Tacos with tentacles: El Sereno taco stand serves black octopus tacos
The taco stand owners only sell the octopus tacos once a week and they are known to sell out.
EL SERENO, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- There's a new item being served at Evil Cooks taco stand in El Sereno: the black octopus.
"[It] has gone super viral on social media, people love it," said Varissa Brum, a food and travel influencer who's profiled the taco stand. "You have this really intimidating looking spit with all the tentacles coming out and you have him flame throwing it."
It's been about a month since the owners, Alex Garcia and Elvia Huerta, added the eight-legged mollusk to their menu. They season the octopus with a black marinade and cook it on a vertical spit.
"There's nothing like Evil Cooks in L.A.," said Brum. "Evil Cooks is so unique and that is why they have lines out the door, around the block."
The couple said they were inspired by a friend who also sells octopus tacos in Dallas, Texas.
"The taste is amazing. What we do is we burn all the spices, we burn chilies, we burn tortillas, cacao," said Garcia. "So it becomes into a base and we let the octopus marinade in that so the taste is really smoky."
The couple started their own business about three years ago. Garcia is from Mexico and Huerta is from El Sereno.
"Our goal was to sell food from our childhood in a more modern approach," said Huerta.
Their taco stand serves traditional Mexican food but with a twist.
"Their setting is very like the goth, death metal, rocker. Like when you walk up you know," said Brum.
Evil Cooks makes about 80 pounds of octopus every Saturday, which is the only day they sell their specialty tacos. And be warned - they usually sell out.
"We want to say that we are the metal taco spot in L.A.," said Garcia.
Evil Cooks is located at 2461 N Eastern Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90032.
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