To Mando Rayo, the ideal taco begins with the right tortilla.
“It’s a tool for eating,” he says over breakfast tacos at Joe’s Bakery, which has been doing the them deftly for decades on East Seventh Street. “You don’t eat it separately. You tear it up, scoop up food, wipe plates with it. Whether corn or flour. I prefer corn, though I grew up eating flour. At five in the morning you’d smell the tortillas.”
“It depends on how you cook it,” Rayo says. “It’s gotta be warm. And beans. Good beans and good salsas are the two ingredients for testing a restaurant. If they have those covered, they are golden. I use beans like Mexican mayo, putting a thin layer in with everything.”
The cheery, freckle-faced Rayo, who will speak at South by Southwest Interactive and is writing a book on breakfast tacos, has sampled thousands at worksite trailers to forgotten strip shopping centers.
“You develop a palette,” he says. “You’d be surprised how many places they are cooked just right. I also like mine spicy. I always put on green salsa or jalepeños.”
Learning in Ysleta
Rayo’s mother, Maria Isabel Rayo Ibarra, raised five children in the Ysleta projects while housekeeping at Howard Johnson. A curious kid who loved breakdancing, video games, wrestling and gymnastics, Rayo helped out at home when he wasn’t playing in the park or hanging out at the library.
“We made our own food,” he says himself and of his siblings. “We’d fry corn tortillas with eggs, tomatoes, onions, jalapeños and cheese. We’d call it ‘juevos con tortillas.’ When I got to Austin, I found it that people called it ‘migas.’”
His mom and her family were from a tiny town in Chihuahua, Mexico.
“We’d hang out around the kitchen,” he says. “Grandmothers and aunts were always cooking. We’d watch them do it: Enchiladas and chiles rellenos.”
On Sundays, the extended family got together for a Mexican version of barbecue.
“Every now and then, my uncle would kill a goat or a pig,” he says. “I remember being very young and being part of that process. From the time they send the pig’s soul to heaven to pulling out the hairs, slicing it up, getting the big barrels and making the chicharones.”
For breakfast and lunch, a metal piece of farm equipment is welded into a “disco,” a wok-like cooking surface for a “disqueada.” In a fire pit, his family cooks red meat, pork, bacon, jalapeños, onions.
“Then we warm up tortillas on the side and make tacos,” he says. “These are my fondest memories. The feelings, the smells, the comforts about being around your family and sharing stories and food. As a kid, you just enjoy it. But now I look back and say: ‘Those are some good times!’”
On the taco trail
Arriving in Austin at age 22, Rayo attended Austin Community College and continues his education today at St. Edward’s University.
“I was a late bloomer,” he laughs. “Most of what I do now is based on hands-on experience. I worked a few restaurant jobs, retail, office jobs.”
He volunteered at United Way before charity work and community outreach became his career.
“I didn’t know you could do this,” he says. “Help people on a full-time basis.”
What about his second job in reporting?
“At work, I was the taco guy,” he says. “Always getting tacos for my staff. At heart, every Latino’s dream is to have their own restaurant. One day, (food writer) Sam Armstrong and I were talking tacos. He said: ‘Why don’t you write up your Top 5 and post it on the Austinist?’”
Rayo’s reports — rendered in a lively mix of English, Spanish and Spanglish — were made for the digital age. In 2006, he joined founders Jarod Neece and Justin Bankston at TacoJournalism. The threesome soon added a social element through happy-hour meet-ups and tours of taco spots.
“And not always the easy ones to get to,” Rayo says. “The ones that have character. The real tacos. Old restaurants, new trailers, modern cafes. We ask what’s the background and history? What’s the story of the taco makers? To me, it’s about culture and the people behind it. At the core is the love of the taco.”
Among his favorite spots right now are Rosita’s, El Papalote, Taqueria Chapala and TacoDeli.
“I like how they are taking tacos to another level,” he says of innovators at TacoDeli. “They have perfected the Doña sauce.”
Early on, the taco-chomping online trio jumped into social media, won awards and were interviewed by The New York Times.
Rayo was asked to speak at SXSW again, this time on a panel titled “Revenge of the Taco Blogger.”
“There are all kinds of food bloggers out there trying to cover latest and hottest and foods, the trends,” he says. “I call myself a “grassroots cocinero.” It’s really focused on this niche platform engaging people in a very specific food. People say: ‘Why don’t you try our egg rolls? The Asian tacos?’ For us it’s being true to what we love.”
Rayo, who sits on several boards, is married to teacher and aspiring landscape architect Ixchel Granada de Rayo. They have two kids and one chicken.
He encourages all Austin food lovers to take a chance on eateries outside the expensive urban core.
“All you have to do is drive five more minutes outside the downtown area and you get some really good authentic food,” he says. “We do the hard work for you.”