Reinventing the Taco

Peter Gobin owns Mijos Tacos. He learned how to cook through his jobs (Al Forno, New Rivers, Seven Stars). He moved to California because he wanted to cook more French food. After working in Los Angeles in French fine dining for six years he returned to Rhode Island to be near family and start his own food truck.

How did you decide to start a taco truck?
When I was in LA, I’d always eat tacos from the trucks after work. Back
in Rhode Island, I really missed them. I started making tacos for friends at my house, and they’d never had that style of taco. They were tired of coming all the way to my house in northern Rhode Island, so my friends and family became my first investors – on a truck, I could

come to them.

It seems like there’s a good community of food trucks around here…
I’m close with some of the other trucks, like Rocket, Flour Girls, Mama Kim’s. You’d think we’d always be in competition, but we find that when more of us park in a small area, we create a destination and we all do better business.

What sets LA style tacos apart from the rest?
People always ask me this. For me it’s the salsa, and it’s important that they come from a truck. In northern Mexico and LA, they’re usually served with radishes.

What’s your personal twist on the taco?
I take a lot of liberties with the taco format. Since I’m used to cooking French food, some of what I make is French food disguised as Mexican.

I’ve found that tacos are a great vehicle for exposing people to unusual foods that could be scary in a way that’s comforting to them. A taco is not imposing. For example, I started out with beef tongue – that was unusual for people, but it’s becoming an incredibly popular item. I’ve also done sweetbreads, foie gras, cow and pig liver, feet… even crickets and cuitlacoche, a corn fungus that’s a delicacy.

Where do you stand on the corn/flour tortilla divide?
I use flour tortillas for my burritos and quesadillas, but my tacos are all served on corn tortillas like in LA. I get my corn tortillas from a market on the West Side of Providence.

Do you miss fine dining?
Not really, though sometimes I like to make a three – or four – course dinner for friends at home. It’s not necessarilyeasier to make tacos, just different – I actually use a lot of the same techniques, like braising or making classic sauces like mayonnaise. It’s been hard to find staff who have the right combination of skills for Mijos – you almost have to be a fine dining cook who wants to do short order.

Since you’re always on the move, what’s the best way to find you?
Depending on the day, we do lunches by Brown University, Hope Artiste Village in Pawtucket, and Kennedy Plaza. We serve dinner every second Thursday at the Promenade, and do late nights at Brown on the weekends.

If you want to know where to find me and see what’s on the menu, follow the truck on Twitter. Twitter’s also a great way to interact with me…I have plenty of conversations with customers and other food trucks and chefs, so you can get a feel for the person inside the truck.