Where can you find birria with a modern twist in the San Fernando Valley? Today on Eat Live Love San Fernando Valley, we’re at Cerda Vega Food Truck in Granada Hills. Let’s go see what they’re all about.

The San Fernando Valley has a lot to offer: Amazing food, rich history, tons of community events, and amazing people and organizations. I’m Scott Himelstein with the Scott Himelstein Group, and this is Eat Live Love San Fernando Valley.

Lorenzo! How are you? Pretty good. I’m so happy to be here. You guys are one of my favorite food trucks in the valley, so we’re excited to feature you guys. So tell me a bit about the name Cerda Vega, where did it come from and what are you guys all about? Cause there are a lot of Mexican food and Mexican food trucks in the valley.

So we’re Cerda Vega Food Truck. The name came from our last names. So I’m Lorenzo Cerda. And then my business partner is Daniel Vega. So we thought we would bring those together and then bring you Cerda Vega Food Truck. It’s Cerda Vega, not sorta vegan. Although we are vegan friendly but we’re definitely not a vegan truck. So we specialize in birria de res. We’re a modern birrieria. What we mean by that, is we have your traditional tacos, burritos, vampiros, why not, but we also decided to give it a little spin. When we added the ramen into our menu, we don’t use your cup of soup that you can find at the store. We use actual ramen. So we take a lot of pride in being one of the first trucks that started doing this three years ago where we’re actually using actual ramen.

One of the things that you guys are most popular for is your Mexican French dip. What is that?

So basically, let’s see, a Mexican French dip. A Mexican French dip is a torta. A lot of people come to us and say, why not call it a torta? Because we’re different. And we try and do things differently and it’s catchy. And it’s basically a roll, a torta roll. We put grilled cheese on it. We put the birria. We top it off with onions and cilantro, super simple. We serve it with an order of French fries. And then of course the French dip part comes when we give you the cup of consumé for you to dip your sandwich.

Man, it sounds incredible. I can’t wait to try it out.

And you shall.

And finally, you guys have your own take on egg rolls.

We do. So a lot of people come to the truck and they wanna try the egg rolls. What are the egg rolls about? Are they taquitos? Nope. They’re not taquitos. They’re actual egg rolls. We use traditional egg roll wrappers and we took, we actually put birria, cheese, onions, and cilantro, roll ‘em up and deep fry ‘em, and then we serve it with our own salsa, which is our take on an Asian salsa, but with our twist. So it’s basically it’s a chili garlic sauce, but with our own twist on it, where it doesn’t taste necessarily like something you would get at a Chinese restaurant, it has a little Mexican feel to it, but it’s really, really good. I can’t wait for you to try that as well.

Well, I’m starving. Let’s go in the kitchen and see how you make all this.

Let’s do it.

So guys, if you like birria, or if you’ve never tried birria, this is a place I highly recommend. So I can’t wait to dive into all this great food.  The first one’s gonna be the Mexican French dip that Lorenzo talked about. Let’s dive in. You gotta pick it up. Right, first you gotta dip it in the consumé a little bit. And then add some of the red hot sauce. You know me, the spicier, the better. Let’s take a bite.

This is truly an explosion of flavor from the first bite when you dig into this sandwich. So first you got the soft bread and then you got the even softer, the juicy birria that’s just full of juice that’s just oozing out of the sandwich. You dip it in the consumé, which adds even more flavor. And of course, some spiciness from the red salsa. Just, overall, something that you will really enjoy if you’ve never had birria before.

Alright, let’s move on to the egg rolls.

When you think of egg rolls, you always think of the Chinese egg roll. Those usually have the shredded cabbage, stir fried green onions, soy sauce, and chopped meat. And this, because they deep fry it and filled with barrio, it’s gonna have a completely different texture as well as flavor to it. And they got their own sauce that they recommend for it. It might be hard to go back to the regular egg roll after eating one of these. So, of course, like we said before, it’s not flaky. It has the chewiness from being fried on the outside. Inside, the juiciness and the tender birria, which is so incredible. And then, plus the sauce, they have the garlic chili sauce. And what adds a little bit of kick to it, their take on it is they have a little bit of Chipotle style flavor in it.

So everything here on the menu, you’re gonna really like. Cerda Vega Food Truck, well, typically you can find them on Friday nights in Granada Hills at the Granada Hills Food Trucks on Chatsworth Street between White Oak and Zelzah. They’re a food truck, so make sure you follow them on social media to find out their exact location and time that they’re gonna be wherever they may actually be.

If you like this episode, make sure you like, comment, share, which is the most important, so we can help these guys. And again, look at this inventive menu of modern day birria. So come out and support these guys and we look forward to seeing you next time on Eat Live Love San Fernando Valley.

Follow them on their social media accounts:​​
Website: https://www.cerdavegatacos.com/
​​​​​​Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cerdavegafoodtruck/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cerdavegatacos/