Tacos LA Brings Slow-Cooked Meat, Family Recipes And Regional Mexican Flavours To Mordialloc

There is no single “LA taco”, according to Angel Faria, owner-chef of Tacos LA food truck and new taqueria in Mordialloc. 

“You could go to a strip in LA, and on one block you can have food from Jalisco, Michoacan, San Luis Potosi, Sonora, Oaxaca, Sinaloa,” he says.

He isn’t stuck in a single taco style. 

“Whatever's hot in LA, that's what I want to be doing here,” he says.

The brick-and-mortar taqueria has just opened, and this menu is all about slow-smoked meats. He’s looking ahead to a Cali-style Santa Maria grill in summer, to match LA trends. 

“Everything's charcoal now,” he says. “Northern Mexico style...either smoke or cooking over fire.”

Every taco starts with a La Tortilleria tortilla, finishes with coriander and chopped onion with a “taquero salsa” (and others, for spice). Between that, Faria gets creative. 

The 10 hour-smoked lamb barbacoa with adobo sauce is a Michoacán-Jalisco hybrid. There’s some Yucatan in the chicken taco’s achiote and citrus, and the smoked pork in banana leaves with conchinita pibil sauce. Expect Tex Mex-style brisket, a potato and chorizo number, maybe charred corn and bean grilled cheese tacos for vegos, and the ‘secret menu’ crispy chicken skin taco. Tack on snacks like loaded tostadas, bowls of esquites (street corn), tamales and classic nachos (Ben Shewry liked them, so they stay).

Faria thinks it's an exciting time for Melbourne Mexican, admiring places like Dingo Ate My Taco, Taqueria Sin Nombre, El Columpio, Pacho, Santito and Tres a Cinco.

“No one has the same style and that's why it's beautiful,” he says.  

Faria grew up in LA and found his way to Melbourne around the start of this new wave, cooking at Mamasita and a modern Mexican popup at No. 7 Healesville, as well as working with Shannonn Bennett and at Melbourne icon St Ali.

“Melbourne is known worldwide for food,” he says. “It's not known worldwide for Mexican food yet, but it will be.”

While Melbourne’s missing Mexico’s distinctive chillies, Faria adapts. He’s not stuck on authenticity: Mexican cuisine, he says, has always been about adaptability, from adopting the spices of migrants from the Middle East to Tex-Mex fusion.

“Mexican food has its own destiny,” he says. “It's meant to evolve.”

The new joint shows off his blend of LA, Mexico and Melbourne. Sit outside on LA Dodgers-blue stools, or take your tacos indoors with an open kitchen, tables and standing bar (Faria wants Melbourne to adopt the standing style of eating tacos). Mexican and Californian flags hang proudly, overlooking religious candles and a merch table above the soda fridge. Walls are papered with excerpts from a taco encyclopaedia and handwritten family recipes, including from Faria’s mother. Tacos LA is his homage. Whenever she visits, she jumps in with a special menu.

“In Melbourne, I can do what I want to do with Mexican food and still keep the integrity of my family's recipes,” Faria says.

When the liquor licence comes through, booze will be straightforward: Mexican beer and a margarita. 

Tacos LA is now open at 9 Kareela Street, Mordialloc. 

Image credit: Deadset Snaps