Series
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La Calle

From esquite to tacos chilangos, this Houston restaurant brings Mexico City street food to the biggest city in Texas.
Show transcript
00:00
We're going back and we're making a statement on what a real
00:03
tackle used to be.
00:04
This is how it was born but in a change, real people cooking
00:14
So these are our wa and the chef is you laugh like your finger
00:18
is good because we're about to see what's good in.
00:29
Yes.
00:29
Yes.
00:30
People with good in your hood is all about the hustlers, dreamers
00:34
and culture dealers and no one is doing it better in Houston
00:37
than Ramon Soriano from La Tacos and Cantina later.
00:43
We'll link with H town's finest Chingo Bling to experience
00:47
his hometown.
00:48
What's up guys?
00:49
I'm in Houston, Texas at Tacos and Cantina where they serve
00:52
everything that's Mexican street food and drinks under one
00:55
roof.
00:56
So let's check it out H town.
00:59
Uh If you've never been here, I would recommend the five street
01:02
tacos.
01:02
Um They were really good and they give you like a bunch of different
01:05
meats to choose from compared to other taco places.
01:07
I really like the way they uh season the meat and you can tell
01:12
that all the ingredients are fresh.
01:14
Mm Has been cooking for 18 hours worth every single minute
01:21
There's a New face of tacos in Houston.
01:23
And his name is Ramon Soriano Tom.
01:26
And he's bringing his version of Mexican street food to H town
01:31
My menu mimics everything that you would find on a street stand
01:35
from the appetizers.
01:37
You know, the street corn uh speciality when you walk in as
01:48
a guest, um uh you'll have the same experience as you would
01:51
in a Mexico City street stand, the street dog.
01:54
Uh you know, the, the bags with, uh, water scares the light
01:58
away.
01:58
So you'll always see a rundown old TV with a telenovela or,
02:03
uh, is usually very, very, uh, open.
02:08
It doesn't matter, uh, uh, what, uh, social class you're,
02:11
you're at.
02:11
So this isn't just food coming here is really, it's an experience
02:15
It's an experience.
02:15
Yes.
02:15
Yes.
02:17
Yes.
02:17
The experience is as important as, as the food.
02:21
The, the thing that moved me the most is, you know, I, I, every
02:25
time I go to, uh, to Mexico, I just go to eat and, and I just missed
02:30
it.
02:30
I went and I got, you know, recipes from, uh, my favorite, uh
02:33
stands street stands from one street stand recipe the, from
02:38
the, from the other.
02:40
And I, uh, put it all, uh, all together first.
02:43
You know, when a taco stand here, I don't have a freezer, I don't
02:45
have a can opener and I don't have a microwave.
02:47
You wouldn't find that on a, on a taco stands 48 times or like
02:51
shelf life or whatever.
02:52
It, it just changes everything.
02:54
This food hits you in the face with bold tastes of Mexican street
02:58
culture.
02:59
When I first moved to the States, uh everything tasted the
03:03
same.
03:04
And then I came to realize after many years, uh I came to realize
03:07
that it's a, a preservative and, and that's, I think one of
03:10
the main differences that I have uh over here.
03:13
So, you know, I was selling hamburgers in Mexico and then I
03:16
came to the US to sell tacos.
03:18
So a little bit OK, guys don't go anywhere because when we come
03:22
back, we're gonna learn how to make a breakfast sandwich.
03:25
It's called the Thank you, Jose, the essence of the taste.
03:32
And I'm taking it from a Mexican like me, I'm an immigrant.
03:35
I say come, you could tell from my accent.
03:36
This is the place that has a taste.
03:38
I come here regularly and when I don't I order Uber eats or regularly
03:46
what is the food item that you got on the map?
03:48
Well, it was, it was back to the basics.
03:50
Our, what we're known for the tacos, the street tacos, uh yellow
03:56
corn tortilla, small tacos, the meat of your choice.
04:00
You know, it could be, it could be onion cilantro uh and some
04:05
lime.
04:06
That's it, you know.
04:07
So we, we're, we're going back and we're making a statement
04:09
on what a real taco used to be.
04:11
This is how it was born.
04:13
We've been in just two years.
04:14
We've been featured in um in, in a lot of lists best tacos, best
04:19
restaurant, best, uh you know, best new restaurant when,
04:22
when we open restaurants with, with world renowned chefs
04:26
and all that.
04:26
So I'm, I'm very proud about that.
04:28
What's up guys?
04:29
I'm in the kitchen of, with Ramon and Jose.
04:32
And today they're gonna show us how to make a breakfast sandwich
04:35
which is called the how to make one.
04:39
OK, Jose.
04:41
So step one on how to make.
04:43
Go put the right Mexican bread.
04:47
So good.
04:48
So fresh with some butter on the bread.
04:50
Oh On both sides of the bread.
04:52
While the bread is cooking, it's put on the chips and salsa
04:56
and this salsa you guys make it here.
04:57
Make it here.
04:58
OK?
04:58
You see the butter for chorizo and egg this, you guys make it
05:02
here too.
05:03
Yeah.
05:03
It's making everything here amazing.
05:06
It's put the egg for cooking everything together when this
05:09
bread is pulling the bread.
05:11
OK?
05:13
So what?
05:13
You're just cooking the chips?
05:15
Too soft, too soggy.
05:17
So they become a little soggier.
05:18
OK?
05:20
The bread done.
05:21
Yep.
05:23
Mm The first one is pruned beans, fried beans on top the toast
05:27
bread and take it the the for the, on top of the bread.
05:35
Wow.
05:36
And next is Alex.
05:39
Beautiful Jose.
05:40
Thank you.
05:41
It's starting with cilantro.
05:43
So a little bit of fresh fresh onion cilantro from the sour
05:46
cream avocado.
05:49
And last but not least put on top and put on the, the sandwich
05:56
The name is, where do you even start with this sandwich?
06:03
Oh, wow.
06:04
Hm.
06:04
The Mexican chorizo and the egg, the fresh fresh onion, the
06:08
crunchiness of the chips.
06:10
And just that little A makes it nice and creamy.
06:13
Literally perfect Jose.
06:15
You're the best.
06:16
Don't go anywhere later.
06:19
We'll link with H town's finest Chingo Bling to experience
06:23
his hometown.
06:27
What better way to get more insight on Houston than key figure
06:31
rep in H Town, Chingo Bling.
06:35
We're in your head of Houston.
06:36
We're like the third coast.
06:37
So, you know, obviously there's east coast, west coast, but
06:40
then we had our own little.
06:41
It's not really Midwest, it's humid, it's super hot, it feels
06:45
like New Orleans and Miami.
06:46
I feel like you were meant to be born in Houston.
06:48
A lot of my jokes and stuff that I do now in my stand up.
06:51
A lot of it is kind of like making fun of how kind of how I grew
06:55
up, which, which in other terms is how we grew up.
06:59
I wasn't even thinking about smuggling weed because like
07:01
they're legalizing weed.
07:03
My cousins, not so much.
07:05
They say comedy and drama are like just two sides of the same
07:11
coin.
07:12
Um Comedians, we build tension the same way.
07:17
Uh a dramatic scene would build tension uh except our release
07:20
is the punch line.
07:21
It's like my dad tells me he's like, uh, I always wanted you
07:23
to be a doctor or engineer.
07:26
Went up with, you're a comedian.
07:28
And I guess that's kind of like a therapist in a way.
07:30
So I guess just as a, I don't blame them for being a little concerned
07:34
but it's like, hey, dude, we did not come to this country for
07:38
you to be the guy with the boots and the hat and the grill.
07:41
But, uh, but at the same time they were supportive, like my
07:43
mom, she's the one that was like, you need to go get a grill because
07:48
I mean, you're doing, you're doing a rap thing and this is h
07:51
town, you need to go hit up V Johnny and just go and get the real
07:54
grill in.
07:56
Uh Yeah.
07:57
Yeah, exactly.
07:58
Yeah, exactly.
07:59
Like, hey, if, if you're trying to be the tamale kingpin, you
08:01
know, be the best one you can.
08:02
If I'm gonna make sure my culture is part of my recipe, then
08:08
I gotta be the tamale kingpin because my dad sold them at work
08:12
My mom made them at home.
08:13
And really, again, it's nothing unique.
08:15
Like tons of people's moms and grandmas make tamales and nine
08:19
times out of 10.
08:19
If you make a Tamales, you selling tamales to me the whole folklore
08:24
and the tradition of slang and masa, when there's nothing
08:28
else you could do that to me, it just represents so much like
08:32
not only does it go back to Pre Hispanic times.
08:35
Back to our native roots of taking a crop that happens to grow
08:39
in your area.
08:40
It's the original farm to table.
08:42
Ok.
08:42
Well, I wanna see your Houston.
08:44
So let's do it.
08:45
Cheers to that.
08:51
So this is your hut southeast side and Grand Park where we're
08:56
at.
08:56
Gentrification hasn't made it here just yet.
08:59
We're inside the 6 10 loop.
09:01
This is blue collar working class.
09:04
You know, my neighborhood has a little bit of a checkered past
09:08
a little bit of a reputation.
09:10
My parents were the type to be like, like whoever you hang with
09:17
I'm gonna know what you're up to.
09:18
My mom.
09:19
She would watch the news and she'd hear like somebody got stabbed
09:22
somebody got shot or there's a lot of gang activity too, but
09:26
it's just all we knew.
09:27
You know, it's the hood, but you had to know how to navigate
09:30
and stay out of trouble and don't make any bad choices.
09:33
Talk to me about the whole Harvey experience.
09:35
I actually had a gig in Washington DC.
09:37
We heard that the storm might be coming.
09:40
We wanted to evacuate anyway, so we can call the flight to DC
09:43
The heartbreaking thing is now you're away from home and you're
09:46
seeing these images on like national news and, but so many
09:49
heroes jumped in boats and like, literally went door to door
09:52
rescuing people.
09:54
I love it.
09:54
I, I wouldn't, I wouldn't wish to be from anywhere else I love
09:57
being from Houston.
09:59
Houston, this vibrant South Texas community hit hard by hurricane
10:03
Harvey in 2017 is spring boarding into a vibrant community
10:09
and Ramon is at the center of it.
10:10
All Houston strong are strong, it means nothing but fighters
10:16
and warriors.
10:17
Here we are always here to help one another.
10:19
Houston is a city where neighbors help neighbors.
10:23
This is an amazing view of Houston.
10:25
Talk to me though about when Houston didn't look like this
10:28
during Harvey.
10:29
Harvey was devastating.
10:31
The whole downtown like a block away from here was completely
10:34
covered with water.
10:35
Driving my first thing here and seeing building after building
10:38
cars after car completely flooded, I thought it's going to
10:41
take a year to get back to normality.
10:43
Everyone came together really, really fast.
10:47
Every person I knew was helping in some way.
10:50
I think people came closer together.
10:54
Absolutely.
10:54
I've been following uh that's a taco truck here in Houston
10:59
and I contacted him through Facebook and I told him, hey, listen
11:02
I see he was going around feeding people.
11:04
I told him, I, I see what you're doing.
11:06
I have a lot of product come and get it.
11:08
He came over, we met, gave him a lot of product and he was able
11:12
to feed people for three more weeks and it was chilly when he
11:15
told me that the after effect of us doing that was phenomenal
11:18
We got a lot of attention uh Sheryl Sandberg from Facebook
11:21
came to a restaurant, they had a lunch, but it was about seven
11:24
or eight people that helped on Harvey through Facebook.
11:28
And so we all share the story, other people that through Facebook
11:31
they found out where to go.
11:32
They had a boat.
11:33
So they were helping rescue people and things like that.
11:36
People here in Houston are very proud of their city.
11:39
They are very proud of our heritage.
11:40
The family bonds here in Houston are very strong.
11:44
The friendship bonds are very strong.
11:45
This is very similar to Mexico City out of all the places that
11:49
I've been in the United States.
11:50
This is the one that feels the most like home cheers.
11:55
I was thinking who better to taste?
11:58
Test Ramon's Tacos than the himself?
12:02
Chingo.
12:03
OK, guys, I'm here with Chingo and with Ramon and we're about
12:06
to have the Chingo challenge where we're gonna make him try
12:09
foods and he has to guess what they are.
12:12
Are you ready to provide the food?
12:14
Let's do it.
12:15
And to make it a little more exciting, I'm gonna blindfold
12:18
them.
12:19
Ready?
12:20
Does that suck?
12:22
I'm not sure what it is.
12:26
OK.
12:27
Ready.
12:31
It tricks your taste buds.
12:33
But I'm sorry.
12:34
Mhm All right.
12:39
Here we go.
12:43
Where is this the one where y'all tricking me?
12:47
Is this a prank?
12:49
No.
12:53
Yeah, you got it right.
12:54
Clearly.
12:55
Your expert level.
12:57
Mexican game is on point.
12:59
So as a result, I have a surprise price for you and because I
13:04
was jealous that you got to eat that I have one too.
13:06
Oh, you can take a blindfold off.
13:08
This is a treat.
13:09
Ok.
13:09
Cheer.
13:10
Cheer.
13:11
That might be the first cheers of all time.
13:14
Oh, not only is the corn.
13:16
Super crunchy but the flavor is bananas.
13:20
Got a kick to it, bro.
13:21
Perfect amount of kick.
13:22
Perfect.
13:26
You won the Chingo challenge and I wouldn't have got this if
13:30
it wasn't for every out there that ever hooked me up.
13:34
Ramon and Chingo stories.
13:36
Add to the tapestry of the United States where one can create
13:39
a better life and elevate the culture by sharing our experiences
13:44
the city and neighborhood that embraces us for who we are
13:47
The experiences we share with the world through food, laughter
13:51
and the bonds made through hardship.
13:53
This is what makes and the people of Houston strong like the
13:57
streets that inspired it is more than a center for the community
14:02
It's the heart pumping a taste of family and home.
14:06
Thank you so much Ramon for showing us all of the food and flavors
14:10
of and of course to Houston's finest for showing us his age
14:15
town and that's what's in your town.
14:21
Hey, hey, be sure to catch our visits of what's good in your
14:25
hood in L A Tijuana, Miami Ac L New York and more.
14:29
And that's what's good in your hood.