Taco talk
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Last night Zócalo hosted a panel discussion on taco trucks downtown at the Los Angeles Theater Center. Moderated by Chowhound‘s C. Thi Nguyen, the panel included LA Weekly‘s Jonathan Gold; author (of ‘The Gospel of Food’) Barry Glassner; saveourtacotrucks.org co-founder Chris Rutherford; and Miriam Torres, co-owner of the Hermanas Torres taco truck.
Although Glassner played devil’s advocate for much of the evening -- the event was, after all, a talk and not a rally -- it was a heavily biased discussion. Nguyen, a PhD candidate in philosophy at UCLA, kept things lively (impassioned oratory, food haikus) while he and the other panelists discussed the past, present and future of the taco truck.
Gold (‘a taco is less a noun than a verb’) was his usual brilliant self, while Rutherford pointedly suggested that voters make their wishes known when Supervisor Gloria Molina comes up for reelection.
But the emotional center of the group was Torres, who has been in the family business since she was 8 years old. ‘We’re going to stay,’ she concluded, drawing the biggest applause of the evening, ‘and fight for what is right.’
After the talk was over -- it will be available in audio and video on Zócalo’s website -- the crowd filed out -- and promptly lined up in front of the taco truck (arranged for the event) parked outside. (Note: It was legally parked, as downtown isn’t affected by the new county ordinance.) The highly descriptive discussion had left everyone very, very hungry.
Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series, (213) 403-0416.
-- Amy Scattergood
