\u201cThey\u2019re even picking up people who have legal status<\/a>, and they\u2019re just coming right back,\u201d said Wes Avila, the chef of Mexican restaurants MXO and Ka\u2019teen. \u201cJust the stress of all that, it\u2019s kind of a pain. So he left for Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n Chef Wes Avila, left, with his father, Jose Luis Avila, in Pico Rivera in 2025.<\/p>\n (Photo from Wes Avila)<\/p>\n His father owns a home and a plot of land in his birthplace of Durango. Now in retirement, he visits it frequently to tend to the property and his garden there. But this trip felt different, spurred by dread instead of a need for relaxation. Avila encouraged the trip: He couldn\u2019t stomach the thought of his father being apprehended while out on a hike or shopping.<\/p>\n So Avila, missing his dad, cooks a Durango-style stew studded with beef, potatoes and chiles: a taste of family while they\u2019re apart.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen he\u2019s not around, that\u2019s something I like to make,\u201d Wes Avila said. \u201cIt connects me to him. I talk to him every other day, and we have a very close relationship.\u201d <\/p>\n Jose Luis Avila, father of chef Wes Avila, in their Pico Rivera home kitchen in 1989.<\/p>\n (Photo from Wes Avila)<\/p>\n Avila\u2019s father made his way to California in 1974 after cousins in Whittier recommended he join them in working toward a more prosperous future. He landed a job at a car wash, then at a paper factory, where he remained until his retirement. Shortly after his arrival in L.A. he met his wife, Julia \u201cJudy\u201d Luz Alicia Ponce Avila. They married the following year and soon started a family. <\/p>\n In addition to L.A.\u2019s sprawl of pan-cultural cuisine, Avila was raised on his parents\u2019 cooking. His father would cook menudo for Christmas and occasionally barbecue, but his caldillo was a staple year-round: a meaty soup sopped up with fresh tortillas picked up from specialists on his way home from work. His mother cooked more frequently, and one of the children\u2019s favorite dishes featured thick, creamy avocado sauce draped over freshly fried beef taquitos.<\/p>\n Chef Wes Avila, lower left, enjoys a meal with his mom, Julia \u201cJudy\u201d Luz Alicia Ponce Avila, in El Sauzal, Ensenada, in 1984.<\/p>\n (Photo from Wes Avila)<\/p>\n His mother was born in Lincoln Heights with a Texan father and a Concho grandmother. Avila feels the dish encapsulates influences from all of these roots, as well as 1960s Americana (sometimes she\u2019d use canned beef in lieu of fresh meat).<\/p>\n Cooking these dishes, Avila said, is also a way to find comfort during a time of precarity and fear in L.A.\u2019s restaurant industry \u2014 in part due to the threat of ICE raids<\/a>, and also general business instability<\/a> as customers, vendors and staff remain home. When possible, he said, dine at independent restaurants.<\/p>\n \u201cGo and support your local food stands,\u201d Avila said. \u201cGo and support mom-and-pop restaurants, because they need that.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a restaurateur and as a chef, our restaurants are suffering as well but ours have a little bit more backing to be able to keep going, as opposed to some of these that are running on their own. Just go eat. And don\u2019t let these guys [ICE] into your restaurants.\u201d<\/p>\n Eating out this week? Sign up for Tasting Notes<\/a> to get our restaurant experts\u2019 insights and off-the-cuff takes on where they\u2019re dining right now.<\/p>\n Caldillo Duranguense from Wes Avila\u2019s Dad, Jose<\/p>\n This Durango-inspired stew comes together quickly \u2014 and can come together even more rapidly with the use of time-saving chiles pasados. It\u2019s also an adaptable recipe: This stew is hearty and satisfying on its own, but Avila recommends using it as a filling in burritos too. This was a favorite dish of Avila\u2019s mom, Judy, and her children\u2019s favorite dish to eat at home. The cuts of meat can be flexible \u2014 so flexible, in fact, that even canned beef could do for the filling. Once freshly fried, these taquitos get smothered in a thick avocado sauce, which Avila likens to the aguacate found in L.A. Tex-Mex restaurants in the \u201880s and \u201890s. (Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Newsletter You are reading our Cooking newsletter Sign up to get a taste of Los Angeles \u2014 and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":79102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,44954,44962,44957,44960,44956,3043,44953,6276,2961,224,2444,5337,11148,44961,44959,44955,44958,6620],"class_list":{"0":"post-79101","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-caribbean-recipe","11":"tag-curry","12":"tag-dish","13":"tag-good-caribbean-restaurant","14":"tag-hot-sauce","15":"tag-hour","16":"tag-jerked-catfish","17":"tag-l-a","18":"tag-la","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-los-angeles-times","21":"tag-losangeles","22":"tag-minute","23":"tag-restaurant-expert","24":"tag-scotch-bonnet-pepper","25":"tag-spice","26":"tag-spice-courtesy","27":"tag-time"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114887960136812305","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Get the recipe.<\/a>
Cook time: About 1 hour. Serves 6 to 8.<\/p>\n Beef Taquitos from Wes Avila\u2019s Mom, Judy<\/p>\n
Get the recipe. <\/a>
Cook time: About 2 hours, depending on choice of meat. Makes 16 taquitos.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n