Lafayette's newest food truck specializes in that most portable of cuisines.
Lafayette's newest food truck specializes in that most portable of cuisines. By Anna Purdy / Photos by Robin May
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Maureen Hammons and Kitty Doizé sample tacos from Rhett and
Christy Doizé, owners of Lafayette's Oh My Taco food truck.
Tacos are arguably one of the most beloved Americanized foods. Although now most commonly seen as grist for drunken people stumbling through a slow moving fast food line, it's a food centuries old. Spanish conquistadors are even documented to have tried tacos that at the time were what we now call tortillas with a fish filling. Maybe if the conquistadors had eaten a few more tacos they would have been too full for that ugly conquest, but we'll never know.
No matter what or when, tacos have always been a corn or flour tortilla baked or fried to hold fillings from vegetables to most any type of meat and cheese. Like boudin, you can nab it and munch it on the go with no utensils and all of a typical plate's balanced ingredients right there in its handy bundle. It's this idea that inspired Rhett and Christy Doizé, the couple in charge of Lafayette's newest food truck, Oh My Taco.
"I think of the tortilla as a blank canvas and fill it with fresh ingredients. I love a hand-held food," says Rhett, who adds that living in Portland and Austin "really gave me the passion to do a food trailer. I just tasted the wonderful fresh food flying out these trailers. Also seeing these cities have food trailer communities and food parks - love it."
The Porkinator is one of Oh My Taco's specials, which change daily.
Indeed, Lafayette is behind Baton Rouge and New Orleans in the food truck trend despite our city's higher position in the Restaurant Index Guide, which ranks the best locales to open a restaurant and succeed. Most people have a tough time buying food from a truck, envisioning someone huddled in the back of a 1980 Toyota with a charred grill and serving drinks out of an old fishing cooler. Nothing could be further from the case. Traditional brick-and-mortar restaurants aren't the only way to go anymore.
While Christy's background is as a hair stylist, she is partnered with her husband in this business and helps out whenever he's open. Rhett's background is in food service. "I got a lot of my inspiration in Austin working under executive chef John Bullington at Alamo Drafthouse," he says. Although Oh My Taco has only been rolling Lafayette's streets for a couple of months it's already seen a lot of business and it isn't uncommon for the couple to go home cleaned out.
Since the food is locally attained, the menu changes daily. One of Oh My Taco's latest offerings is pulled pork tender enough to fall apart at a whisper, with pickled purple cabbage and topped with a smoky chipotle mayonnaise and a touch of cilantro. Another good get is the Serrano sausage with poblano pepper mayo, cheese and pico de gallo that tastes like summer in your mouth - cool and spicy at the same time.
"I fill the tacos with my culinary experiences traveling around the world and just being in different restaurant kitchen cuisines," says Rhett. "The freshness is farm to table." The Doizés also emphasize the call of many successful restaurants to, "keep Lafayette local."
Find out where Oh My Taco is going to be at facebook.com/OMYTACO or by calling 296-2015.