Where to begin? I know! This book would’ve been impossible without the women of my childhood: my mom, aunts, sisters, grandmas, comadres, cousins, and the moms, aunts, sisters, grandmas, comadres, and cousins of my friends who instilled in me from a young age a love for Mexican food. I got lucky: all of those mujeres were amazing cooks who ensured I was always fed, from when I was a small boy until today.
This book also would’ve been impossible without the wonderful people at Scribner, who long ago put their faith and publishing power in me to the tune of three books. Brant, Anna, Cody, Susan, Nan, and the rest of the gang: gracias for believing in me, and sorry it took so long to finish this book—but I do believe it was all worth it.
And it would’ve been especially impossible without the chingones over at Kuhn Projects, which started as a two-man operation and is growing and growing. David and Billy are my main guys there, but to the rest of the crew: gracias.
Those are the professional, sincere thanks. Now, on to the personal:
To my mujer, Delilah, whom I love so much. Your fish tacos are the best around. Now, time to teach you how to make asado de boda.
To Marge, the cutest face in the world!
To my nuclear and extended family, for your support, love, and many carne asada Sundays.
To my employers, Village Voice Media, specifically my perpetually drunk mick overlords, Mike Lacey and Jim Larkin, and my always supportive boss, Andy Vandevoorde: gracias for being so supportive of my extracurricular activities.
To my inglorious basterds over at the OC Weekly—each one of you deserves your own book. Get to it!
To my forkers over at Stick a Fork in It: You, too!
To my friends who joined me on multiple eating expeditions over the years for this: Art, Theresa, Lea, Monet and Andrew, Plas, Vic, Randy, Frank, Danny, Dave and Linnea, Jackie and Rudy, Gabriel San Blogman, the Centro crew, William Nericcio, and all the friends I have on Facebook whom space does not allow me to list.
To all the wonderful food people in Southern California who kept me drunk and filled for this: Memphis at the Santora, the Crosby, Break of Dawn, Javier Cabral, Bill Esparza, Russ Parsons, and so many more.
To all the librarians who helped me along the way, from San Francisco to San Antonio to most of Orange County, but especially the crew at the Fullerton Public Library. If this book becomes a best seller, new microfilm machines!
To the amazing people over at the Chicana and Chicano Studies Department at Cal State Fullerton: Professor Jefe Alexandro José Gradilla, the CASA kids, and all the students who have ever taken my classes. Be nice to Sonia or she’ll get gangsta!
To everyone who sat down with me for this book, whether the interview went in or not: your insights were invaluable.
To Lee Healy, for making me realize that corporations aren’t always that bad.…
To Evan Kleiman, la mera mera. Gracias for not only being my partner in crime, but for being my genuine amiga.
To everyone whom I forgot and will get hell for the oversight: you know I love you; you know I’m scatterbrained. I owe you tepache.
And finally, and definitely not leastly—actually, most important: to all my readers, whether you like or loathe me. Without ustedes, I would’ve never gotten any book deal, let alone all the tips that made this book sing. Onward to the fourth book—or hologram, the way technology is going.…