La Merced

Great, satisfying burritos! I catch them when they are parked out front of Guardian Games, and their burritos give me the energy I need to make it through a hard day’s gamin’. Sometimes though I go into a post-​burrito food coma, so it’s a tough call.
My experience is primarily with their burritos, I’m not much of a taco or bowl person. The food is delicious, but sometimes the rice is a little undercooked/​crunchy… a small risk to take for an epic food truck meal.
The folks who work the truck are friendly, and hard-​working.

I love this taco truck and the people who run it too. They have many options besides the normal tacos and burritos… and tortas! I can’t say what my favorite is, I mix it up too often. They’re currently parked on Clay at the train tracks just east of Water Ave.

Meh. Meat was super bland, but holy brown cow that salsa will put the fire in your hole… twice! Don’t be fooled by the light orangey-​yellow salsa, that shit must have habanero in it. Cheap tacos– it is what it is.

This taco wagon has been in the back parking lot of Speed’s Tires on SE Clay at least since last summer. I was at the PCC Climb center, over there by Ross Island and OMSI, taking some ACLS and PALS refresher courses, and was delighted to find La Merced tucked away in this most-​unlikely locale. Parked right alongside railroad tracks, just like the unlikely cult heroes of «Here come Honey Boo Boo Child», La Merced has found a loyal and adoring audience. k
Though I have stopped by and ordered several different items from La Merced, I have only made a tiny dent in their expansive menu. Most recently, I was amid a rather large crowd of hungry lunch-​goers, many in hard hats and orange safety vests, and they had my big-​arse burrito bagged up w/​plenty of habanero sauce in no time at all. The demographic diversity attracted to La Merced speaks to its broad appeal. People of all ages, creeds, genders and colours can heave a huge sigh of relief that they were spared having to resort to the nearby, Grotty-​ass Burger King, or insanely over-​hyped Montage to stave off starvation. It’s just too bad Merced doesn’t extend their peculiarly delicious brand of Mercy into the wee hours of late night…

Had their burrito bowls and taco plate off of the cart stationed at the Mini Maker Faire in OMSI parking lot.
Both carnitas and grilled chicken were extremely dry and tough. The burrito bowls are a racket. At $ 6.50, rice is not included and I literally had to search for beans. It was mostly lettuce and tortilla. Go elsewhere.

There are many valuable, and not so valuable things that one acquires from being raised in a home with intertwined cultures. My father is a crazed Apache Indian, my mother, a stern, round, Mexican lady that will backhand you without notice.
I learned by watching her that tortillas should always be made from scratch and flipped by hand, that cheese other than cotija used on a sope is complete ludicrous, and that your refrigerator should be filled with enough food to whip up something extraordinary for a drop in visitor at all times. What I inherited from my father is not so conventional. It’s called a drinking problem.
With all of this Aztec, Apache blood pumping through my veins I thought I had tried it all. Testicle tacos, chicharones, longaniza, sopa de fideo, peyote, mescal. Lo and behold, La Merced appeared in my neighborhood to culture my brown ass and introduce me to something amazing!
La Merced is located in the Kruger’s stand parking lot off of Lombard. The night that I tried this cart, I waited in the rain while the owner cooked up my Quesadilla Azteca. In spite of my 29 year career of being a brown person, I had never heard of a quesadilla Azteca and was intrigued when I heard that it included nopales. When I saw the owner bust out a sharp metal object I thought it was a homemade shiv. It actually turned out to be a tortilla press that he used to press out a gigantor ball of masa right before my eyes. The quesadilla consisted of a super-​sized tortilla made with melt-​in your-​mouth corn masa that had a perfect crunch. It was filled with hot mozzarella cheese, carne al pastor and sprinkled with tasty diced nopales.
Internet! This may have been the most delicious meal I have had in 2011 and trust me, I have had a lot of delicious meals this year!
There were other unique items that you can’t get at any old truck like huaraches, posole and fresh tamales on the menu. The owner was genuinely happy to feed us and was open to suggestions or requests. I took home a few of the green tamales that my kid inhaled in 3 seconds.
Take it from a brown person who has been hit over the head with a tortilla press a time or two: The food here is legit. Get yourself a quesadilla Azteca before the mother-​ship of Mexican food packs up and rolls away!