Ain’t Got No Beef: Juquila Taco Truck

Giving you the lardful on the veggie burritos of West Los Angeles

By Andrew

Not more than four blocks from my home in West Los Angeles stands Juquila, an increasingly popular – and increasingly pricey – Oaxacan restaurant. Although veggie burritos would likely be difficult to find in Oaxaca, or in Mexico for that matter, you can get one at Juquila, which is tasty enough to vie for a spot on the top five list of any veggie burrito lover.

Unfortunately, since my first visit to Juquila, I’ve seen the price climb from a reasonable $3.99 to $5.99 + tip, which is most decidedly out of the cheapster’s budget.  Luckily for us penny pinchers, Juquila also has a taco truck by the same name, which serves the same massive and delicious veggie burrito for only $4.50.

From 6:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. you can find the clean and orderly Juquila truck parked outside the tennis courts of Stoner Park on Nebraska Avenue.  Or from 9:30 p.m. – 12:30 a.m. it can be seen farther down, on the corner of Nebraska and Bundy Avenue.

It’s easy to feel slightly embarrassed when ordering anything “veggie” from other taco trucks.  Somehow, it can feel emasculating to explain the contents of a veggie burrito to the veggie-ignorant or straight-up veggie-prejudice.  The word “veggie” alone will often result in suspicious stares from workers and other patrons.  At the Juquila truck, however, there is no need to be embarrassed when ordering their veggie burrito.  Even though the absence of “veggie burrito” from the menu points towards some lingering veggie-ignorance, the employees are well aware of its existence and proper preparation.  I have never received even the slightest expression of incredulity when ordering.

After just a few minutes wait,  depending on the cook, you’ll have in your hands a burrito ranging from the size of a Coke can to a newborn child.  The soft flour tortilla is filled, among other ingredients, with fresh pinto beans and a remarkable spanish rice, which is so flavorful, I had to ask if it was cooked with chicken broth.  It is (so the score lost half an avocado).  Sorry vegetarians., but the rice really makes this burrito.

Almost nothing can disappoint a veggie
burrito-lover more than a huge layer of rice.  This burrito is the exception.  Juquila’s savory rice is sprinkled with peas and carrots and also serves an important structural role, keeping things from getting too sloppy (think Pili’s Tacos or Campo’s Tacos). All together this is a pretty dense burrito, which has never failed to fill me up. Some consumers may be disappointed with the paucity of guacamole present, or the absence of sour cream.  But for $4.50, which includes chips and chipotle salsa, these faults are easy to overlook.

Next time you find yourself on Santa Monica Boulevard, either picking up a DVD at the Video Store Named Desire or kicking it at Cacao, do yourself  the favor of taking the short walk to the Juquila truck.  Your stomach and your pocketbook will thank you.

Useful info:

Juquila Taco Truck
Monday-Saturday, 6:30 p.m. - 9: 30 p.m.: Corner of Nebraska Avenue and Stoner Avenue
Monday-Saturday, 9:30 p.m. - 12:30 a.m.: Nebraska Avene and Bundy Avenue Sunday hours vary
Price: $4.50 for a burrito, includes chips, salsa, and a bag of pickled jalapenos and carrots upon request.
+  .5
3.5 avocados (out of 5) Warning: Not 100% vegetarian

Picks of the Week

Some frugal finds for this week:

Friday, June 19: For Goldstar members, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) is offering free tickets for tonight’s special screening of the ’30s gangster film “Underworld.” Musical accompaniment will be provided by the world-renowned Alloy Orchestra.
To check out the listing on Goldstar: www.goldstar.com

and for info on tonight’s screening:
http://www.oscars.org/events-exhibitions/events/2009/underworld.html

Friday, June 19-Sunday, June 21: TASCHEN is having a weekend warehouse sale with 50-75% slightly damaged books. For more info: www.taschen.com

Saturday, June 20th - The Getty Museum’s Saturdays Off the 405 concert series is giving you free music by Chairlift and Dublab DJs Frosty and Ale. Peruse their art collections in the twilight hours while catching some good music. 6 p.m. - 9 p.m. For more info: http://www.getty.edu/visit/events/saturdays_405.html#chairlift

Saturday, June 20th - Santa Monica Pier is having their centennial family celebration and the fact that school’s out for the summer! From 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
http://www.santamonicapier.org/centennial/schoolout.html

Legends of the Cheap: Warren Buffet: The Miser from the Midwest

By Miki

After 13 years of holding the title of the richest man in the world, Bill Gates gave up the number one seat last year to Warren Buffet.  Why?  Buffet, said to be worth a cool $62 billion dollars, had been the second richest for years, having worked very hard on Wall Street to compete for such a title.  While Gates is famous for his ingenuity in the technology world, Buffet is renowned for his ability to foresee the future of the U.S. and world’s economy and its stocks.  This skill has enabled Buffet to amass a large quantity of worth, leading many to regard him as the world’s best investor.  However, over the years Buffet has become notorious for another ability or characteristic:  his frugality. His basic mantra is: “Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.”

It is commonly known that Buffet has a penchant for Cherry Cola soda, drinking multiple cans per day.  He also enjoys accompanying said Cherry Cola with a Dairy Queen burger.  Sure, eating out can get expensive, but when you are Warren Buffet, eating out for lunch at a price of less than $10 a day is nothing.  He could be spending hundreds per meal on exotic caviar and purified Voss water, doesn’t.  Buffet is modest in his taste and personal spending.  In Omaha, Buffet lives in the same house he bought in 1958 for about the current price of a used Mercedes Benz.  Regarding all the money he could be pouring into the purchase of new technologies such as iPhones, Buffet prefers to keep things simple and does not even own a cell phone.  “There’s nothing material I want very much,” Buffet once said. He seems to be doing, at the age of 78, what many of us cannot fathom: working, making predictions about the stock market, and creating in a nearly technology free, hassle-free and cheap manner.  Buffet seems to follow the simplistic understanding that the less you have, the less you spend. “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get,” Buffet once said.

Buffet also appears to view money as a commodity and tool for helping others.  However, money does not in and of itself represent much, so that the things one could buy with it do not represent much either.  Perhaps that is his perspective on money and thriftiness.  That being said, Buffet has announced that his vast fortune will not be going to his children (an aspect of wealth he opposes), but to a charity—Bill Gates’ charity, in fact.  The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will receive the vast majority of Buffet’s wealth in the event of his passing.   It seems then, that there are no hard feelings between the two men who have compete neck to neck over the past decade for the title of the wealthiest one alive.

Free Hot Dog on a Stick Day

Hey dudes and dudettes,

I know that if a genie popped out of a bottle and granted you three wishes, you would ask for one of the following:

-To be Neal Wanless, the 23-year-old rancher who won last week’s $232 million jackpot
-To marry Neal Wanless
-A free corn dog

Well guess what? It’s your lucky day! Next Monday, June 15 is National Free Hot Dog on a Stick Day! All HDOS establishments will be offering their delicious free corn dogs from 5-8 p.m. They even have veggie dogs and cheese on a stick, but I’m not 100% sure those will be free.

I know you feel oh-so-grateful for having granted one of your lifelong wishes. But no need to feel eternally indebted. All I ask of you is to take a photo of you enjoying your free dog. Maybe take a mug in front of a Hot Dog on a Stick or eating one with a pal.

To find a location near you: http://www.hotdogonastick.com
Please e-mail photos to: jackie@cheapsters.org

Five lucky participants will win a grab bag of goodies!

Fante on Foot

Emily and friends conjure up their own walking tour of author John Fante’s local haunts.

I’m sure Esotouric’s John Fante-based tour of L.A. is fantastic, but since no one I know has $58 to set aside for such a tour, a few months ago some friends and I decided to make our own Fante tour.

We all met at the HMS Bounty in Koreatown to begin our afternoon. (This location has, as far as I know, nothing to do with Fante, but considering his life and times and that he was Bukowski’s “god,” this old-time L.A. bar (+ a few beers) seemed like an appropriate beginning to our journey.)

Our first “official” stop was Fante’s residence at 826 S. Berendo St. [map] just a few blocks east and south of the Bounty. Fante wrote Ask the Dust here. It, like Bukowski’s old bungalow on De Longpre Avenue in Hollywood, was boarded up, but we could see enough to get the point.

From here we walked the two blocks north and two blocks east (about a half-mile) to the Wilshire/Vermont subway station. We road the Red Line downtown (towards Union Station) to the Pershing Square stop (a mere three stops away). From there we could walk to the rest of our destinations.

Next to (or across the street from, depending on where you exit) the Pershing Square Red Line entrance/exit sits Angel’s Flight. It’s now at 4th and Hill, but Arturo Bandini’s home was next to its old location at 3rd and Hill (back when it actually served a purpose for residents on Bunker Hill).

Pershing Square is where Bandini finds himself in Ask the Dust after the Long Beach earthquake. I imagine today’s Pershing Square is much different than the one frequented by Bandini—today it all feels very new and clean. But while there you can pay tribute to Bandini by seeing artist Barbara McCarren’s fault line inspired by that scene in Ask the Dust.

From Pershing Square you can walk a few blocks northwest to the downtown library (630 W. 5th St.). We skipped this part of our tour, but it’s worth going if you’ve never been. It was at the Central Library in what is now the Children’s Reading Room (but used to be the main reading room) where Bukowski discovered Ask the Dust and his literary god, Fante.

Next we tried to find King Edward (/Eddy) Saloon (131 E. Fifth St.) where Bandini (and later Bukowski) drank. (We couldn’t find it, but I think we might’ve had the address wrong.)

After that minor failure (”minor” because walking around downtown is full of discovery, even when you don’t find what you’re looking for; for example, we got serenaded by this man who followed us for a few blocks as we walked by the renovated Alexandria Hotel), we decided for an early dinner/late lunch at Clifton’s Cafeteria (648 S. Broadway).

Clifton’s is a cafeteria-style eatery (as the name suggests) where in the ’30s and ’40s the policy was “pay what you can,” and no one was turned away hungry. The food is still very affordable and pretty tasty (that is to say, it’s not all the generic cafeteria fare you may expect, though there’s an acceptable amount of that, too).

At this point we’d been walking a good while, and decided to call it a day. Two other locations I’d suggest (out of many possibilities) if you have the time/energy:

La Placita Church (535 N. Main Street). This is another Ask the Dust location, where Bandini apologizes to God for being an atheist. This is just about a mile northeast of King Eddy’s, but if you don’t feel like walking, you can hop back on the Red Line at Pershing Square and take the subway two stops to Union Station, which is just down the street from this area (Olvera Street and El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument, i.e. original Los Angeles).

Continue a little further northeast and you’ll see the United States Post Office Terminal Annex (900 N. Alameda St.), where Bukowski worked and which “inspired” Post Office.

Caveat: You may have noticed I only referenced Ask the Dust. Good reason: Thus far that’s the only book by Fante I’ve read. So I have no doubt that you can get a lot more thorough information from a tour guide or the friends and relatives of the novelists that sometimes help guide the Esotouric tours. But hopefully, if you don’t have the $58 either, this inspires you to plan your own tour—with a little internet research and for the cost of subway fare, an affordable meal, and a few drinks (optional), it’s a day well spent in downtown Los Angeles.

Info:

Wikipedia: John Fante, Charles Bukowski

Walking map of downtown destinations: [google map]

Clifton’s Cafeteria: www.cliftonscafeteria.com

MTA Bus and Rail info: www.mta.net ($1.25 one way, $5 day pass)

Read more of Emily’s ruminations on miscellaneous subject matter at: www.twotreatsies.org

WorldsCheap: My Life in a Nutshell

Hello. Let me begin by telling a little about myself. All my life I
have wanted to be a hand model. I want my hands to be in pretty pictures. That is how I would like to be remembered. So I moved from my small country of brunei to los angeles, the place where dreams come true. But I soon learned that one cannot lick gold off the tops of streets and fat men do not throw money at you, which is what I learned from watching american movies .

In my homeland, where all we eat is yams, one can buy from neighbor 10 cents/lb. but here it is 3.00/lb! That is ridiculous. But I have a gift, you see. From time I was kid I was 1 saver amongst my 12 siblings. I was able to buy my first house and 20 goats at age of 10 for what is probably 20 american dollars.

When I was 13 both my parents were killed by mother goat that went crazy after having babies. I became breadwinner and support my siblings. But I work too hard and thought I will never make my dreams come true. Now I move to california I want to be first hand model from brunei. I know I will make it in los angeles, because every night I wish upon stars for my dream to come true. Plus I am WORLDSCHEAP!
(teehee)

Cheap Man On: Loaning Money

One cheapster expresses his miserly woes

Being a cheap man will inevitably lead to a surplus of cash. When you have a surplus of cash, friends and family will inevitably ask for a loan. What are you supposed to do if they ask to borrow money? Over the years, I’ve lent out thousands of dollars to friends and family members and have learned a couple of lessons in the process.

Not lending people money makes you feel like an asshole, and lending it makes you feel anxious. It’s a totally unpleasant experience. You lose your right to be an asshole as soon as you hand them the money. Why? Because once the money is lent, you suddenly have to start being nice to the person, when in reality you hate the person for asking for money in the first place. At one point you may need to go through the uncomfortable experience of having to beg for your money back. So here I am being a nice guy by lending money and now I have to get down on my knees and beg for it back?

As unpleasant an experience it is to lend money out to friends and family, sometimes it has to be done. The general rule is to never do it in the first place. But if you have to lend out money, here are some lessons I’ve learned over the years:

Don’t lend out more money than you are willing to lose.
I think of a loan to friends and family as more of a grant than a loan. If they end up paying you back, then it’s a bonus. I sometimes wish that they didn’t pay me back so I won’t need to lend them money again in the future. People who ask to borrow money will always ask for more in the future.

Past payment does not mean future payment.
Just because they paid you back the first time doesn’t mean they will pay you back the next time. Since they paid you back the first time, they will also usually for more money the second time around. Always pretend they’re borrowing the money for the first time. And make it very clear you won’t lend them money ever again.

Don’t fall for the trick of getting paid interest.
The borrower will say they will pay you interest, but that’s always a trick that will backfire. If they start paying interest they will feel like they are doing you a favor. You don’t want them to think that because if they start feeling screwed in the process, then they are more likely to screw you over by not paying you back. The goal should be to get the money back as soon as possible, not to make a profit on your friends.

Try to get some collateral.
One of major drawback of lending money out is the fact that you lose your right to be an asshole. But if you have collateral, you could still be an asshole and you don’t need to worry about not being paid back because you have their laptop.

Be the first to be paid back, not the last.
Try to get your money back as soon as possible. Set a clear date when you want your money back. Don’t allow your debt to be viewed as something they could pay back as soon as they pay back all their credit cards, car payments, and groceries.

Give the money, don’t lend the money.
If you just give them the money you don’t have to deal with the stress of trying to get the money back. You can also continue to be an asshole to your friend and they will most likely not ask to borrow money again. You also don’t need to give as much money as you will lend out. Grants are always smaller than loans.

Don’t take it personally if you’re not paid back.
At most it’s a couple thousand bucks. That’s just the cost of having friends and family who are fuckups, or are unlucky. For the most part their intentions are good, they’re just bad with money.

Taco Loves Truck No. 2: Tacos Arabes

Reviews on cheap eats that are on the lam(b) [or al pastor]

By Sofie

An out of town visitor recently challenged me to plan an exciting evening out choc full o’ food and booze for under 20 bucks a person. How dare he! As if I don’t know the damn city I live in! As if tasty, inexpensive food was as unattainable as a mythical creature…like a unicorn…or a career.

My itinerary focuses on Echo Park. A brief drop down the 2 freeway leaves me smack in the middle of a world of Latin delights: Camarones here, papusas there. It was almost overwhelming. Almost.

My original plan was to stop off at the Taco Zone taco truck and give it a whirl. But, as I drove by the local Auto Zone, the matching (what did this match with—the Auto Zone?) coach was nowhere to be found. Dang! With only seconds to spare before anyone in the car had time to take note of my poor planning, I remembered a truck I had visited once a long, long time ago. Fingers crossed, I made my way over to Tacos Arabes.

Good Lord, I was in luck. The truck was there, just as it has always been, right in front of the Santa Fe Tortilleria on Logan. Parked along the curb, this truck is brightly–and quite tastefully–painted with words. Lots of words, but surprisingly no numbers, and by numbers I mean prices. Should I risk it? What if this truck turns out to be super expensive and I look like a fool for blowing my 20 dollar wad before booze is even introduced into the evening? Too late. No time to back out now, not after the Taco Zone debacle.

Now, what to order? I notice one of the listed menu items called mulitas and decide to give it a try. Much to my delight, a mulita is a quesadilla of sorts made with a choice of meat and lots of cheese sandwiched between two corn tortillas and then fried to a crisp perfection. I also order four tacos (one each: lengua, carnitas, asada, and al pastor) and a Coke. Please keep in mind that my order is not all for me, but is in fact meant to feed two people. The total for everything comes to a whopping $8.50. Victory! That makes the meal portion of the evening $4.25 per person, leaving just over 15 smackers left over for cocktails. Yay!

Overall, I was pleased with the quality of the food. Particularly, the carnitas was excellent. The lengua was just “eh” and the mulita with chorizo was salty but still very good. I didn’t notice any side dishes listed like rice or beans, but there is a decent salsa bar with all the fixins that include a cool guacamole sauce. The one noteworthy thing that did impress me was the handmade tortillas. Those are generally hard to find on trucks, but I assume that the availability of masa from the adjacent tortilleria has something to do with that.

What about the booze part, you ask? Mark my words, it is possible to catch a buzz, dance and be entertained in Echo Park for $15. You’ll have to check back with Cheapsters in the future to see a separate post on that ‘cus really, that’s a whole other story.

Useful Information:

Tacos Arabes
Wednesday-Monday: 6:30pm-11:00pm
Tuesdays: Closed
1311 Logan St.
Los Angeles, CA 90026
(323) 582-2640

Prices: Who Knows? They’re not posted, so they may change frequently, but I managed to get two tacos and a coke for $4.25.

Meats: Pollo (Chicken), Asada (Beef), Carnitas (Pork), Cabesa (Cheek Meat), Lengua (Beef Tounge), Al Pastor (Slow Roasted Pork), Chorizo (Pork Sausage), Tripas (Tripe aka Beef Stomach), Bouche (Pig Stomach), Suadero (Beef Brisket) Served as: Tacos, Burritos, Tortas, Mulitas, Quesadillas, Sopes

Beverages: Canned Coke products (selection varies), Gatorade, Juarritos.

BUCK

Localities of Frugality

By Joe Marble

Fairfax and Melrose

Cheap Alert! Free Workshops at Arts Day L.A.

UCLA Extension is hosting its annual Arts Day L.A. with educational workshops for aspiring designers, writers, filmmakers, and artists. Subject matter of the introductory workshops are broad in scope and cover the creative processes, current issues, and potential career paths in the fields of Creative Writing, Graphic Design, Interior Design, Entertainment Media, Landscape Architecture and Screenwriting. Attendees receive a 10% discount on select courses for the Spring Quarter. There’s also booths where you can score free swag.

Useful Info:

Arts Day L.A.
Sunday, March 7, 2009
10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Young Hall Courtyard, UCLA Campus

Parking: Lot 2, Westholme & Hilgard ($9)
OR take public transit: Big Blue Bus, Culver City Bus

Also, there are parking lots in Westwood Village that offer discounted rates on the weekends

http://www.artsdayla.org/
(310) 267-4888 * artsdayla@uclaextension.edu