Tacos by the Truck

Tim Fulton 00:09Welcome to the Confluence Cast, presented by Columbus Underground. We are a weekly, Columbus-centric podcast focusing on the civics, lifestyle, entertainment, and people of our city. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. This week: the capital city's food scene is often heralded. However, its taco truck scene has been often overlooked. Elwood Ellis, a freelance writer for Columbus Underground and self-proclaimed taco connoisseur, is trying to change that. Listen in as Elwood shares his journey and criteria for evaluating the diverse and authentic taco scene, emphasizing the importance of not ranking trucks, but appreciating their unique offerings. He also discusses adventurous and vegetarian options available at taco trucks, the significance of quality ingredients, and the need for authenticity in dishes like al pastor tacos. You can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Enjoy the interview. Sitting down here with Elwood Ellis, a freelancer for Columbus Underground. Elwood specifically covers the taco scene, and the taco truck scene, here in Columbus. Elwood, how are you?

Elwood Ellis 01:25I'm doing well. How are you?

Tim Fulton 01:27Good. Tell me about, first of all, how you got sort of interested in the taco truck scene and tacos specifically.

Elwood Ellis 01:33Sure. So a group of friends of mine would, once a month, go to different ethnic restaurants, just as sort of a thing to do and try out new food. And we also checked out taco trucks. So we've been doing that for around 10 years or so. And about three or four years ago, I took a taco tour with a local company here. And, you know, it just kind of re-sparked my interest and started this venture of trying to go through every single taco truck in the city.

Tim Fulton 02:08Okay, yeah. And are you familiar with the guy who evaluated every crab rangoon in the city?

Elwood Ellis 02:16Yes. Yeah. I've seen that guy on social media.

Tim Fulton 02:19Do you feel like it's a similar endeavor? Like, you want to try every single one?

Elwood Ellis 02:24I think the intention maybe is similar behind both. But obviously, we're a different experience.

Tim Fulton 02:30And you are not going so far as to rank each or anything like that.

Elwood Ellis 02:34I definitely do not like to rank. You know, I like to think of taco trucks as if they were my children or pets, and I wouldn't want to rank them.

Tim Fulton 02:42So talk about, for those curious, what was your process to become a freelancer for Underground?

Elwood Ellis 02:50You know, I've followed Columbus Underground forever. And I saw that they posted that they were looking for freelancers, and one of them being tacos. And, you know, I thought, this is way out of my comfort zone. You know, I run a software development team, so writing is something that I would typically avoid, even in college. I picked classes that specifically had tests and not enough papers. So I thought, hey, what better way to challenge myself, to do something completely different and start writing?

Tim Fulton 03:20I will say though, given that you run a development team, like, you write tickets, right? You know how to write in order to convey information quite well, I imagine.

Elwood Ellis 03:32There's some accuracy beyond that, sure. But there's no creativity in the writing there.

Tim Fulton 03:39Fair. And so you did come to it — they were looking for tacos specifically, you believe this was in your wheelhouse. And I think you guys sort of met up at a taco truck and you wowed them with your analysis of it.

Elwood Ellis 03:52Right. Well, first, I put together a taco qualification resume, which got me in the door. And then, yes, I took them to one of our better taco trucks in the city. And yeah, I think it just went from there.

Tim Fulton 04:05And so talk through — because Walker texted me and said, like, I've never had a better time eating at a taco truck — talk through sort of what your live analysis was like. What are you thinking about? And did you encourage them to get a certain taco?

Elwood Ellis 04:20Yes, absolutely. So that's like a slippery slope into tons of content. So some trucks are better than other trucks at certain things. The truck that we went to, Los Guachos, is one of the trucks that's better at everything overall, as far as tacos and non-taco items. In fact, they excel at non-taco items. So one of the items that I recommended that he get was a gordita, which — they have the most amazing gorditas. So it's a corn masa tortilla base with beans, some queso fresco, cilantro, crema, and meat of your choice. And then it's topped with, like, a little nice hat that's crispy, made of the masa as well.

Tim Fulton 05:12Okay. And this is certainly something you're going to consume with a fork, right?

Elwood Ellis 05:17It's a little unwieldy, yeah. I recommend kind of using the plate and hunching over as much as you can. But, you know, the integrity of it eventually is gone. And yeah, you have to kind of — it's still a street food, though. Certainly. Absolutely. In fact, some of the places, they'll be a little bit smaller, a little bit easier to manage in your hand. But there are huge ones, so it's kind of like a hold-the-plate, eat-over-the-plate kind of thing, and then finish up with a fork, for sure.

Tim Fulton 05:45And so talk through sort of what you look for. Are you going in blind to these places? Certainly people are going to make recommendations, but what do you look for on the front end of, like, do they have an extensive menu, do they have a limited menu? Like, what are the signals that you may get before you even order, for what's a good taco truck?

Elwood Ellis 06:09For sure. So if anyone else is there, you know, if they're busy, generally they're going to be good. And that obviously applies to restaurants as well, but it applies to taco trucks too. Granted, when a place is new, it's going to take them time to build up that foot traffic, etc. But a good sign isn't necessarily what they've invested in the truck. So if the truck is, like, super fancy, it doesn't necessarily mean good food. But for me — also the menu, what they offer, is important. If they offer certain things, they need to do it a certain way. So for instance, if they offer al pastor tacos, they need to have a trompo. And a trompo is a spinning top. They marinate the meat and put it on the trompo, and it kind of goes round and hits the fire. It's the only way to eat al pastor tacos, in my opinion. So if they offer that and don't have that, then I either skip the truck or skip that option. So that's just an example.

Tim Fulton 07:10But is it possible that they're preparing it off-site or something like that? Or, like, you kind of need it to be like a gyro, you need it to be like...

Elwood Ellis 07:17It's the same concept. In fact, it actually is derived from that.

Tim Fulton 07:23Got it. And then what about them being — at least in my experience with taco trucks specifically — they're not all mobile, right? Some, a lot, are in a static location.

Elwood Ellis 07:34I actually think that's another sign, great question. The less mobile they are, generally the better they are. Oh, because they're not searching for customers. Exactly. And, you know, if they're really good and they've been there a long time, maybe they can even move the truck. In fact, one of my favorite places, the truck is old enough to where they don't sell the part to be able to move the truck. So it's literally just like almost a shack or a stand. Exactly. And when I say truck, I use that word kind of loosely to define, like, a trailer, a cart, or maybe some window in a different business. Could be, could be, yeah. So let's get back to sort of the core of it. What makes a good taco? Okay, for me, it's the quality of meat. Certainly there are vegetarian options out there as well that are good, and we're checking out — I find that the veggie options are better in different vehicles and different items. But for the taco, it's definitely the meat. It has to be of good quality, has to be seasoned properly. For me, a taco only comes with cilantro and onions. Anything else is blasphemy. Or you can just call it an American-style taco or some fusion or something else there.

Tim Fulton 08:48I had a joke written in here about certain kinds of tacos and the offerings, but yeah. So it comes down to the meat for you.

Elwood Ellis 08:56For me. Well, the tortilla should be good. Some places do handmade tortillas, which can be good, which can be executed poorly as well. But the tortilla needs to crisp up nicely. And then finally, if you don't have a good salsa, you kind of ruin the taco. So you really need to have a quality salsa. For me, I like spicy, like very spicy. But as long as there's a little bit of a hint of spice, I'm good with it, as long as the flavor is balanced and it's good.

Tim Fulton 09:25And have you been a taco tourist in the past? Like, this is — I would argue I hadn't had, like, legitimate tacos in Columbus until, you know, a couple of years ago. I also wasn't seeking them out. And it wasn't until going to places like Austin, where it's like, oh, this is what a taco is.

Elwood Ellis 09:43It's not like a whole bunch of cheese and tomatoes and all this stuff. So I definitely am a taco tourist. Everywhere I go, I try to check out the best tacos in whatever city I visit. So I've been to Austin, I've been to Phoenix, I've been to LA, all of which I would argue Columbus taco trucks can stand up to. The only place that I've been to that I would say the tacos are better is Mexico City. I mean, it's pretty hard to beat that, though.

Tim Fulton 10:12Are there things from a — for folks who aren't watching, you are a Caucasian man, you grew up in Columbus. Is there any sort of, like, a thing — sorry, I probably shouldn't have prefaced it that way — but, like, is there a cultural divide or something, things that you need to be aware of, because this tends to be Hispanic folks that are offering these foods? Any sort of, like — should you know how to order in Spanish?

Elwood Ellis 10:40It certainly helps. But if you think about it, on the other end, you know, they're trying to run a business that does serve people that don't speak Spanish. So generally speaking, most trucks that aren't fluent in English will have the basic knowledge of quantity, item orders, things like that. So it generally isn't a problem, but it can be appreciated. So I've actually been studying Spanish for the last couple of years, and I love going to trucks to practice. Get out of my comfort zone doing that too.

Tim Fulton 11:12Yeah, it's fun. But no, sort of, nobody's looking down on you for speaking English. I asked because I believe that there may be some people who feel intimidated by it.

Elwood Ellis 11:22I can certainly appreciate that. But I would say you don't need to feel intimidated, because generally speaking, these people are hardworking and kind. And really, they're just trying to make a nice product and earn a living, and they don't expect you to know Spanish whatsoever. So yeah, but again, it does help. Like I said before, it kind of breaks down a little bit of a wall between you.

Tim Fulton 11:51Great. Is there anything unique about the Columbus taco scene that folks should be aware of? Or, in addition to your column, any sort of resources that they might use to discover taco trucks?

Elwood Ellis 12:02Sure. So first, I mean, you can follow me on Instagram, at 614 Tacos. We have great content. It's primarily videos and pictures, but we provide brief descriptions of the places we go as well. Columbus Underground, the articles, obviously. I'm a member of several Facebook groups. You can look them up: Columbus Taco Connoisseurs and Columbus Tacos, I think, is the other one. Those are pretty good resources. But you may get good tips around, like, what's specific to your area — but a lot of the contributors, to no fault of their own, don't necessarily have a comprehensive knowledge of the city and what it has to offer. So I'll segue that into how I would summarize what's unique about Columbus, or maybe just underappreciated, which is the sheer quantity of trucks that we have. So there are around — it changes frequently as places shut down and open — but there are roughly 80 authentic immobile trucks, and 20 to 30 of varying degrees of authenticity, but mobile taco trucks as well. I am surprised by that. People are very surprised by that. So there's a very large Latino community here, so there's a huge demand for it.

Tim Fulton 13:27Anything that Columbus lacks in terms of that scene where, like, it's, why isn't this here?

Elwood Ellis 13:37You know, I wouldn't say so, big-picture, given that there are so many. There's good representation. I'd say recently we've added more seafood offerings, or you'll see maybe on the trucks "mariscos," which we didn't have, let's say, five years ago. So there's definitely been a pickup in that.

Tim Fulton 13:59Forgive my ignorance. Mariscos would just translate to seafood.

Elwood Ellis 14:03Yeah, just seafood offerings. You could see that on the truck to know that they specialize in that.

Tim Fulton 14:08Got it. And that could be fish, that could be shrimp, that could be octopus. Yeah. Okay. All right. And you are looking for adventure here too, right? Like, you're like, I've never had an octopus taco, let's go for it.

Elwood Ellis 14:25Yeah, for sure, it's good. Actually, you won't get octopus served in a taco, you'll get it like more of a ceviche form. It's marinated in lime, and it's typically combined with either shrimp or fish. And, you know, served with a tostada or, like, a big crispy tortilla chip.

Tim Fulton 14:43Okay, walk me down that line. Are there additional things, not just the tacos, on the trucks that folks should try? You had mentioned the gordita and the ceviche. What else?

Elwood Ellis 14:56What else should folks try? Absolutely, gorditas for sure. Sopes are delicious. So a sope is very similar to a gordita as far as what's offered on it, so it has the meat of your choice, cilantro, beans, the queso fresco and crema. But what's different about it is the base is slightly thicker, and it has no top. So what I do is, it's a little bit easier to eat than a gordita, so I actually fold it a little bit and kind of eat it like a massive taco. So one or two of those, or one with a couple of tacos, will definitely fill you up.

Tim Fulton 15:36And besides the things that it might be lacking, is there anything about the Columbus taco scene that's, like, bad? Or, like — so, let's insert the joke. First of all, that there are some restaurants here that are basically — please don't ask me — like, fancy Taco Bell. Right? In terms of, because that is the super Americanized, super Caucasian — that is literally a restaurant that has white-people taco night. Insert song here. Is there any other sort of, like, what you perceive as bad aspects of the scene?

Elwood Ellis 16:16So I wouldn't necessarily say it's bad, because I compartmentalize it and put it outside of what I consider the taco scene. But that's not saying everyone does that. And to me, that's the problem: when you ask — if you just take a general poll, per se — people are going to respond with those places that you're thinking of, right? The handful of local chain places that offer more of that Americanized taco, or, you know, fancy taco, like you said. So if I think of those things as a different type of food item, and not an authentic taco, I'm fine with it. And some of them actually have tasty food.

Tim Fulton 17:04Yeah, absolutely. And I'm not — I don't think my intention is to crap on them. But, it's much more, let's say your friend comes in from out of town, from Phoenix or Austin, and it's like, you know what, I could use some good tacos, and you take them to fancy Taco Bell. They're going to be like, oh, that's what they have in Ohio, or in Columbus specifically.

Elwood Ellis 17:27And that absolutely happens. Not with me, obviously. But that absolutely happens. And it perpetuates that perception that we don't have the authentic tacos, when we truly do.

Tim Fulton 17:37Got it. Any other sort of adventurous things in terms of, like, what's available on a taco truck, and what's available out there to people?

Elwood Ellis 17:47Yeah, sure. So I touched upon vegetarian options before, and how adventurous — well, a handful of them have really, really good veggie options, which, you know, being a former vegetarian and going into restaurants, it has historically been an afterthought. You get the pasta dish or whatever. Yet times have changed, things are different now. But you see at taco trucks, often they offer nopales, which is cactus. And in the summer, it's a seasonal offering, flor de calabaza, which is squash and its associated blossoms. You know, a squash blossom is really delicious. And the final veggie option is huitlacoche, which is a fermented corn fungus. It looks like corn, but it's kind of blackish, purplish, and it has sort of umami, truffle kind of vibes. Super delicious. You typically don't find that year-round either, but when you see it, I definitely recommend trying it. Outside of that, the most unusual, most challenging taco I had was sesos, or brains.

Tim Fulton 18:56What animal? A pig, I assume? Or was it a cow?

Elwood Ellis 19:00I believe it was cow. Yeah. So cabeza, which is cow head, is absolutely delicious. But once you go inside the head, for brains, not so much, to me personally. I'm sure some people like it. Maybe an acquired taste, but not for me.

Tim Fulton 19:16Well, I mean, imagine that consistency is — what, do they fry it? Like, it's cooked on the flat top?

Elwood Ellis 19:24Yeah, exactly. It's kind of the consistency of scrambled eggs.

Tim Fulton 19:27Okay. Okay. I end every interview with the same two questions. First of all, what do you think Central Ohio is doing well, and what do you think it's not doing so well? And maybe we take this outside the taco realm, since, you know, we've batted that back and forth.

Elwood Ellis 19:45Sure. So I think the restaurant food scene is great in Columbus, outside of tacos. I think we have a fairly diverse offering from different cultures, you know, people that have immigrated here. And I really enjoy trying different foods outside of tacos, and I think we do a really good job at that. Outside of that, public transportation. I think we're severely lacking that. We often have visitors from other countries come here, and they're like, everything's so spread out, you have to drive your car everywhere, what's the deal with this? And yeah, I know it's a sore topic for some, but for me as well, it's a fair point.

Tim Fulton 20:27Elwood, thanks for your time.

Elwood Ellis 20:28Yeah, thank you.

Tim Fulton 20:42Thank you for listening to the Confluence Cast, presented by Columbus Underground. Again, you can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Please rate, subscribe, and share this episode of the Confluence Cast with your friends, family, contacts, enemies, your favorite taco enthusiast. If you're interested in sponsoring the Confluence Cast, get in touch with us. We can be reached by email at info@theconfluencecast.com. Our theme music was composed by Benji Robinson, our producer is Philip Cogley, I'm your host, Tim Fulton. Have a great week.