A new taqueria, El Tarasco, opened last month on the 100 block of Gay Street serving authentic Mexican food. It isn’t necessarily what you’ll find in most Mexican restaurants where the food has been Americanized. The restaurant is co-owned by Araseli Tehandon Herera and her aunt Margarita Herera Acuata. I spoke to Araseli who told me the backstory of the restaurant and talked a bit about the food.
The name “El Tarasco” doesn’t translate easily into English, but it references an little old dancing man, a popular icon in the Michoacán, Mexico, area of the family’s origin. There’s a photo in the restaurant of the dancing old man. Dancers would don masks of old men and dance in a humorous manner.
Araseli said her hometown and region are known for their food. “They have a lot of good foods like pozoli, that would be like the hominy soup, and menudo, that would be beef belly soup, which sounds like ‘I wouldn’t really want to eat it,’ but it’s really good. Both dishes are on the menu of the restaurant, though the menudo is listed as “weekends only.”
Araseli was born in the U.S., but at age ten the family sent her to their hometown and she returned at 18 after having been exposed to the culture and the language in a deeper way than would be possible here. Most of her mother’s family has been in the Knoxville area for nearly twenty years.
They found the place via her uncle’s friend who is the landlord. They opened the business in early July and while Araseli said the business has been up-and-down, it’s been a good start. She said they have found good support from residents who live in the neighborhood. She said they even had a couple of people come in who had traveled to the region and were happy to find the food they remembered, offered downtown. Even as we spoke people wandered off the street expressing surprise that the business had opened, so word appears to be spreading.
She pointed out that they have hand-made tortillas. The gorditas are also made by hand. She said the meat “is more authentically made because it is Mexican sausage with potatoes. She said they do some extra things typical of their hometown, but not necessarily common here, like their chicken is shredded and marinated in a red sauce that’s not spicy, but it gives it flavor.”
They hope to add a food truck eventually and they are awaiting on the hood for the kitchen, though that may take a while. In the meantime, if you are interested in traditional Mexican food without some of the American trappings, Araseli said this is a place for you. She said they have drawn in a few of the customers from Green Acres, but mostly it’s been fresh faces that have come in the door. The restaurant opens at 10:00 am each morning and remains open until 6:00 pm on Sunday and Monday and is open until 9:00 pm Tuesday through Saturday.
