I first saw Pour Vida’s “Anaheim-style burger taco” in my Instagram feed. Despite sounding like something Taco Bell might have dreamed up, I couldn’t get it out of my head. I had to have it.
Pour Vida is chef Jimmy Martinez’ gourmet taco stand in Anaheim. And the picture he posted on Instagram showed a handmade flour tortilla completely glazed with melted yellow cheese, which was then topped with a pan-fried clump of hamburger meat, a flurry of shredded lettuce, some more cheese, a slice of tomato and Thousand Island dressing. It was a work of art.
So I went there and ordered it.
It wasn’t exactly ugly. Tacos rarely are ugly. But what emerged from the kitchen looked nothing like the social media advertisement. A tiny glob of cheese clung to this tortilla. The hamburger meat was crumbled and loosely scattered. The tomato was MIA.
I took a bite. I didn’t taste a hamburger. I tasted something unexpected. I tasted the same taco I grew up eating when I was a kid on the ranch in Texas, down by the Mexican border. This is exactly the kind of taco that Texas cattlemen ate. This was the original Tex-Mex, the authentic Tex-Mex: ground meat, yellow cheese, fresh flour tortillas, and even the Thousand Island, except the Tex-Mex version was often made by mixing mayonnaise with salsa, giving it a creamy, spicy kick.
I doubt Martinez intended to replicate an obscure ranch-style taco from a desolate region of the Texas/Coahuila border, but there it is.
I would have loved to have gotten the beautiful creation that I saw on Instagram — that’s one of my biggest pet peeves, food that doesn’t live up to promotional photos. But I also would be lying if I said this taco wasn’t the best thing I ate this week.
Pour Vida
Where: 185 W. Center St. Promenade, Anaheim
When: lunch and dinner daily
Cost: $5
Phone: 657-208-3889
Online: pourvidalatinflavor.com
Contact the writer: bajohnson@ocregister.com
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