Have you had street tacos? Street tacos are the best, most authentic (in my opinion) tacos you can get anywhere. They’re sold on little street carts and they are my absolute favorite. I grew up getting them pretty often with my family and I’m telling you, I could put away three, four, five of those tacos on any given day. I crave them regularly. As in, all the time. By some sad miracle my husband had never tried street tacos before we were married. Whaaaaaattttt???? Don’t worry, I remedied that. Last year when we took a cruise to the Caribbean we had the best street tacos. Okay, I probably say that about every new taco stand I get a taco from but, when you’re craving a good street taco, the next one you eat is always the best one. I made my husband try one and he loved it. Of course. So there’s a reason I didn’t call these just “street tacos”. They’re Santa Monica Street Tacos, right? Well they were inspired by some tacos I had when visiting my brother in Santa Monica, California. After a big day of beach sitting and Hollywood street roaming, we had a hankering for some real good street tacos. The thing about So-Cal is, there’s a taco stand on just about every other street corner. Sometimes two. We found a stand that looked especially promising (okay we were desperate, it was the first one we came to), and bought ourselves four or five tacos (they’re so cheap!). They came with a lime-y cilantro-y sweet and tangy dressing that I’ve craved ever since. The steak was minced just so, and it was topped with fresh red cabbage and diced white onions. You can make tacos a hundred million different ways but I really like these ones. They taste so…. fresh. I don’t know what it is about these but they are just so light and healthy and refreshingly tasty, I can’t get enough of them! The best part (can there be a best part??) is that they’re so dang easy. Seriously, done in less than thirty minutes and you don’t have to heat up your oven. Love it. Make these for game day, make these for date night, make them for Tuesday Taco Night, just make them. If you like these Santa Monica Street Tacos, you’ll love my Southwest Loaded Potato Skins, Baked Crab Wontons, Green Chile Queso Blanco, and Baked Onion Rings.
