ve been none the wiser and just thought “wow, that’s good asada.”
The meat was a touch chunkier than asada, retained more moisture than the long braised, typically lean birria, and either way it was perfectly seasoned, paired with a fiery salsa, and came with large-cut carmelized onions and chilis. Strong taco. It was first with the judges, sixth with the people.
Overall, the margins were just razor thin. Plenty of otherwise perfect tacos got downgraded for a tortilla that had sat too long, or construction that made it hard to get a perfect bite.
Which brings me to my final two takeaways.
1. These tacos were all very good, all things considered.
2. Tacos are hard. I consider myself a pretty good home cook, and I’ve attempted quesabirria on quite a few occasions. My birria game is strong, my salsas are even stronger, and every quesabirria taco I’ve ever made has been a step worse than any of these – even with the benefit of home turf and being cooked one at a time. They look easy; they are absolutely not.
Every taco tasted
Taco 1: Brisket Taco from El Taco Macho
My notes:
Smoky tender meat, orange spicy salsa, nice moist tortilla with just a little crunch. Meat seasoned pretty well. Extremely strong start. 8.8.
Judge’s Score: 68.55 (first place).
Taco 2: Asada Taco from Cocula’s Taqueria.
My notes:
Looks like it has a Texas Twinkie on it! Plus lots of guac, and griddled cheese. I’m glad we’re eating this one early. Very spicy and smoky with the bacon and jalapeno. Mouth on fire. Very solid, but a little too much going on for my liking. This one is going to be the reason (well, one reason) I spend a whole morning on the toilet tomorrow. 7.
Judge’s Score: 63 (fifth place).
Taco 3: Birria taco with cheese from Archie’s Birria Y Tacos.
My notes:
Shredded birria with green salsa, cheese, and onions. Looks simple. Interesting warming spices on the consommé — I think I taste clove? Pretty good, but could use a little more spice and seasoning. This is hard when you’re only taking two bites. 7.
Judge’s Score: 50.35 (16th).
Taco 4: Barbacoa taco from Tacos Tepa.
My notes:
Single tortilla, lots of melted cheese. I think the cheese is griddled on this one too. Lots of cilantro and white onion and it looks like a reddish salsa. I’m not usually a cheesy taco guy but that combination is very strong. I wish it was juuuust a smidge spicier. 8.6
Judge’s Score: 58.5 (eighth)
Taco 5: Al pastor from Taqueria Arely’s.
My notes:
A classic Al pastor, with pineapple. The meat has visible layers (great knife work!), and crispy edges. You get smoke, char, and sweetness, especially if you get a bite of the pineapple. Oh yeah, that’s pretty perfect. 9
Judge’s Score: 58.85 (Seventh)
Taco 6: Smoked pork belly taco from Vega Bros.
My Notes:
This one has caramelized onions, or maybe pickled onions and some sort of creamy type sauce. I love the construction and condiments, everything is very good and in balance, but the meat is just a little dry inside. I think I might’ve just gotten a dry piece. 6
Judge’s Score: 64.2 (third place).
Taco 7: Al pastor taco from Tacos Ah Carbon.
My notes:
Looks like red onions and caramelized onions on top, plus an avocado salsa. Love the fixins on this one (is that a pickled habanero? excellent touch) but the meat is cut much smaller than the last al pastor, so you don’t get the same layers or juice. They also served it with a salt packet, which is interesting. I’m can’t believe I’m saying this, but the meat on this is overcharred. 6.5
Judge’s Score: 48 (17th)
Taco 8: Queso shrimp with rice from Tacos Don Chicho
My notes:
Served with a sweet dunking sauce, it feels like they’re going for a kind of shrimp riff on a quesabirria. Crunchy tortillas with melted cheese… they said rice but I don’t see or taste any, though I don’t miss it. Pretty strong overall, but a little too shrimpy for me. Also messy. Sort of smoky sweet and rich — maybe a little too rich, and a little too sweet. I like the garnishes more than the shrimp. 6.5
Judge’s Score: 53.55 (15th)
Taco 9: Quesabirria with homemade tortilla, Tacontento.
My notes:
A nice crispy quesabirria with consommé and a somewhat confusing amount of sauces. Consommé very rich and smoky. Wow, that’s a great consommé. The taco itself is also great, but possibly too cheesy? They said it’s a homemade tortilla, but it’s almost too crisped up to really tell. I didn’t get to put it on the taco, but the guac is very good. 8.7
Judge’s Score: 65.1 (second place).
Taco 10: Ribeye and shrimp with house sauce, Los Toritos.
My Notes:
Looks good, but I’m always a little wary of the fusion tacos. This seems like a very white person taco (steak, shrimp, guac, and a crema) but it’s probably the beau ideal of a white person taco. The steak and shrimp are both seasoned well, and the steak is incredibly juice for being so lean — hard to pull off. And it’s a flour tortilla, which is a nice changeup. Another one with griddled cheese. 8.75
Judge’s Score: 56.1 (12th)
Taco 11: Quesabirria from Tacos Sinaloa
My Notes:
Another quesabirria, this one also comes with guac. And some sort of brown-looking salsa — probably chile de arbol. Good, but a little dry. Feel like it needs something. Tastes bland to me. The smoky salsa is very good though. 5.5
Judge’s Score: 54.9 (13th)
Taco 12: Quesabirria from Tacos El Mandilón
My notes:
Another quesabirria. Sheesh. BUT — oh, now THAT’s how you do a damn quesabirria. Wow, big flavor. The tortilla is very fried, which is a little much, grease-wise, but that meat is so dang flavorful. I appreciate the charred jalapeño even though I’m not going to try to add it to the actual taco in this situation. 8.9
Judge’s Score: 63.3 (tied for fourth).
Taco 13: Quesabirria/shredded beef from Anthony’s Tacos
My notes:
Another quesabirria. This one looks less fried and comes on a single tortilla, which is nice. It’s garnished with raw red onions. This one is decidedly saltier and leaner than the last one. Simpler, and less greasy, which I like, but maybe also just on the verge of too salty. 8.6
Judge’s Score: 57 (ninth)
Taco 14: Asada taco, Taqueria Jaliscience
My notes:
Nothing special, or fancy with this one, but nothing wrong with that. Nice char on the meat. Pretty moist too. The garnishes are choose-your-own, and I added raw white onion, a little cilantro, and the green salsa. It’s… decent. My judging partner thinks the meat has a funk to it, but I didn’t notice it. 7
Judge’s Score: 46.3 (19th)
Taco 15: “Beef” taco from Planet Vegan
My notes:
Ground beef and pico — as simple as can be. It… tastes like what it is. It’s fine. Not 100% sure what they were going for with this one. Nice palate cleanser from all the heavier tacos, but it’s not going to win the competition. 5
(Note from the future: I didn’t know that it was a vegan taco until someone from Team El Premio Mayor said she could tell it was fake beef afterwards. The simple format made sense after that, but to their credit I didn’t suspect it was anything but real ground beef when I was eating. I’m also red-green colorblind).
Judge’s Score: 30.6 (21st)
Taco 16: Shrimp taco, Tacos Jacinto
My notes:
Colorful slaw with avocado and some sort of chipotle cream, looks like. Purple cabbage, green cabbage. Some griddled cheese on the top tortilla, which is becoming a theme. Smoky chipotle sauce is very good, and the shrimp taste clean and well-seasoned. The flat fried tortilla makes it a bit hard to eat though — it’s kind of not entirely crispy and not entirely soft. The filling is fire, but the construction detracts. Unfortunate. 8.6
Judge’s Score: 61.45 (sixth)
Taco 17: Smoked brisket on flour tortilla, Harry’s Mexican Grill
My notes:
Yikes, this just looks aggressive. It smells very smoky and comes with a thin kind of queso sauce on top. And it’s so big… yeah, that’s just a mess. Nah. This is one of those examples where collection of good ingredients ends up being less than the sum of its parts. It’s like a malformed open face burrito. 4.
Judge’s Score: 43.9 (20th)
Taco 18: Carnitas mixta con buche, Taqueria Mi Ranchito
My notes:
This one is overflowing! I’m also thrilled to be eating something that isn’t a quesabirria or heavy beef. The garnishes are fresh (cabbage included, nice) and the meat is very crunchy and bursting with pork flavor. I know buche is pork stomach, but you would never know that this had an offal component if they didn’t tell us. Team buche. Team pork. This whole thing is very good, but the tortilla itself is a little dry, tastes like it sat for too long. Bummer! 8.6.
Judge’s Score: 56.5 (10th)
Taco 19: Asada al carbón, from Tacos Y Mariscos Colima
My notes:
Green salsa, pickled red onions with visible pepper. It looks like some guacamole on there? Could use more spice, maybe, but the soft tortilla and super smoky meat are very good combo. 8.7
Judge’s Score: 63.3 (tie for fourth)
Taco 20: Quesabirria from Tacos Las Salsas
My notes:
Another quesabirria. I have quesabirria fatigue. Cheesy. Meaty. Bland. 5
Judge’s Score: 53.8 (14th)
Taco 21: Birria, Ortega’s Taqueria.
My notes:
They said quesabirria, but this is more like dry red shredded beef. Something different at least? It comes served on a nice soft tortilla, which is the best part, plus an entire tub of extremely spicy brown salsa. Am I supposed to dip this like it’s a consommé? Thank God I didn’t do that, the spice would make my tomorrow morning even worse than it’s already going to be. The meat here is just tooooo dryyyy. 4.8
Judge’s Score: 47.3 (18th).
