Black tacos in Los Angeles and where to find them

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Saturday, Feb. 24. Here’s what you need to know to start your weekend:

• Los Angeles is the home of the Black taco
• California’s streak of female senators may be ending
• Take our L.A. Times news quiz
• And here’s today’s e-newspaper

Black tacos in Los Angeles and where to find them

Los Angeles is the home of the Black taco.

Take it from me: Three separate times I’ve opted to wait hours for my order from Worldwide Tacos in Leimert Park to be ready. And I’m not alone.

When you place an order at the window, a cashier will tell you it could take at least 30 minutes and up to three hours. Often it’s just the owner Frederick Sennie and his business partner preparing the food by themselves. That means handling catering and special orders on top of dozens of walk-up customers.

But are the tacos worth the wait? With lamb, salmon, crab and duck options on the menu plus columns of yummy flavors such as jerk, curry, pina colada, blueberry with blue cheese and raspberry chipotle, they are definitely delicious.

Worldwide Tacos is just one of several Black taco spots in the city that my colleague Danielle Dorsey highlights in her roundup of nine L.A. spots that prove that tacos are soul food.

Black tacos are based on recipes that trace back to Black kitchens, Danielle wrote. They might resemble the hard-shelled “gringo” tacos at fast-casual restaurants, but the difference is in the seasoned ground beef (often turkey), the fresh shredded cheese and lettuce and crisp fried tortillas. And instead of bottled options, the sauce is often made in-house, resembling barbecue sauce.

Original Taco Pete — dubbed the “home of the Black taco” — has been serving the South L.A. community for more than 50 years. The menu still features the same recipe in “OG” tacos with ground Angus beef, cheese, lettuce, onion, tomato and house taco sauce in a fried tortilla shell.

Taco Pete, along with newer restaurants that offer modern takes and twists on Black tacos (oxtail or plantain tacos, anyone?) are a huge part of L.A.’s soul food canon.

Here are a few others:

Sky’s Gourmet Tacos in Mid-Wilshire

Assorted tacos made by Barbara Burrell in the kitchen of her restaurant, Sky’s Gourmet Tacos in Los Angeles.

(Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times)

Barbara “Sky” Burrell’s restaurant started as a takeout taco stand in 1992 with only five tacos on the menu — chicken, ground turkey, ground beef, pinto bean and shrimp.

Today, the menu has expanded to include tortas, burritos, nachos and fillings like lobster, filet mignon and yams with wild rice. But the shrimp tacos remain a crowd favorite.

Taco Mell in Leimert Park

Three tacos from Taco Mell.

(Taco Mell)

After years of bouncing around with his taco cart in parking lots and other spaces, Compton native Jermelle “Mell” Henderson finally secured his current location on Crenshaw Boulevard next to the newly opened Leimert Park Metro station.

His tacos are similar to ones prepared in Black homes across Southern California, with well-seasoned chicken, steak, shrimp or a mix of all three meats on tortillas that can be fried to your preferred crispness, plus rice and beans as a vegetarian option. There’s also Kool-Aid on the drink menu.

Alta Adams in West Adams

Plantain tacos from Alta Adams.

(Alta Adams)

While not solely a taco spot, Keith Corbin’s restaurant offers a nontraditional taco on its menu such as the jerk-spiced sweet plantain taco, which features a handmade corn tortilla, strips of caramelized plantain, mango-habanero salsa and chopped onion and cilantro.

Here’s more on Black taco spots to try and our coverage on Black tacos in Los Angeles:

• In L.A., tacos are soul food. Here are 9 spots that prove it
• Customers wait hours for tacos from this Leimert Park window. They’re worth it
• How we made tacos a Black thing in L.A.

The week’s biggest stories

Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine), who is running for the late Dianne Feinstein’s Senate seat, waves to supporters at a campaign event at Lola’s Mexican Cuisine in Long Beach.

(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)

Politics

• California’s streak of female senators may be ending — and women appear to be a reason.
• Trump as the candidate of stability? That’s how many voters now see it.
• In the Bay Area, Biden vows to restore abortion access amid legal uncertainty about fertility treatments.
• The Supreme Court turns down a challenge to N.Y. rent control with implications for California.
• Biden, at Culver City stop, announces $1.2 billion in student debt forgiveness.

Climate and environment

• The Sierra’s remarkable recovery: ‘Snow drought’ fears overturned in a flash.
• EPA says a fire burning inside an L.A. County landfill poses imminent danger and orders action.
• Big Bear resort records snowiest February in decades thanks to persistent storms.
• After heavy storms, Death Valley is now open to kayakers: The return of ghostly Lake Manly.
• It’s not just toxic chemicals. Radioactive waste was also dumped off Los Angeles coast.

Crime and courts

• Rebecca Grossman trial goes to jury with central question: Murderer or scapegoat?
• Two more suspects, ages 18 and 17, were charged with murder in southeast L.A. County slayings.
• Russia arrests an L.A. woman over treason after she gave $50 to Ukraine, employer says.
• A food truck kingpin denies claims he took workers’ money and never delivered the trucks.

More big stories

• Another storm is coming to Southern California early next week. How big will it be?
• A total solar eclipse will be visible to millions of Americans in April. Here’s how to view it.
• Winter rains fuel ‘unprecedented’ acceleration and expansion of landslides in Rancho Palos Verdes.
• An essential medical device fails people of color. A clinic is suing to fix that.
• What does the Capital One-Discover deal mean for you?
  

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Column One

Column One is The Times’ home for narrative and longform journalism. Here’s a great piece from this week:

(Alexandra Bowman / For The Times)

A scholar’s Native American heritage was questioned. Who gets to decide her identity? A controversy over a book echoed painful debates in Native American communities: What does it mean to be Native American? And are some people “Pretendians”?

More great reads

• The new beauty regimen: Lose weight with Ozempic, tighten up with cosmetic surgery.
• Goodbye, carport, hello, ADU: A tiny parking spot is reborn as a stunning live-work studio.
• Shane Gillis, who was fired by ‘SNL’ over bigoted remarks, is hosting. What changed?

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.

For your weekend

Hikers head down from Potato Chip Rock in Ramona.

(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

Going out

• 🥾19 exceptional San Diego hikes.
• 🍴One of L.A.’s 101 Best Restaurants expands to Atwater with line-worthy Thai food.

Staying in

• 📺 Who (or what) killed the scientists? Issa López explains the “True Detective: Night Country” finale.
• 🧑‍🍳 Here’s a recipe for grilled steak with chunky guacamole salad.
• ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, Sudoku, word search and arcade games.

How well did you follow the news this week? Take our quiz

(Times staff and wire photos)

What West Coast city has had a boom in bed bugs? Plus 9 other questions to check how well you’re following the news.

Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team

Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

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