that's something to be so proud about it is because coming from Mexico when I was 14 years old and from where I was to where I am right now a big challenge food is food bring you bring you good memories bring you your family your grandparents your mom everything you do a carne asada you're going to the park you're doing a carne asada going to a birthday party yeah let's make some carne asada so I would say carne asada I think the main thing they used to sit down play dominoes or playing cards drinking coffee on the morning on the afternoon and he always put a little bit of tequila on it oh and he was really good if anyone listens and they wanna be closer to their kids or as a kid wanna be closer to their parent what would you recommend them to do hi I'm Alexandra Lloyd a French Canadian who's called Birmingham Alabama home since 2,017 welcome to from where to here the podcast that celebrates the rich diversity of languages cultures and the stories that connect us all each month I'll sit down with inspiring guests from different backgrounds to explore their cultures languages and tackle some fun in our truth or dare or debunk segment whether you're a language enthusiast a culture lover or just curious about the world you're in the right place let's dive into your next favorite cultural adventure every dish on this menu crossed the border before it crossed your plate every plate has a story let's find it hey Apollo hey hi tell me where are you originally from I'm from a Chihuahua Mexico that's the north of Mexico and that's the biggest state of Mexico very nice what dish reminds you of home there's two 3 of them but I guess one of the main ones will be the barbacoa and I basically is right here we call that's a ditch it's basically a taco with a flour or corn tortilla I prefer with corn tortilla and that that particular plate the tacos basically it's low cooked beef they cook it we cook it for 4 5 hours on it and we put a couple seasoning on it I have our own family recipe yes from home so every time when I eat something that make me feel like home that's the meal and do you offer it at your restaurant yeah we do we offer here at the restaurant the taco is called slow and basically the tortilla with the meat and have a PICO onion and also a little bit cilantro it's pretty good delicious one ingredient you can't live without there's like two three I would say what's your top one cilantro cilantro I love tacos so for a Mexican dish cilantro cumin oregano but I would say more cilantro will be the one sweet or savory savory savory can you expand on that oh I used to be like a sweet person I always have someone that guy they always eating sweet sweets all the time but now I'm learning through the restaurants different uh recipes and when we get me and my partner get together with the restaurant then I started playing more with the food with different flavors I still love the sweets area but I don't know the the little bit sour and the salt and all the stuff those kind of my my thing now you've Learned to appreciate it more what's the first thing people should order I got three plates what's the first one my first one I would say I would like that we talk early uh low is low that's my favorite ones because that bring you bring me home like Mexico but also I will the steak taco uh because we use pretty good steak we use flank steak and we marinate same thing we use my own recipe that we marinated and we for 24 to 48 hours so and we cook it by order so that's that have a that have a little bit different flavor because we use the beer as well too so you load it up with beer stuff like that so we use a Modelo between Modelo and Pacifico that's what we use so we let it marinate for at least 24 hours before we can cook so I would say that one and the ground beef I think that's one of the ones do as well it's in a taco they all I'm a taco guy but also the my burritos the burritos are because on our menu we have what's really popular it's called build your own so you can customize your own burrito your own quesadilla your own tacos so you can create your own taco you can create your own quesadilla your own burrito so it's an unlimited of options that you can do to make it the way you like it yes so if you want a triple cilantro yeah you never get tired if you want to add triple cilantro you can you can do it yeah you can do it a food everyone should try at least once at least once I will go with the burrito uh with bread mix burrito that's one of them what does it consist of steak and and rice and the beans and we use the Pinto beans on it so that's I guess that's a little mix of everything and give you that little different flavor that you feel like you're on Mexico I did not know that it you eat that much steak in Mexico and the tacos specifically special tacos and especially I'm from north of Mexico so where we have Mexico north of Mexico we're known for the for farming avocado and stuff like that and be honest anything to say but usually burritos coming from Chihuahua where we're from from Juarez really that's where originally came from over there oh interesting so so it's little story about this guy basically coming from Islam Johnny the 1800s and he start making his own burrito just something simple just the tortilla flour tortilla homemade with some beans meat or cilantro and bunch of stuff on it and start selling it on the street and he always walking with the with the donkey so a Mexican we call a donkey we call it burrito burrito uh huh burrito so they start the guy with the burrito and now the burrito is coming the burrito is coming so that's how basically the burritos simple stuff that happened years ago and now it's so popular that's very nice if your restaurant had a theme song what would it be well it will be like one or two different songs you see I I listen a lot of country music because I'm north of Mexico so I'm listening to the border so we like country music and I remember some of my family have the country music and also the Mexican music local Mexican music and I will go to little Bit Country some of the old songs for the country that we used to play and listen when we cooking stuff like that but I'll it's a Mexican song will be somebody like uh Vicente Fernandez that one of the big big known for Mexican music and everybody knows I mean you can hear some of this music from South Argentina Canada Europe and they will know so when I hear that kind of music especially that remind me right away my childhood that's a good one and as far as country influence but also the Mexican music are there any country Mexican songs yeah there are a lot of them country kind I mean I make Mexican country artists too so I will go with one of them uh for Caballo Dorado they're from actually my hometown and they have a lot of the songs that you play when you go on to a live radio or yeah listen to the street you you they have a Spanish to it that remind you hometown that remind you the restaurant yes that's awesome coffee or tea I'm a coffee person coffee so what do you put in it here I kinda little lazy on it I basically sometimes I drink it just plain coffee or sometimes we should do it with a little bit milk and sugar and coffee remind me always my grandpa my family oh how come because they used to sit down play dominoes or playing cards and drinking coffee on the morning on the afternoon and he always put a little bit of tequila on it oh and it was really good so hot coffee and then your grandfather and it was actually once in a while I do drink coffee that way get the coffee and put the little tequila on it and I mean I can drink coffee even at 10 o'clock at night I don't have no problem to go to sleep I can drink coffee all day long I have no issue you know you're talking about your grandfather putting alcohol in your coffee and it makes me think of my aunt in Canada who likes to do that type of coffee too and she would add whipped cream and she called those Cafe Comique which in French stands for funny coffee yes you see and I don't remember exactly the same on Mexico we call it I remember used to pull almost a when she was like like a little goat basically oh but the most popular she go they go you if you're not expecting coming it hit you really hard so if you drink one of those coffee it will gonna get you yes if you're not careful so that's that's my I love coffee that's one of the things I love OK so coffee it is and then you mentioned Domino's I've Learned how to play Mexican Train really is it it's similar really similar really similar timber yeah so you play the traditional dominoes dominoes back on the day I mean years ago I used to go with with my grandpa older guy they get together with the family as a family on a weekend eating burritos eating tacos and on a nighttime we just get all together the whole family get together play dominoes or playing cards and I don't play that often but whenever I play I mean I can do good we should play together let's do it I'm done what's one thing people don't know about your culture oh that's a hard one because living on United States for so many years how many years uh no 20 22 years to most of your life to most of my life I've been living here and it's funny because there's so many things I would say but once you go to Mexico and see different things that you see over there but you don't have it here and you're like man some people they don't get all those things that we get over there like it makes it really friendly here it's here too but don't get me wrong over there people go on the street on the neighborhood and everybody on the weekend everybody's out playing on the street and making more friends you don't see that much over here like you see it over there that kind of something the people don't know here they actually exist over there unless you really go to Mexico not to like area when you go to like area like Mexico City for example I was on Mexico City not long ago my wife is from Argentina we went to Mexico City same right there when we went over there I mean you see clock on the morning eating tacos with a tuxedo getting ready to go to work and culture there's so many things on the culture in Mexico that people don't know when until you get there and actually you you live those moments yeah that's a really good one how do you think Americans or any other ethnicities or people from other countries how can they lean into that community type of living that you describe of you just go on the streets and people will just start you can start making friends that way and you just it's casual and it's normal it's casual and normal do you think too much looking to the next thing and Mexicans know better how to slow down and be in the moment like what is it slow down or be on the moment every place is different like I've been on Argentina I wish I was there not long ago it's a little different to the Mexico pretty similar by the way um still too to live those moments to see it not just going to like a tourist when they have everything by the book yeah you have to a place where you can see the real real of those of Mexico the same thing over here too you come into the United States and you wanna go to Disney only to you see all the stuff from Disney but if you step Disney and talk to the local people local restaurants see the other side and the the more friendly good people too cause there's a lot of friendly people here too as well I'm just saying over there or here but you see the other the other side they what you see on TV yes cause a lot of place a lot of time you only see what they show you on TV they don't show you while it's outside absolutely so you really need to go to the non touristy places talk to local yeah great advice finish this sentence food is food bring you bring you good memories bring you your family your grandparents your mom everything are you close to your grandparents yeah they already passed away everybody on my parents but I was pretty close to them I was blessed on my side that I was really close to my parents to your parents as well my dad my mom and my grandparents too as well I was really close to them I was blessed I call that I was blessed for that and I try to do the same thing with my kids the way they can be do the same thing if anyone listens and they wanna be closer to their kids or as a kid wanna be closer to their parent what would you recommend them to do try to spend time with them it's hard it is hard it's hard when you own a business and when you wanna grow and grow more and more thing but life is fast so you have to step one step back to kind of realize and see good thing that you have then you can try to spend the time and it's hard it's even hard for me don't get me wrong it's really hard for me but uh you need to try to do it that way you can actually get those moments with your family because next thing you realize that your kids already grow yeah and you don't know did your parents do something specific that made you feel seen more when spending time together yeah I would say my grandpa was a big step for me my whole my whole family I grew up from like a uh farming family I used to be like a house builder stuff like that and he passed away when I was young so my mom took care of both of them the dad and the mom and be there playing with us do all the good thing with us be the be the friend but mostly the parent but I think my thing my opinion I'm the best friend you can be the friend but you still have to be the parent be with you trust everything they do and knowing your kid anything happen they always want to have a house they always have make them feel home that's a safe place to go no matter what that's beautiful I bet you're a great dad oh thank you I try I try yeah one word in your language that doesn't translate into English that's a difficult one that's a difficult one or you can translate is there a word in Spanish that describes the food better than any English word could maybe that's a different way to put it I can put I can say in Spanish yeah yes I would say chingona chingona yeah like badass badass badass I love that what's your favorite thing about this city there's a lot of things I'm still new on the city I've been here for nearly over two years we this September it's coming September we want it's been two years since we open still learning this city little bit because it's like like we say all of it a lot of work work work work but also we try to spend time with the family that way we can grow in different places one thing that I love a lot about this city I love sports I love baseball basketball I grew up in the North Mexico so we play baseball uh football American football college here I love it that you have little bit everything so you can go one weekend to do something you can go to a Rodeo you can go to a baseball game that we done it hockey and the parks there's so many parks I love the outdoors I love to do outdoor stuff with my kids fishing water war biking so there's so many things you can do about a hidden Birmingham they're not too far from it and also the people the people have been really friendly to us don't get me wrong they've been really friendly and and you learn different things every every time you go out you learn something new you learn about new restaurant new places festivals so there's there's still learning there's so many things on it but I like it so far it's been good and all the good things they bring in is just just the the culture over here in Birmingham deliver everything that's for everybody and where did you come from before Birmingham I live on Florida I live on the Panhandle I live there for 70 years quite some time so I was working over there on restaurants I did literally everything so I work on restaurants I start from dishwasher to server then managing and this and that and I was manager of a restaurant for 11 years more than that for more than that and get to a point that I hey I wanna make next step I wanna do my own restaurant and the next challenge and I met some good people good friends now here in Birmingham they own some restaurants over here and it was like a back and forth for like a year or so we decide to to start over here and uh and I move here so you went on this journey with two of them four of them four so you're five total okay okay what a journey I'm sure that equipped you to really understand how a restaurant needs to be run yeah and the good thing you know a couple of partners that I have they've been on the restaurant business for longer than we are they do really good so it's not like a challenge because there's something that I know about Mexican restaurants stuff like that but they they're pretty smart and I've been learning a lot so I would say you never stop learning you always gonna learn something new something new all the time you know the older you get the little harder to get sometimes you know hard head you are but cause you have your own way your own way exactly it's harder but you will always gonna try to learn more and getting better do it for the good so it's been a challenge but it's been a good challenge this restaurant because I've been learning a lot and I've been doing a lot of things that I was when I look back sometimes myself where I was and where I am right now it does make you think like man I always think about dream about doing this so try to take advantage of it and enjoy it not just get nervous about what's going on the thing you're doing is stressful but also enjoy all those moments too it's hard sometimes but you need to step back a little bit and so far it's been so good that's something to be so proud about and it is it is it is it is because coming from Mexico and when I was 14 years old and from where I was to where I am right now a big challenge and I had to be proud of it that's true you have to be proud of it well congratulations on this journey thank you thank you I think it really is something to be proud of thank you thank you what do you hope people feel when they walk in oh I hope they feel happy one of my thing feel like you're on a like a little journey Mexico with our food especially with our tacos our burritos hopefully they have a really good experience that way they can come back and see us again and be a friend of us because I've been on the on this business for a little while you always met people and it's only because I have friends from Florida I met up through the restaurant and 10 12 years they're still good friends of mine we hang out once in a while call stuff like that yeah you never know what you never know you never know you're always gonna meet interesting people and amazing people and I want them to feel happy and whenever they're like where we gonna go oh let's go to Trump about taco why because they're nice to us make them feel comfortable for home if someone came here for the very first time what story would you want them to leave with about how amazing that food is share my hometown basically now is there a dish on your menu that your family only made for a specific holiday or a specific Celebration back home that you've made an everyday menu item here there's two items I would say the barbacoa for weddings for birthdays the carne asada basically so every weekend you gonna go you gonna see a a game or you getting together after church or you going camping you're gonna make a car of the father for everything you wanna do on the weekend sit down together drinking a beer talking you do a carne asada you going to the park you doing a carne asada going to a birthday party yeah let's make some carne asada so I would say carne asada the main thing yes can you expand on carne asada is it the type of meat is it the seasoning or is it the way you cook it the meat and the seasoning too as well what basically is the meat that you grill it you cook it and make the taco but they can be different seasoning okay the seasoning here that's kind of our own family recipe that we use but basically carne asada is any kind of steak that you just get it like a little grill and just throw all the meat right there season it real fast throw it in there put a little bit of beer on it and on the tortilla cilantro with with onions PICO de Gallo and boom eat it and then especially salsa spicy salsa okay spicy from a scale from 1 to 10 10 being the spiciest where is your preferred my level mine the if it's for a taco or burrito I would say like 8 9 I like it spicy not I don't need everything spicy don't get me wrong just a few dishes that you do enough to get you sweaty yeah and when you eat in it you have the tortilla it's all just dripping OK ha ha ha Mexican food gets flattened into tacos and burritos by a lot of people who've never had home cooking your region even though you said tacos and burritos are a big part of it is there a dish you make that you wish people understood is actually from a very specific state or town in Mexico and not just Mexican food quote unquote as a whole or as one big category ah I will go to the beach that's a really popular on Mexico yes especially when you have a big hangover okay to the beach uh caldo de camarón shrimp cocktail I think those one of the ones really super popular on Mexico that not many people know that we we have those kind of those plates what's a good Mexican ceviche because there's different variations oh there's so many there's so many yeah so what are some key ingredients in yours we can make ceviche with with fish shrimp or we can make it also as well with a steak uh huh depends on the side that we use you can do like a a a rib eye cook it slide it and put a good salsa negra on top of it that's had to be spicy too okay had to be spicy what's that sound nigga I don't know I just use something it's your special recipe special recipe yeah so coming soon on a monthly special at the restaurant that one yeah I think I think it needs to happen thank you so much Abo I appreciate it thank you for your time I appreciate it that wraps up our conversation with Ablo Alvaro from trampled by Tacos Next week we're pulling up to a different table hurry up now bringing Indian street food to Birmingham if you loved learning where burrito comes from today wait until you hear what's behind some of the dishes on their menu if you wanna try what we talked about today carne asada and all you'll find them at 53 63 US 2 80 Birmingham Alabama every plate has a story let's find the next one together