(Update: I checked up on La Frontera in 2023, and they are still around, but have moved a block away. I’ve updated this to point to their current location)
After a morning spent looking at the most excellent native art collections at the Heard Museum in downtown Phoenix, as well as having a quick trip over to Wes Bolin Plaza to look at the various memorials, we decided that we needed a quick lunch.
Luckily, Phoenix has the same, healthy taco truck economy that I’ve come to expect from any major Southwestern city.
Easy to miss the place, since you can’t directly see the truck from the street without eagle eyes, since they’ve ensconced it in several blue tarps to make a seating area of a few rickety tables and chairs (as well as a place to get out of the sun). The truck itself makes one wall of the dining area, so you wander up to the window and place your order, and then hang out and relax as they assemble it.
What do they have at La Frontera? Pretty much all the standard taco truck meats: carne asada (grilled flank steak), lengua (beef tongue), carnitas (shredded pork), barbacoa (Mexican-style barbecued pork), al pastor (marinated pork on a spit), and even chicharrón (fried pork rinds) and cabeza (head tacos, made from shredded simmered cow’s heads, mostly cheek meat). All can be had as tacos, burritos, and even quesadillas, and wash them down afterwards with a soda (either something truly Mexican like a Jarritos, or the now-ubiquitous Mexican Coke) or an aqua fresca.
We weren’t all that hungry, so I did my usual activity at a taco truck, I ordered an assortment of tacos, in these case an asada, a barbacoa, and an al pastor. When they came out, it was immediately apparent that these were good tacos. The meat was substantial (for the $1.50 each these cost). The pastor had a nice flavor to it, and just enough char to really give it some texture. The asada was nicely marinated, and not greasy or watery. The barbacoa had a nice, soft smoky flavor to it. Combined with some above-average somewhat soft corn tacos, and these basically were solid, dependable taco truck tacos. La Frontera wouldn’t stand out in some of the better food truck congregations I’ve been to (such as the Yuma Taco Crawl I did a few years back)
