Chapter 6 – The Day After Oblivion

Taqueria La Guacamaya Taco Truck – Wisconsin and Van Buren, Milwaukee

I've been working at crap jobs for 43 years and I still remember exactly what that cheap, microwaved submarine sandwich tasted like in the Cedar Point employee cafeteria the summer of 1976. I bring this up for no reason other than I just thought of it while lamenting that I, for the most part, ignored the food trucks out front of the US Bank Building all summer where I was working. Just in the last couple of weeks I decided to try them all, and now they're all gone. It's only the beginning of October, but I swear the people here, in Milwaukee, love to rush into winter the way dumb humans rush into everything, from their partners' infidelity, to financial ruin, to death. They're still playing baseball—it's way too early to start thinking about the Super Bowl. So even though I had already eaten lunch, when I saw the Taqueria La Guacamaya truck out there, I decided to have second lunch, and I was not sorry. $2.50 each for two al pastor tacos, onion, cilantro, pineapple, wrapped in foil—I ate them at my desk. Not ideal conditions, of course, but ideal food for any taco occasion, and ideal tacos as far as tacos go, just kind of perfectly proportioned simplicity—you know, when you just really notice the genius in something? On this day, yes, tacos = happiness. Not sure when I'll run into this or any another taco truck again, but who knows, maybe in another neighborhood, where they aren't rushing nervously into oblivion. As an addendum to this experience, then, just yesterday at noon the truck was back, so I got three tacos, rice and beans for $10, not a bad price—though I wished there were more beans. I can eat a lot of refried beans. This time, I ate in the employee break-room, a nice one with a beautiful view. You can't beat this employee break-room, yet, I have no use for employee break-rooms. This got me thinking, it would be interesting to do a new review each time you buy something from a taco truck in a different location, because, where are you going to eat your tacos? I remember this time buying tacos from a street vendor in Manhattan, around Hell's Kitchen, and I sat and ate on this stone wall. I never would have noticed that stone wall, but now I remember it like it's the Chez Paul.