As a Bay Area Mexican American, I don’t often feel the need to leave our Pacific shoreline in search of good Mexican food. After all, the Bay is home to the righteous Mission burrito — a game-changing culinary gem of generous proportions — as well as a growing “Latinextravagant” food scene.
Sure, there’s always the occasional hater comparing us to L.A. and San Diego — which have larger Mexican populations and are closer to the border. But the Bay boasts a delicious array of regional Mexican foods scattered throughout East Oakland’s parking lots, San Jose’s markets and Richmond’s backyards.
And yet it would be foolish to think we’re the singular purveyor of Northern California’s best Mexican-inspired dishes. As metropolitan as we are, I recently found some of my favorite Chicano-style tacos in Sacramento — and NBA All Star De’Aaron Fox agrees.
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At a taco truck called Banzito’s (formerly Bandito’s), I encountered my first “enchitaco.” It’s an open-faced enchilada that fuses magically with the highly Americanized taco ingredients of ground beef, lettuce, diced tomatoes and sour cream. I haven’t seen anything like it in Bay Area; clearly, there’s something different going on in Sacra.
With other ingredients like bacon bits and pepper jack cheese, Banzito’s Northern Califas tacos are closer to Tex-Mex than the central and northern Mexican classics revered in immigrant enclaves. Instead of striving for sanctimonious purity, chef Adam Saldaña focuses on remixing flavors you’ll likely find in a multi-generational Chicano household’s pantry, not from a taquero’s basket in Guadalajara. And that’s the beauty — and empowering reclamation — of it.