Once upon a time, before I was even old enough to drink, Dave Childs took me to my very first taco truck. It was near the old Anti Club, somewhere around Melrose and Nomandy. We started on a taco truck hunt, trying to find the hottest tacos we could, until we had to start buying sno cones afterwards at 7-11 to hold against our seared lips.
So when I found out Dave had invited a truck to park outside of his bar four nights a week, I knew it was going to be good. In fact, not just good, but great. Aires Oaxaqueños did not disappoint. The owner is Virgilia Yescas, who started out with just a tamale cart in East LA. Since the name of the tuck is such a mouthful, everyone just calls the truck “Vigilia’s.”
The menu is handwritten and taped to the side of the truck each night (Tacos, Tortas, Pupusas, Buitos, Quesedillas). Another lists the meats (Asada, al Pastor, Carnitas, Tongue, Chicken, Birria) I ordered Pastor, Birria de Res and Carne Asada. The tacos were huge for taco truck tacos. They were bursting with tende, succulent meat. I am used to the pastor in LA being pretty good, but it’s hard to find carne asada like that, without a hint of gristle.
Birria is a stew that can be made with pork, beef, goat or lamb. In Los Angeles, it has become synonymous with goat, the most common type of birria. On this particular night, Virgilia was serving birria de res, or beef. It was the juiciest, most delicious taco I have had during this entire series, maybe ever.
She’s at Liquid Kitty on Pico Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday every week from about 10 PM to 2:30 AM.
