- [Carolina] There's no pig, that's crazy.
- That is incredible.
This is like fully transformed.
- My stomach is like, "You still eating, girlfriend?"
- Hey, what's up everybody.
It's your girl, Merle.
And today, I'm going to have my friend Carolina on the show.
She loves tacos.
So today I'm going to take her to find
the best vegan taco in LA.
And then I'm gonna bring her back here to the studio,
where we're gonna make our own fantastic vegan taco.
Let's go pick up Carolina.
All right, Carolina. - Hi.
- Here you are, welcome to the car.
- I know this is so cool.
- So you have made content,
I feel like all over the place.
- [Carolina] Yeah. - You've had a like.
You've done beauty, fashion.
I've even seen you on "Unsolved."
- Yeah.
- But we haven't sunk our "Goodful" claws into you yet.
- No. - Until today.
- This is my "Goodful" debut.
- I happen to know that you love a taco.
- I do.
- Where do you love to get tacos?
Like what's one of your favorite spots?
- There's this place in East Hollywood.
It's called Taqueria El Zarape.
Really good birria tacos and carnitas tacos.
I think my favorite of all time is the birria tacos.
Just because like, there's so many elements to it.
You have the consomme, which I always order extra consomme.
It's like the broth, 'cause I love to drink it.
- [Merle] Ooh, yum.
- [Carolina] And then carnitas
'cause they're really tender.
- How do you feel about vegan food?
- I love it.
I could probably go completely vegan.
But my question that I always ask myself,
as you know, a Latina as a Mexican is I'm gonna miss tacos.
- Today, I'm going to be taking you to
a delicious all vegan Mexican restaurant called El Cocinero.
And they are kind of known
for replicating vegan versions of authentic Mexican cuisine.
So I feel,
if there's any place that we can get you a vegan taco
that you're not gonna miss the meat in,
it's at this place.
- Okay, let's do it.
(salsa music)
- Hi, my name is Alex, I'm El Cocinero.
We are the first vegan Mexican restaurant
here in the valley.
When I become vegan eight years ago, I start thinking,
"Okay, maybe I can start
making the dishes I used to make before,
but not using animal products."
I'm a taco lover, growing up in Mexico,
and that's what I start making.
So I start inviting my friends
and I give them the food to try without telling them,
"Oh, this is vegan" or, "This is not meat."
And then I told them, "You realize that it wasn't meat?"
And they couldn't believe it.
So they start telling me,
"Hey, you have to open a restaurant,"
or, "You have to start selling to other people."
And then I started praying with my recipes
and that's when we start doing the popups on the street.
And we see the long line,
like 80, 90 people online.
And it was something good because the community accept us.
I used to have phone calls from different people
that want to open a restaurant with them.
I told them, "Okay, but it's gonna be here in the valley."
And I remember clearly, "No, are you crazy?
Why are you gonna open a vegan restaurant
here in the valley?
You're not gonna survive.
You're not gonna be busy."
I choose the valley because
I wanna have something accessible to my community.
And at the same time,
it's gonna be something good for their bodies.
- How do you make these authentic Mexican dishes
and still keep kinda like the bold flavors that we have
and kinda our culture in these dishes?
- We use a lot of spices,
spices that our grandparents use before
and use it on the plant-based meat.
It absorb the same flavors.
So having those authentic flavors,
I think that's what people love about us.
Everything that you do, you have to do it with love.
A lot of people tell me,
"Oh, it takes me back when my grandma used to make the rice"
or, "When my mom used to make me the beans.
The beans are so delicious."
And that reflects on anything that you do.
In my case, it's reflected on the food.
- My mouth is watering. (Carolina laughs)
I am so hungry - Me too.
- And now very excited to try your incredible food.
So, shall we at?
- Let's do it.
(jazzy music)
- Are you ready?
- I am salivating so bad. - Same.
Same, I have reached a level of not cute that I just need,
we just need to try these things.
- [Carolina] I think we do too.
- Smells incredible.
- Do we just go-- - Dunk it.
You've got, this is your moment I feel with this.
- Dunk it.
- [Alex] Tacos dorados birria.
The protein that we use is jackfruit.
We marinade it first
and we let it see it for hours in the fridge.
That's when we start bringing it to the fire
and mixing all these marinated ingredients.
The consomme, which is like a broth,
it takes like around 14 hours to get ready
because it's a slow cook.
A lot of people dip the tacos in there and eat it.
And I think it's super delicious and popular as well.
- I'm at a loss for words. (Merle laughs)
Oh my God, it's so good.
If you were to give this to me, I would not say,
this isn't like birria meat.
The texture and the taste, it's literally the same.
I've never had jackfruit before.
- [Merle] Oh, really? - So, now I like it.
When it's like this.
- This had to have been like slow cooked and marinated.
'Cause I can't taste any trace of jackfruit.
- I was gonna say it. - At all.
- As someone who has had jackfruit before.
- Mm hmm, this is like fully transformed.
- I'm excited for these carnitas.
These are one of my favorites.
- [Alex] The carnitas we use jackfruit.
We cook them with a special recipe.
- Oh my God.
- It is like succulent.
This is Jackfruit, see?
But isn't that crazy?
Like, we got to try two jackfruits back to back.
- And they don't taste the same--
- How different you can make them 'cause the meh,
they take the marinade, the way he's cooked it.
What stands out to me is like,
how much flavor can come through in one ingredient.
- This is insane.
I'm pretty sure if I were to give this to my dad,
I kinda wanna like bring him some just to,
(chuckles) to see what he says.
- Do it.
- [Carolina] Should we try the Chicharron?
- [Merle] Yes. - [Carolina] Even like
looking at it,
it looks like Chicharrones.
- And this is the one that's crispier, right?
And this is soy. - And crispy,
and this is the soy, correct. - Okay.
Oh my God, that is incredible.
- I love the crunch, it's so yummy.
- [Merle] It's like crunchy, but it's not dry.
- [Carolina] There's certain pieces of it.
And you taste like the fat of the pork.
And I just bit into a slice and it reminded me of that.
- (laughs) there's no pig, yeah, there's no pork--
- There's no pig, that's crazy.
- Well, that was amazing.
- Ugh, so good.
- The fun doesn't stop there.
Because we're gonna go back to the studio,
and we're going to make
our own homemade delicious vegan tacos,
so that anybody who wants to give it a shot can try.
Now we are going to make some of our own vegan tacos.
(Carolina cheers) So that,
everyone can make a vegan taco.
- Anyone can cook.
- I know that you specifically, you like the birria.
- [Carolina] Yes. - [Merle] Tacos,
and then also the carnitas.
- [Carolina] Yep. - So we're gonna be making
one of each of those. - Mm hmm.
- And for the first one, we're gonna start with the birria
and we're gonna use hibiscus flower.
- Oh nice.
- And the first thing we're gonna do is toast our spice.
- Nice. - So why don't you start
with the cinnamon?
Coriander and then our black pepper.
And then two adorable little allspice berries.
- [Carolina] They're so cute.
They're like something Tinkerbell would eat.
- I know.
And then finally, singular clove.
- [Carolina] Singular clove.
- Now we're gonna let those toast for about two minutes
- [Carolina] Spice up your life.
- And so you're gonna go ahead and transfer these spices
over to this adorable little grinder.
Nice, you did it.
- Am I a chef?
- I think so.
- I'm scared. - You got it.
(Carolina screams) (grinder whirs)
When you don't hear so much crackling.
Yeah, that's probably good.
- Okay. - All right,
I'm gonna toss in some oregano and some bay leaves.
(grinder whirs)
The thing is so small but mighty, I love it.
- Literally, oh my God.
- Hey, you've nailed it.
Absolutely nailed it.
Nice.
All right, and now we're just gonna set this aside.
Okay, so we're gonna start with our hibiscus meats.
Here we have some hibiscus flowers
that have been boiled and soaked
and salted to rehydrate them.
But this is what they look like.
- [Merle] Wow. - When they're dry.
You can add in the oil, we'll let it heat up a little bit.
And then we're gonna just fry up the hibiscus
for about six minutes.
I'm dying to know.
Have you had hibiscus?
Are you familiar?
- I've never eaten it, but I have had like hibiscus tea.
- Your imagination must be going wild, I'm sure.
- Yeah, I can imagine the texture just 'cause like I've,
I'm stirring it around, but,
I just want it in my mouth.
That was nasty. (both giggle)
- It's been six minutes. (Carolina laughs)
So it's time to transfer these over to our baking sheet.
And I've got a nice little paper towel on there
to absorb the extra oil.
All right, so I'm gonna salt this first.
- Oh my gosh, look at that technique.
- Check it out.
All right, I'm gonna go ahead and, you guessed it.
Set this aside.
- What?
- So now we're gonna make the consomme.
- Mm hmm. - And,
we're gonna start by adding in the onions,
the tomatoes and then, about a teaspoon and a half of salt.
- All of this, I could just eat this.
- Nice little hot salad?
- A hot salad. (both laugh)
- [Carolina] Like this tomato right here is so sexy--
- It's calling to you.
♪ Lady in red ♪
We got some garlic cloves.
- You make me excited.
Ooh-- - Yes, caramelization--
- That garlic and that onion together.
- Right, this is like foreplay.
It's like teasing us into what is to come.
- I don't think any of your episodes have been as--
- As sexual? - Stimulating as this.
- We got our spice mix here.
Stir that in until it becomes aromatic.
This is the caramelization phase.
So let's try to calm ourselves.
- I know. - We're gonna add
all of this in there.
- [Carolina] Yeah, drop it all in.
Look at that.
We're adding some soy sauce. - Soy sauce!
- [Merle] How does that make you feel?
- [Carolina] That's weird.
- I guess that's the give,
to the give and the take of a vegan remix.
And lastly, we've got some dried chili
that we have re-hydrated.
So now we've got it boiling.
So we're gonna go ahead and turn this down to a simmer.
We're gonna let that simmer for around 30 minutes.
Take a whiff of that.
- Oh, I have been. - 30 minutes.
- And it's so ooh, beautiful.
- Seductive, one might even say.
You're going to go ahead
and remove the tomatoes and the chili peppers.
And now you're gonna scoop about one cup of the broth out.
- [Carolina] All right, that's a cup.
- Beautiful, and now you can toss in the good old veggies.
- Oh my gosh, okay.
Ready? (blender whirs)
It's the blend dance. - It is the blend dance.
Imagine we show up to a DJ set and just do this.
(Carolina laughs) - I know, right?
- These can get wily up here.
All right. - Wily Coyote?
- That's right.
Oh, wow, okay. - [Carolina] Oh.
- Be careful.
Take yield.
And now, this'll be fun.
We're gonna add in our hibiscus.
(whispers) that looks so good.
I've taken a quick little jaunt to the tropics
and I have sliced up some banana leaves here for us.
- Oh my God.
- Banana leaves are great because what they're gonna do is
they're gonna infuse their own flavor into our consomme,
but they're also going to keep things from drying out.
If you don't have banana leaves at your disposal,
you can also use aluminum foil.
That's okay, that one's just being a little naughty.
- [Carolina] Okay. - But you know what?
You can calm him down
by just going ahead and putting the lid on top of there.
And then we're going to pop this in the oven
at 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
That's 150 degrees Celsius.
And then we're gonna put it in there for about 60 minutes.
Now we've put in all this hard work.
- Yeah.
- Let's unveil this goddess.
- Look at those banana leaves.
- I know they really shriveled up.
- [Carolina] They did.
- You're going to go splunking.
- (gasps) oh my God. - [Merle] I know.
- I guess I'm just dunking everything in.
- Yeah, it's thick.
And now it's time to assemble.
Why don't you do the honors?
You're gonna take one spoon of this here oil,
take the tortilla,
and you're gonna do what we call the flippity floppity.
Okay, and now you've never had vegan cheese, I hear,
through the grapevine. - I haven't.
- [Merle] Very exciting day then,
'cause would you like to do the honor?
- [Carolina] Of course.
- [Merle] Sprinkling that on over the entire thing.
We're gonna go ahead and put on our hibiscus meat
on one half.
Ooh.
- My spidey senses are tingling.
I think it's time to fold.
(gasps) - [Carolina] Pretty.
See, this is kind of what you were talking about
where it's like, it took a lot of steps, took a lot of time,
but like now I'm looking--
- A lot of time. - At it, I'm like,
"Yeah, a lot of time."
But now we're looking at it and I'm like, "Oh, okay.
Here's the payoff."
- [Carolina] Ready for this?
(both cheer)
- Great job.
All right, so, we're gonna make a couple more of these,
and then we're gonna move on to our carnitas.
All right, so now we're gonna make our carnitas.
- Woot. - And,
we're going to be using in enoki mushrooms today.
Are you familiar with the?
- No, not these. - With the enoki mushrooms?
- No, I've never had it before, I don't think.
- These will have a nice, like a really,
again, I know I keep saying this,
but chewy texture to it that I feel like,
and they're gonna look a lot like meat.
For starters, let's take this big old hunk of coconut oil.
- [Carolina] Okay. - Toss her in the pan,
until it gets all shimmery.
We're gonna basically just plop 'em in there
and let 'em sear.
Tell us the truth.
How do you feel about mushrooms?
- I love mushrooms.
My phone case has mushrooms on them.
- Prove it.
- Not sponsored, but.
- [Merle] But adorable.
- I actually think I like vegetables more than sweet stuff.
- [Merle] Okay. - [Carolina] Is this weird?
- No, I do too.
Savory ladies. - Yeah,
savory ladies unite, for sure.
- Basically. - So,
let's give this a flipperooni.
- [Merle] Those look good. - [Carolina] Oh my God.
- All right, and now we are gonna transfer these to a bowl.
- [Carolina] Okay, seems simple enough for me to do.
- I'm gonna follow my heart
and just salt them until I feel they're properly salted.
All right, now you go ahead and you take these two forks
and you're gonna shred those up.
You're gonna have to multitask,
'cause you know what time it is?
- Oh no.
No, no, no.
- Vegan trivia time.
(retro music)
In 1987, there were 243,000 pig farms in the US.
How many pig farms do you think there were by 2017?
- 243,000, I'm so not good at math.
10 million?
- 66,000.
Perhaps you're thinking, "Oh great, less pigs."
- Well yeah, 'cause they went down.
- Right. - Wow, okay.
- But no, even though there are fewer actual pig farms,
the count of pigs has increased by 20 million.
(Carolina gasps)
So less space, more pigs.
- Oh no.
- You do the mental math people.
I don't need to show you the photos.
So these smaller pig farms have been replaced by CAFOs,
which stands for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations.
And CAFOs hold a much larger amount of pigs
in a considerably smaller space.
So to get back to a system
where we don't have these factory farms
that are treating animals inhumanely
and have a negative impact on our environment,
we need to cut back.
I'm not saying everybody has to stop altogether, of course.
But that's why it's important to add in
meat substitutes that could be as delicious
and give people other options to enjoy food that they love.
- [Carolina] Yeah. - Now,
we're gonna go ahead and set these aside.
You did a great job. - Thank you.
- We're going to go ahead and
take these onions and this garlic,
and we're gonna put it right in the pan we were just using.
- [Carolina] My two favorite things.
- Yeah, look at you go.
Oh, it looks good.
Okay, I feel like it's looking good.
So we've got some black pepper.
- Oregano.
- And don't you forget the good old chili powder.
- [Carolina] Chili.
- Some cumin.
More bay leaves.
Orange juice, lime juice.
Some apple cider vinegar.
- [Carolina] ACV. - As they call it in the biz.
And then finally, some water.
Kinda cook off, simmer down a little bit
for like five to six minutes
until like most of this water is evaporated
and it's thickened nicely.
And then we'll toss our enoki back in there.
Now it's time to assemble and serve these up.
- Okay, so I'm gonna get hardy piece of carnitas.
Salsa first.
And then I'm gonna do scoop of onions.
Do some cilantro.
And then I'm gonna add, lemon.
I'm gonna do three slices of avocado.
So that is my carnitas.
(salsa music)
Mm, that's good.
All right, (indistinct) carnitas but it's still really good.
Now we're gonna dip the birria in the consomme.
I am really excited for this because it has hibiscus.
Cheers.
- Cheers!
- Interesting.
I wish it was a little bit more cheesier.
But maybe that's just 'cause I didn't put enough cheese
when we made it.
- I do feel like the hibiscus like,
maintains some of its tartness,
which probably you wouldn't normally have.
- Consomme's a little bit, thicker.
It's kinda like a paste than I'm used to.
- Okay.
- But, the flavors are really good.
It does feel like meat.
- Mm hmm, it's the big moment.
It's the big reveal.
It's time for you to tell us
what you would rate these dishes that you've tried today.
So this is like your gold standard
from your favorite place, El Zarape.
This is like your 10, right?
This is the benchmark you're gonna be holding these two.
And then of course from El Cocinero,
we had these delicious tacos.
You're gonna rate those.
And these are the homemade tacos we made.
- Woof, okay,
I've eaten so much today.
- I know. - My stomach is like,
"You're still eating, girlfriend?"
(playful music)
- That is a good 10 outta 10.
- Okay, that's what you know and love.
- For this one,
there's kind of a smokiness to it.
- Mm.
- So like I can tell it was cooked on a grill.
- Mm hmm.
- The chicharron, I already know is my favorite.
I'm just gonna take a bite of one.
This one is fire.
- Oh boy. - I love it so much.
It's funny tasting it like back to back from this.
- Yeah. - [Carolina] 'Cause now
I can taste the sweetness of the jackfruit.
- [Merle] Oh. - Whereas this one,
I was getting like smokey flavors and like.
- [Merle] Okay. - [Carolina] You know?
Okay.
Birria.
I will say already, just looking at this consomme.
- Mm hmm. - It's,
the consistency that I want.
It's like very light.
- Mm hmm. - Like I'm gonna,
I can drink it.
- And she will.
- And I did.
That one is fire.
- She slaps.
- That is so slappy.
We went back to--
- What we made together, as family and friends.
- This one has a sweetness,
but it's not like a jackfruit sweetness.
- Okay. - I can still feel
like I still feel like I'm eating meat with this.
- Oh, okay. - Mm hmm.
- [Carolina] Okay, birria.
It's pretty good.
I was shocked this is hibiscus.
It has like a lingering aftertaste.
- Mm hmm. - You know what I'm saying?
- Yeah. - But it's not strong.
- It's time for you to make a decision here.
- Here's where I fall.
This chicharron one, is bringing this number up.
- [Merle] Ugh. - However,
this carnitas. - [Merle] uh huh.
- [Carolina] I'm so sorry, Alex.
I think might be better than this one.
- [Merle] Ow.
- However, this was great.
And if I was given this, I would finish the entire plate.
The birria tacos, I did love the consomme more here.
- Mm hmm, no.
- 'Cause you know I like to sip.
You know I like to sip. - I do.
You gotta do it.
You gotta rip off the bandaid.
- I'm giving this,
a nine outta 10 and this an eight out 10.
- Oh. - But the carnitas,
that's what's bringing you up right now.
- Oh, hell yeah. - Yeah.
- I can gracefully lose
because he's a good human and I support his business.
So thanks for watching.
Please, let us know in the comments below,
who you would like to see on the show next,
and what you would like me to make vegan.
- What?
(both giggle)
- The end.
(upbeat music)
I'm a terrible loser, normally.
But I love that man.
But he spoke to me, his passion.
- [Carolina] His passion.
- Normally when I lose to Rachel,
I wanna like break something.
I support Rachel too.
She's okay.