Corpus Christi: Breakfast Tacos

Edited at https://subtitletools.com - Taco tip number 88.

- Know thy taco knowledge.

- You wrap a burrito.

- You roll an enchilada.

- But you fold a taco.

(Latin music) - I'm Jarod Neece.

- I'm Mando Rayo.

- And we're taco journalists exploring the iconic tacos of Texas, through the eyes of the people who make them.

- We're in Corpus Christi, Texas, where people do "Anything for Selenas!"

- And breakfast tacos.

- We'll visit with Chacho's Tacos, home of the biggest, baddest breakfast taco.

- And we'll go to Hi-Ho, Selena's favorite restaurant.

- We'll also visit with local creatives, where they express their love for tacos and culture through art.

- My name is Gerald Flores.

I'm a local creative here in Corpus Christi, and we are at the Hi-Ho Restaurant on the west side.

- So Gerald, we are we at?

- We're at Hi-Ho, 'cause in Corpus Christi, when you wake up the first thing you do is come get a breakfast taco.

(laughs) ♪ Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, it's off to work we go ♪ ♪ Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho (laughs) - It's off to tacos we go.

- Right here.

- Breakfast tacos, here.

- My name is Rick Garcia.

I'm owner of the Hi-Ho Restaurant in Corpus Christi, Texas.

We start at 3:30 in the morning, making chorizo and egg, potato and egg, bacon, beans, tortillas, so we can start serving our tacos.

- You know, the great thing about just breakfast tacos in general is that it can be anything.

You have bacon and egg, chorizo and egg, bean and cheese, carne salad tacos, you can have migas tacos, you can have pretty much anything under the sun.

The list is long.

One iconic taco is just the bean and cheese.

You can call it a poor man's taco too, because there's just the simple ingredients.

- A good bean and cheese can say a lot about a restaurant.

- We have the tortillas.

You gotta have fresh tortillas.

- It's time to name that breakfast taco.

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding!

- Breakfast taco number one.

(funky music) - That's a bean and cheese.

- Bean and cheese.

(ding) Take it away.

(laughs) - Taco number two.

- Carne Guisada.

(ding) - Winning.

- That's one of the things I love about this taqueria, and just places like this is it's almost like everyone's individual home breakfast tables.

- Yeah.

- Like, when you look at the people and the way that they're just interacting, it's literally like they're in their own kitchen, or their own living room with their friends, and I love that you can see all different kinds of people just interacting.

It's great.

(rock music) ♪ Well, I know ♪ Yeah, I know ♪ Yeah, I know ♪ What's a girl like you compared to a man like to me ♪ ♪ And I know ♪ Yeah, I know ♪ Yeah, I know ♪ Girls like you - We're here at Chacho's Tacos.

- To see the biggest, baddest breakfast taco in Texas.

- The almighty Chacho Taco.

It's grande.

- Muy grande.

- The almighty Chacho's Taco is a 14 inch tortilla.

It comes with beans, potato and egg, carne salad, cheese, and bacon.

And it is a three and a half pounder.

My two boys were the ones that put that together.

He says, "Mom, we gotta have a big taco."

So I said, "Okay."

"Y'all put it together."

- Daddy, this is like the biggest taco I've ever seen.

- My name is Mary Gutierrez.

I am the owner of Chacho's Tacos here in Corpus Christi.

- What are your most popular breakfast tacos?

- Our weenie and egg.

Which people ask for because they say, "Oh my god, that's what mom used to give us."

- I grew up with that, too.

It was the poor man's taco.

- Exactly.

'Cause I grew up with weenie and egg.

- It's a hot dog.

Hot dog and eggs.

- My recipes are my mom's recipes, my grandmother's.

My mom was a single parent, so I had to cook for my brothers and sisters, 'cause my mama had to go to work.

So this is how I learned to cook.

- And now you're passing that tradition to your boys.

- My two sons, yes.

They've been with me.

They've supported me, and I think without 'em, I probably wouldn't have actually kept going.

They're my backbone.

(rock music) - Mmm, mmm, mmm.

♪ Well, if it's all right with you ♪ ♪ You know, it's all right with me ♪ ♪ I said, if it's all right with you ♪ ♪ Well baby, then it's all right with me ♪ ♪ Yeah, it's all right ♪ All right ♪ All right ♪ It's all right - We're in the south side of Corpitos.

- At the Flores Creative Compound.

- We're gonna eat some more breakfast tacos, and take in some taco culture.

(glasses clinking) - Yes, it is taco time.

Thank you guys for cooking.

What are we gonna eat?

- Oh my gosh, we're gonna eat.

We have chicharrones in salsa verde.

We have papas fritas, refried beans, scrambled eggs.

Oh, oh my gosh, and we have weenie and egg.

(laughs) Like, weenie and egg.

- And these tortillas are amazing.

- When you asked me, "Oh, I want you to do brunch", I thought you know what, "Voy a hacer todo," everything I grew up eating.

- And why is that important for you?

- Oh my gosh.

I think it's important just because I'm a recipe developer, and I wanna share my culture and my heritage.

I feel like the more I share, the more people connect with the food, and want to recreate what their abuelitas made, and their tias 'cause there's a lot of people that e-mail me, and they're like, "Oh, my mom always made beans "but I never took the time to learn how to make the beans."

So I feel like the more I share, the more they connect.

- You know, growing up in a border town, I was always surrounded by this kind of food, also.

But what I do, and when it comes to making things, I love including the culture as far as colors are concerned, and different patterns.

Things I grew up with, things that remind me of my grandmother's tablecloth, or her bedspread, or my mother's lipstick.

I love making things that replicate those, and brings back memories, and they're relatable.

You know, we grew up here in South Texas, and so the proximity to Mexico, the proximity to another country was always there.

And I never took it for granted.

- And so what does culture mean for you guys?

- It means living a very vibrant life, where you have food that you grew up with.

You recognize where you come from, where your family's from, where their roots are planted, and you acknowledge it, and you don't ever, ever forget it.

- It's something so special that you wanna make sure that you pass it on.

Like, it's food, it's memories, it's flavors.

To me, it's smells.

I want my culture to go from generation to generation.

- I mean, for me it's interesting 'cause the creative group of friends that I have, I mean, they all have their outlets and they focus on on so many areas of tradition, and I chose to just focus on one, which is just tacos.

And the interesting thing about that is, it happened by accident.

I was actually looking for a shirt for me, but the one I found was made by people who had no idea what tacos really are, and the shirt's like, $60.

You know, the most interesting thing about it is that tacos, it was something that, if you took that to school, like our parents took that to school for lunch, they looked like poor kids.

And now, every white person under the sun in Austin, and in L.A., they're going to taco places.

- I feel like they cut out the entire cultural significance of the taco.

And then they put it on Instagram, and it's like this awesome, creative thing that it is blowing people's mind.

And I'm like, we've been eating that forever.

(laughs) You know?

Like, my grandmother made that.

- Your grandmother could have been an Instagrammer.

- Exactly.

(laughter) - They came from tradition, and our families made them, and you guys can enjoy them now, and that's good, but just know where they came from.

- Here's the thing.

You kind of, you embrace the culture, but you hate the people.

Right?

I mean, our country is kind of, oh well we love tacos, and we love embroidery dresses, but we don't want you here.

No, you can't do that.

It's either all or nothing.

You know what I mean?

You can't pick and choose things of a culture, and then appropriate it, and then say, "No, I don't want people that are "brown skinned here, or taking our jobs."

You can't do that.

It's either all or nothing.

- If there was one thing you could say to somebody that was doing that, what would you say to them?

- I would say, take your time to really get to know who's cooking your food, who's making your clothes.

Hear their story, you know?

Just don't take take their idea and run with it, 'cause you're cutting out why that thing is awesome.

You're cutting out where he got that taste, or where he got that smell, or who he learned it from, and you're just taking it, and you're making it your own.

You're cutting out all the good.

♪ She'll make me feel all right ♪ ♪ She made me tacos ♪ ♪ I owe my money to a Sunday night ♪ - This was the first taco tattoo I got, right here.

So that's, I mean, pretty crazy about tacos.

I have one right here.

That's the traditional mom heart one, but I put tacos in it.

This eagle right here, it's not the Hi-Ho logo.

(laughs) But he is grabbing a taco.

- Man, I love breakfast tacos.

- Me too.

- What's your favorite?

- Bean and cheese.

- Potato and egg.

- Bacon and egg.

- Chorizo and egg.

- A la Mexicana.

- Papa rancheros.

- Papa con huevos.

- I like bean, cheese, and bacon.

- (sighs) Chorizo con huevo.

Weenie con huevos.