Big Easy not so easy on taco vendors

"Satan gave me a taco, and it made me really sick.
The rice was all rancid and the grease was mighty thick...
There were aphids on the lettuce, and I ate every one.
And when I was done, the salsa melted off my tongue." - Beck

From the hubbub, you would think a taco stand like the one that singer/songwriter/rapper Beck describes had just opened up in New Orleans.

Instead, there have been no reports of widespread foodborne illness, yet Jefferson Parish in New Orleans has passed regulations that have some alleging racism, not sickening tacos.

As the news writer suggests, that's odd for a town where politicians "have long turned a blind eye to whites and blacks peddling shrimp out of pickup trucks and snow cones on the street," but "recently outlawed the rolling Mexican kitchens, calling them an unwelcome reminder of what Hurricane Katrina brought."

What Hurricane Katrina brought were scores and scores of Latino laborers to rebuild the city. The article notes that New Orleans' population, once 460,000-strong with about 15,000 Latinos, now is just 260,000-strong, with about 50,000 Latinos now living there.

This cultural change has ushered in a new cuisine, one that many in New Orleans have embraced. Yet others haven't.

The new rule in Jefferson Parish states that any mobile vendor selling cooked food must offer restrooms and washing stations.

The article notes that, "Advocates of reclaiming the old ways see new establishments that do not build upon the city's reputation, and might not even be permanent, as a barrier to progress. As Oliver Thomas, president of the New Orleans City Council, recently said in an interview with the Times-Picayune, "How do the tacos help gumbo?" "

I certainly would be sad if New Orleans' distinctive creole cuisine were to be washed away, but I just don't see it happening. In the meantime, I'm sure the creative chefs there will find new ways to fuse together the foods of the cultures. That sort of open-minded ingenuity is what created the New Orleans taste in the first place.