Paul Bartunek

In many parts of Mexico, the pig is king. From fried skin to chopped ears to ground chorizo, puerco is the carne of choice for millions of Mexicans every day. And, as our southerly sister nation goes, so too do the culinary interests of Los Angeles.

We are a city that loves its carnitas, the long-simmering pork preparation that renders fat and boils huge chunks of pig to create tender, juicy bites that fall apart with flavor. And while many readers may only regard carnitas as the thick, pulled-apart bites from a simmered pork butt, it is really just a specific preparation of pig. You know, like how BBQ is both a specific food and a technique.

Everything from the snout to the ribs to all of that inside stuff can be tossed together (usually inside a large metal pot known as a cazo) and simmered for hours in lard. Once the desired internal temperature is reached, the already boiling pot is heated further, frying porky edges and crisping skin in the process.

So where can you find the best carnitas in Los Angeles? After weeks of taste testing, re-testing, taking home samples and scouring the city (tough job, isn't it?), here are our picks for the ten best carnitas spots around.

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Courtesy Pinches Tacos

Pinches Tacos in Larchmont Village

Pinches Tacos, the taco chain with the dubious tagline "real Mexican made by real Mexicans!" (it's such a problem in L.A., no? All this Mexican food is made by ... Russians or something?) has opened a fifth location in Larchmont Village. The store opened for business yesterday.

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Liezl Estipona

See also:
*10 Best Carne Asada Fries in Los Angeles

Think back, if you can, to a time before food fusion and "mobile gourmet dining experiences." When late night eating meant a 24-hour Subway, 4 a.m. Thai joint or one of the city's finest taco trucks. Remember the off-white loncheros that have crawled the construction sites throughout Southern California for decades, the feisty machines that vie for avenue space out in Highland Park, the hard to find but always worth it trucks and trailers that have delivered for years on a simple promise to us all: in Los Angeles, great Mexican food can be had, day or night, for very little money, from somewhere nearby.

That social contract is still alive and well, providing us all with the burritos, tacos, sopes, mulitas and quesadillas that this city runs on. Nearly everyone has a "local," their own favorite taco truck that has fed them when they needed it most, or provided a quick meal when the fridge was blowing tumbleweeds. But there are also those undeniable titans of the genre, trucks so beloved to this city that they belong to us all. We stand in line after the bars let out, we drive across town in 7 p.m. traffic, we make sure to carry cash and practice our Spanish on the way over. Of the thousands upon thousands of fantastic loncheros worthy of such dedication, we think these are the ten best taco trucks that Los Angeles has to offer.

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Screenshot of Ruth Reichl's Twitter page

Hawk Krall

Don't believe all of that NCAA basketball hype; there's only one single-elimination bracket to worry about this month, and L.A. Taco has it covered. The alternative arts/food/culture site has just released the 5th annual version of their extremely popular Taco Madness tournament, which pits the city's best tacos against one another for ultimate bragging rights.

Previous winners have included formidable talents such as Mariscos Jalisco, Guisados and Mexicali Taco & Co., and while they all make vastly different styles of taco, it's hard to argue against any one of them. Not to be outdone, Ricky's Fish Taco (despite a recent return to the underground) is a perennial favorite and, despite never having won the tournament, sits as a #1 seed in the rankings.

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Tien Nguyen

Ricky's Fish Tacos

"This is temporary." That would be the very, very welcome words directly from Ricky Piña, whose much beloved Ricky's Fish Tacos -- and one of our 99 Essential Restaurants in L.A. -- was shut down by the health department last week.

Piña says he's very grateful for the flood of support that's come his way since then, and rest assured that he indeed is on the hunt for a new location. Unsurprisingly, he already has been offered a few spots, but hasn't pulled the trigger just yet -- he's still looking for a space that will not only be approprate for frying up batches of lovely fish and shrimp, but also will best suit his customers.

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A. Scattergood

fish tacos at Tacos Punta Cabras

If you live or work on the Westside and are tired of the long haul across town -- or a few hundred miles south -- every time you want a good, I mean really good, fish taco, you're in luck. This past weekend, Josh Gil and Daniel Snukal opened Tacos Punta Cabras in Santa Monica. Now you can spend all that gas money on shrimp tacos and cauliflower tostadas. Gil, who has cooked at Joe's Restaurant, the Jonathan Club and BLT, and Snukal, whose resume includes LudoBites, Urasawa and Obika, are the chefs who've been bringing you the underground pop-up Supper Liberation Front for the last three years or so.

Tacos Punta Cabras is a tiny taqueria on Santa Monica Boulevard in the space formerly occupied by Utopia Cafe. Gil and Snukal have been holding their Supper Liberation Front dinners there, and recently had the chance to take over the space. So they did. Why a taqueria? And more to the point, why a taqueria that specializes in seafood and tofu tacos? (Yes, tofu tacos.) It's both a matter of location and of personal preference, according to the chefs, who figured that the market for more healthful food on the western side of town would coincide nicely with their love for Baja-style fish tacos.

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taco bell/facebook

Doritos Tacos Locos weren't just a good idea for Taco Bell, they basically saved the company. OK, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it made Taco Bell kick ass last year when sales had been declining in previous years.

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B. Rodell

Tacos at Guisados Echo Park

Guisados, the Boyle Heights taqueria that has captured the love of anyone who has sunk their teeth into one of those tacos, announced back in October that it would be expanding to Echo Park and Downtown. As of yesterday, the Echo Park location is open to the public.

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B. Mesirow

The strip of Sunset between Mohawk St. and Elysian Park Ave., more or less the beating heart of Echo Park, has become a destination for drinking. One can, with a series of walks not long enough to raise your heart rate, hop from craft beer palace to dimly lit record spinning mini-lounge to classic dive bar to cop bar turned hipster dance party and beyond. As excellent as its cluster of bars is, though, it is the other component of a great night out that really makes Echo Park shine -- tacos.

That stretch of Echo Park is home to three well-established taco trucks, Tacozone, Tacos Arizas, and El Flamin' Taco, and each has its own loyal following. After hearing years worth of fanboy chatter and taco trolling we decided it was time to perform a truly unbiased scientific experiment, and for the good of the neighborhood we set out to determine and weigh the strengths and weaknesses of each truck. What follows is your Echo Park taco truck guide.

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