Growing up in the San Gabriel Valley, Veronica Daniel remembers her mom Aliza making tacos differently than the ones she ate in a traditional Mexican restaurant. Instead of just piling diced onions, cilantro, meat and freshly made salsa onto two lightly grilled corn tortillas, Aliza had her own approach. “I didn't really realize that it was so culturally different until I became an adult,” says Daniel, who is now interning with LAist Studios.
Daniel’s mom uses ground turkey in her tacos instead of traditional Mexican meats like carne asada or al pastor, and lightly sprinkles an assortment of toppings to her tacos — shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, cheddar cheese, sour cream and, more recently, avocado salsa — inside an juicy, oiled-up corn tortilla shell. But the key difference is the seasoning. Aliza uses Lawry’s salt, a blend of salt, herbs and spices, like paprika, that has been a staple in Black households for decades.
Aliza moved to Los Angeles from Texas when she was 10 years old with her mom and five siblings, and she recalls her mother making classic soul food dishes growing up. But once Aliza started her own family in L.A.
, she tells her daughter she started making tacos in the home. “For me, cooking and making Black tacos was a way of having something healthy for my children, but also something that they could pick from ..
. they could choose what they wanted inside of it,” Aliza explains. In fact, Black families in cities like L.
A, Houston and Chica.