781: Alan Delgado Spent Years Developing The Perfect Flour Tortillas for Los Burritos Juarez

22:39It definitely adds to it. I think what I enjoyed the most was seeing how connected we are. Right. There's so many cuisines and whether it's a spice or a technique. It's like, yeah, we all kind of eat a lot of the same things.

22:51Alan Delgado:Yeah, I love seeing those kinds of different variations of things that have that kind of similar core going on. Yeah, it's beautiful. So when did you decide to come to New York? So 2019, my lease was up. Well, I was in our relationship and that ended. And I had two choices, whether move out or sign another lease. And I had already spent a little over a decade in Austin and I was a little bored. And so I always wanted to live in New York. And so I said, you know, I'm going to take a little trip and then move to New York. I had an interview at Oshomoko. So, go on the trip, come back. But I landed in Amsterdam in March of 2020.

23:35Alan Delgado:Great timing. So, everything shut down. Went back home to see my family. And then in May of 2020, Justin called me and he goes, hey, do you want to move over here and do it? And so, I rented a van, moved to Austin, or went to Austin to pick up my things. and then moved over here. It was crazy. That must have been such a crazy time to be entering into the restaurant business in New York and cooking. And there were so many different, I remember, like regulations and even eras of dining that people were experiencing. It was a wild time. Also, I got approved for my apartment when I was driving. I didn't know where I was going to sleep that night.

24:15Alan Delgado:Probably a good time to find an apartment, honestly. It was. It definitely was. It was also a nice introduction into the city. because I'm from a small town, and then I went to another small town. And then moving to New York, I feel like I would have been overwhelmed at the beginning. But that was kind of a very slow, easy way to see the city. And then it opened, and it was a madhouse. Yeah, I mean, I would ask if it was what you expected, but I feel like the city changed. So even maybe what you would have expected couldn't have existed. I've been here a couple times before, but I feel like visiting and living are such.

24:53Alan Delgado:Totally. Just going on your everyday task is quite different. So I didn't know what to expect. I just knew I wanted to live here. I wanted that challenge of being in New York, to see all those other cultures eat, to have everything within my fingertips. And I'm very glad I did. It whooped in my ass. Yeah, I imagine even just the kind of food you're able to do. And the fact that you were doing a pop-up, which kind of led to Los Burritos Juarez, I feel like that was such a rich time for pop-ups in New York. Was that maybe one of the reasons why you started doing a pop-up in the first place? No, I was homesick.

25:32Okay. I was homesick and I had left. So after Oshomoko, we opened a vegan Mexican restaurant called Zilinan. And then after a while, I was just, I was, I don't know, sometimes you get to a point where you just don't want to work for anybody anymore. But I didn't have the funds to open my own place. And so I quit. And I was at home bored. It was the first time I've had a month off or something like that since I started cooking. And one day I was like, all right, I'm homesick. I need money. Let's make some burritos, no? But I never made flour tortillas. a couple of times at Comedor, but it wasn't my recipe.

26:11It wasn't my technique. And so I was like, let's give it a try. And they were pretty bad. The tortillas were quite awful at the beginning.

26:19Alan Delgado:Yeah. But it was fun because I would sell them on Instagram and then just opened my window. I lived on the first floor. People would come. I'm here to pick up for Jorge, whatever. And then I would make their burritos. And then little by little line would form. And then neighbors would be like, what is happening here? And so they kind of became my PR. And a lot of them still come to the restaurant, which is quite lovely. When you were kind of trying to perfect your flour tortilla, what was the goal that you were aspiring to? And how did you kind of figure out the path to get there? So where I'm from, El Paso, Juarez area, our tortillas are very thick.

27:00They're not like Sonora style where they're a little more thin, a little chewy. or a little more fluffy, and I've never had them outside of that region. And so I was trying to recreate that, the fluffiness, the almost cloud-like tortilla, because I feel the tortilla is 50 % of the burrito. So it's a very important part.

27:23Alan Delgado:I feel like it's maybe even more important than 50%. I think so. So I was trying to do that, but I was overworking the dough. So I was adding too much water, not enough water or too much fat, not letting it rest enough. I think I was just overthinking it. I'm not a bread person, so I was lost. But with trial and error, eventually I figured out just to kind of pay respects to the dough and not try to do too much. And it was just resting and hydration at the end of the day. And, yeah, I was so happy when I first had it. They really are so delicious. And it is a style of burrito that I hadn't really had before.

28:05Alan Delgado:And I grew up in Los Angeles. There's like so much different kind of Mexican food there. They're great there too. They're great there too. But the Sonoran style, I was much more familiar with. So when I had your flour tortillas and I had that kind of like, you know, it wasn't such a prolonged bite, but there's more kind of chew to it. There's more fluff to it. When I experienced that, I thought it was really cool to think about what kinds of fillings pair really well with this style of tortilla. Like, how did you kind of come up with the maybe other 50 percent or however much we're going to say that is?

28:33A lot of them are classics. So the verde is a classic. Colorado as well. Bean and cheese. I just put my little spin on it. So there's lengua, but I do it in habanero because I love spicy food. The charron is one of my favorite, but it's very intense. I don't have it every once in a while. To me, the highlight is the bean and cheese.

28:53Alan Delgado:Me too. It's just the tortilla really shines. And then, I don't know, beans and cheese. Who doesn't like bean and cheese? I feel like it's become easier. But when I first moved to New York, it was definitely not as easy to find a good just bean and cheese taco or bean and cheese burrito. And there is so much pleasure in just that kind of molten, cheesy, beany experience. It's the best. I also love it because you can pair it with whatever seltas. Right. Sometimes a stew doesn't require another salsa, but I think the bean and cheese you can just drow down and enjoy it. But yeah, there wasn't a lot of bean and cheese in the last, what, eight months, nine months?

29:34Now there's a boom of bean and cheese.

29:38Alan Delgado:Yeah, it's a good time for everyone's digestive systems. We're talking about these tortillas and these guisao fillings, but maybe for someone who isn't familiar with the Juarez-style burrito, there's not rice going on, right? No rice. So it's just a fresh flour tortilla and a stew. You can add beans if you want. We do it at the shop just because... It's like a little slick of bean, though. It's just to kind of glue the tortilla together. If you go to Cuara, sometimes they'll be like, nah, this one, I would not recommend it with beans. But, yeah, it's simple, simple, simple, simple. You can't really hide behind it.

30:18Alan Delgado:And the size also, it's a more petite kind of burrito. Yeah, I tell people it's about two tacos. It's a little heavier because of the flour tortilla, but, yeah, you're going to have two, sometimes three. What we do at home is you kind of buy eight or ten burritos, and you just put them on the counter, and you just kind of eat them throughout the day. See how many you can get through. That's right. You mentioned the importance of salsa a bit before. How did you decide which salsas you wanted to include in the restaurant? I mean, my favorite is salsa habanero because I just love heat, but I didn't think people were going to enjoy it as much.

30:56So I just wanted to go with the classics, something that people really understood. So we're not also trying to explain the salsas. And I think with a stew, the hearty stews, the salsa verde has tomatillos. That acidity helps cut through that. And then the chipotle one, I just want a smoky type of flavor in there.

31:18Alan Delgado:Yeah. I really like that one. I feel like it layers really well with the bean and cheese in particular. I like to do half and half. Oh. Okay, expert tip. You are talking about your restaurant background and some of these restaurants that you worked at are so incredible. And they have maybe like a super wide variety of things that are on the menu and things that you're rotating in and out. And maybe like Los Burritos in comparison is maybe smaller in terms of like the breadth of things that you're doing. Does it feel different to be working in this kind of arena? It sure does. And I kind of like it a little more.

31:55especially at what I'm about to be 38 I don't really want to be running around yeah I mean I am but in a different way yeah I don't know that that life is not for me anymore I really enjoy it's also better for my team they know what to expect every day they come in this is what we do there's no changing the menu every day which I love those type of places I just I don't think there for me anymore.

32:21Alan Delgado:I feel like there's also so much to say about a place that is constantly like iterating and perfecting their craft on this one kind of genre of thing. I think the results can kind of speak for themselves. And there are certainly like still ways you can be creative and like change things up as you want them to be. Yeah. And it's fun because my team will reach out and say, hey, the tortillas aren't that great today. What do you think is wrong? And so So we troubleshoot it, and then they learn in that way. And then the next time they encounter that problem, they don't need to call me. They automatically know what to do.

32:56Alan Delgado:Right. And, man, I do have a fantastic set of people working for me. They've been with me since day one, and they are very proud. Although it's funny, we had some accolades this year. And the funniest one was the New York Times one. So we had a star and they were like, oh, no, are we going to have to close? I was like, no. They're like, one out of four, though. We suck. I was like, no, guys. This is a good thing. So they're learning. I just want them to take pride in their work. And they do, but to understand the impact that they've had in a city of thousands of restaurants. And so now they're kind of getting it and it's fun to see them grow in that way.

33:50Alan Delgado:Absolutely. And I think understanding the intricacies of the New York Times restaurant starring system is one thing. But to see the number of people that come into the shop every day and the amount of people that return to it, there must be a sense of, look at this line of people that are waiting to come and stand in front of me while I beautifully wrap and give them this burrito. Yeah, that was our biggest surprise when we first opened. It was just three of us. Yeah. We had no PR. We had no nothing. We barely opened. And so we didn't expect so many people to arrive, especially in a neighborhood like Fort Green where it's not very accessible by train, mostly by bus.

34:29And I don't know. I've lived there for, what, going on, four years? And my wife has lived in that area for about 17 years, and we just had never seen anything like that. So we didn't expect it. And the opening day, we just see someone sit down on the bench. I was like, oh, maybe they're tired. And then another one and another one. And then Brandon, our first hire, he's like, is there a line outside? We're like, oh, shit. And he's maintained that way. And we thought I was going to die down fairly quickly, but it kind of lasted until December. is a wild welcoming.

35:11Alan Delgado:Yeah. And I think part of it is that you have this beautiful kind of open window, like indoor-outdoor kind of setup. It's a nice place to stand and wait. And I think there's been a lot of discourse about lines in New York recently. But I think the way that your line is efficient and it's a nice place to stand, I think it's maybe less of like a negative line situation. That discourse is funny to me. Because it's like, look, these restaurants are tiny. Where do you want 100 people to sit? Right. I think maybe it's more of the idea of virality that people take issue with with social media. But I think 50 years ago, there have always been places in New York that a lot of people want to go to.

35:51Yeah. I just think viral is kind of crazy when you go viral. The expectation that is set on you is unreal, unrealistic sometimes. You know, because if you wait for 45 minutes in line and then. Is it like worth it in quotes? Right. And then you get to the counter and then others, there's more waiting. And I think automatically at that point people are a little turned off by it. And so for us it was always just like, just give us a chance. We were just starting. We had no ovens. We had no nothing. We were doing on camping stoves and induction burners. And so what we could produce was very limited.

36:29But then month three, we were able to expand the kitchen and things move a lot quicker now. Even if the line forms, we kind of run through it fairly quickly.

36:39Alan Delgado:Totally. Nine months into the business, where would you say you're at in terms of operations or things that you're trying to perfect and work on? That's a good question. Right now, we are trying to expand with management. Not that nine months in, everyone, like I said, everyone knows exactly what is required of them. So myself as an owner, I'm just in the way at this point. And so my goal now is to expand. I don't want to expand in New York. I feel like one is enough in New York City. But we are expanding in different forms. So we partner up with coffee shops and bars. and that has, I wouldn't say it's challenging because the delivering is the most challenging part of that.

37:28Most people are in Brooklyn. There's one account here in the Upper West Side. But as I start to open other concepts, we're trying to find who's going to be that person. So we hired a GM, so he's now in charge of the day-to-day. Eventually we'll hire a chef for the company. but yeah those the how to grow and how to grow uh responsibly is the biggest challenge and having such a small space where like you can only fit what 10 people inside another four outside yeah it's how do we how do we maximize this little space right and rents are very expensive in new york and the cost of goods are very expensive so Well, you know, the more you make, the more you're actually spending.

38:14So now we made a million and that's all profit. It's not. A lot of it is gone immediately. So that's a challenge. How do we make more money out of these four walls with what we have? And I think the deliveries are a great example. Catering, just, you know, taco boxes are a fun way.

38:35Alan Delgado:The taco box is an interesting phenomenon to me. I feel like it's something that in recent years, I guess, Taco Ramirez, like they'll do like al pastor boxes sometimes when they have like leftover meat. I always see people posting about the taco box. I'm like, damn, I'm not living my life right. I have to go do this. We are so close to the park that it makes sense. And people have really been receptive to it. So we sell a good amount of them every week. And so, yeah, we're just, you know, it's my first time being an owner of a restaurant. And there's a lot that I learned as a cook, as a chef. but I never truly as an owner.

39:10And so it is a fun puzzle of like, all right, I know all of these things. And what are the missing pieces? And I think we're getting good at it. We have like, again, mostly because of my team. They allow me to step away and see the business in a different way and try to make those decisions that will help us grow.

39:33Alan Delgado:What's something about being an owner that surprised you when you became one?

39:39I think what surprised me the most is how greedy owners are in restaurants. Because we're so owners. I mean, my wife put a little bit of money, and so did my dad, and then the restaurant loan, so there's nobody else. And it was fun to see that, like, yeah, you can really share the pie. You can really give your staff more. You can do some profit share with your team. And even though they don't really understand what it is, I think it's a way to move the industry forward where it's like you don't need 100 % of it. You can take 60, you can take 70 and share that and then teach that to your employees so that if they open something themselves, they're able to take that with them and continue that.

40:26Alan Delgado:I like that. I like seeing your footprint as you guys grow. Just seeing like Prima's Coffee Shop I love in the neighborhood, having your breakfast burritos or the other accounts. How do you kind of think about who you want to be partnering with in a wholesale way? So, I mean, we will take as many people as we can. It's not, I think it is a business at the end of the day. So we will partner with whoever wants to partner with us and it makes sense. I mean, not if they're far, far, far. But Andrea is the one that is in charge of all of that. She has hit up so many accounts and just silence from a lot of people.

41:06That's crazy to me because I feel like it's such a need, I think, to be at like a coffee shop or a bar and be hungry. I need to eat something that you're actually excited to eat and that will fill you up. Yeah, and it's not a pastry. Totally.

41:22Alan Delgado:I love a savory pastry, but my body probably needs more than that. I don't know. I think it all takes time. Totally. The word gets out and I don't know. Even in a big city like this, it takes time for things to get out there. And the fun thing is that Prima is, what, less than a mile away from us? And it doesn't affect us. It doesn't affect our business. It's so funny for New Yorkers to be like, that's too far. I'm not walking over there. It is a different side of the neighborhood. But it's not that far. Right, but... They're like, I'm not going over there. This is because I also live in Fort Greene.

42:04Alan Delgado:I used to live closer to Prima, and now I live closer to Burrito Suarez. Prima's too far. I will still go to Prima because I love Prima. But if I need to get a quick coffee in the morning, then I would probably go to something on my side. Prima is more of my having coffee with a friend or sitting in the backyard kind of situation. That backyard is nice. It is nice. I feel like I need to go at night when they do summer movies and things. Oh, I didn't know that. Wine. Ooh. Maybe a burrito. I guess the burritos probably would not make it to evening. People probably would make it to us. No, they sell out.

42:39Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting to see what will happen once the school is out. Because a lot of the parents come with their kids, and so they immediately sell out.

42:49Alan Delgado:Yeah. When Daryl took over Prima, Prima is a really great cafe in the kind of basement of a brownstone that used to be a different cafe in the neighborhood called Primrose. And Daryl told me that when they switched ownership, all of the moms from the school came in and said, we're so happy to have you here. Please don't take the teddy bear cookie off the menu. Because they get them for their kids every day. Sometimes it's pressed by the glass and they're just. Yeah, the bears are getting pushed by other pastries. And she brought a great menu of new pastries in, but the teddy bear cookies are still on the menu.

43:21You got to listen to your neighborhood. You have to listen to your neighborhood. Otherwise, you're, I guess, just fighting against them.

43:28Alan Delgado:Right. And I think you see that in a lot of businesses in New York where you're very adamant about what you want to do. But if the neighborhood's not going to receive you, then you're going to have some tough times, I believe. Right. I think especially because New York, the city is so much of the neighborhood is such an extension of your home. Like people really, every time there's an empty storefront, I fantasize about what I want to go in that storefront. And if it's not what I think it's going to be, it's harder for me to come around on it. Yeah, and Fort Greene was my, since I lived in New York, I always kind of was missing my neighborhood.

44:00All my people were in Austin or in El Paso or in Juarez. And I moved here. You know, I had my wife and a couple of friends. But I didn't have that, yeah, that strong community vibe feeling. And while I was opening Los Burritos Juarez, I was outside all the time managing construction. And I met a lot of the neighborhood people, people that are from there that have lived their whole lives. And I got to know everyone and they were also welcoming. And to this day, there are a couple of older ladies that will come in the morning and they just come in. We chat and then they leave.

44:34Alan Delgado:I like that. And yeah, that's when I was like, OK, I do belong here. Do you get requests from the neighbors on like new menu items, things like that? No, booze mostly. It would be really nice to sit in that window and have like a Paloma or something like that. Soon. Hopefully soon. So do you have anything coming up that you want to share? Yeah. Early June, I partnered up with Ivy. She used to be the owner of Leyenda. And now she has a whoopsie-daisy. And she also owns Speed Rack, the competition. So her and then the owners of Celestine and Grand Army, we took over a spot in Dumbo, what it used to be, Grand Electrica.

45:23And we're opening a Mexican restaurant. So mid-June, we're going to do that. And then hopefully August, September, we'll open, by myself, a bar, Taqueria, in Chinatown.

45:38Alan Delgado:Wow. I'm really excited about both of these projects. For the restaurant, what kind of menu are you doing? We're focusing on northern Mexico as well, but paying homage to the rest of Mexico because everything is tied together. so you see some braises eventually some goat barbacoa yeah some fun aguachiles in there like a fried octopus aguachile with ayakota beans yeah it'll be a it'll be a work in progress but yeah I'm excited to do this with Ivy yeah I feel like her drinks are so delicious and the foods that you're talking about I'm excited to see what kind of drinks she's going to make to go with them she's an amazing person Also, goat barbacoa is not the easiest thing for me to find in New York, and I love it.

46:24Alan Delgado:So I'm really excited to hear you're going to be doing that. Yeah, I wanted to do, so when I was doing some R &D trips, there was this dish that I love with some goat ribs. And I just could not find them in New York. So once we open and get our footing, we'll start doing barbacoa with a whole goat. How are you doing that? We'll braise it in an oven and serve it with tortillas, kind of like build your own tacos. So that'll be exciting. Okay. And I feel like Dumbo is a very kind of like you're on the water, summer in New York kind of vibe. So a nice place to be going and eating and drinking all these things together.

47:02Yeah. And we have a massive patio. So it's right underneath the Brooklyn Bridge. So, yeah, a lot of tourists, a lot of wealthy people that live there. So it'll be a fun getting to know the neighborhood.

47:15Alan Delgado:Yeah. Well, my favorite like fancy vintage store of all time is right over there, which is Front Street General Store. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So if anyone is listening, that would be my proposed one-two activity. Maybe go to the store before you go eat and drink. Come on by. So that's less you have to look forward to afterwards. And then the bar in Chinatown, is it going to be, I assume, like a bar with a good food program happening as well? Yeah, so very simple, classic cocktails. I want people to come and not have to think about what they're drinking. So just classic beer and shot type of spot.

47:50And then tacos on flour tortilla. So we'll have a different type of barbacoa, cachete de puerco,

48:01crispy chicharrón. We had a lot of pork in the north. That's like our main thing. Pork, pork. Pork and cabrito. Yeah, that's going to be a fun project. The menu's not complete on that one, so we're still doing some R &D, but it'll be exciting.

48:18Alan Delgado:Does it feel any different to be opening a spa in Manhattan as opposed to in Brooklyn? I think it's a little more scary, yeah. But no, I'm excited. I'm around a couple of good near the Golden Diner, Bar Chucho, Bridges area. So it's growing. I really like a lot of those places that are open off Market Street over there. Also like Bond by Lauren, this amazing bakery. I'm excited because we're right in front of the park. Oh, I know exactly what spot you're talking about. So you walk out and you see the bridge. Yeah. The baseball. Oh, it's like New York exclamation point. Yeah. So I'm excited for that one.

49:00Yeah.

49:01Alan Delgado:Well, I'm really excited to go to both of those places. I'll be there. Well, I guess I'm curious if you have any Fort Greene restaurant recommendations for people. Yes. Romans. I love Romans. It's my favorite place in not just Fort Greene, but in New York. Yeah. I love the service. I love the... I feel like everyone is an adult in there. Or an adult with their children occasionally. Sometimes, but it's mostly just... Even the kids are kind of adults. I'm talking about the people working. They are all adults. Professional. Professionals. The food is constantly changing. There's a nice smokiness to everything.

49:39I What do you say? They're daily sour and daily bitter. Yeah, I don't know. My wife and I go a couple times a month, sometimes twice a week.

49:47Alan Delgado:I have to get the fava dip every time I go. Highly recommend. Yeah. And it just made, what, top 100 restaurants in New York? I believe so, yeah. What's sailor across the street is also delicious. They had a grilled beef tongue dish with horseradish and saunza verde. Delicious. Those are two spots. and then I also quite frequent all the time El Cofre. It's like a Dominican-style steam table. Yeah. I love those type of places. Rice, beans, and then a chicken or a stewed beef. I go there a lot too, actually, because I live really close and if I don't have time to make lunch, I'll go make a little plate there.

50:27Yeah.

50:28Alan Delgado:I also really like Marisco Submarino has a place down at Clint Hill. It's on Myrtle. They open, what, January? Just February? No. I think maybe at the end of last, I think last September they were open because I remember that was the first time that I went. And it's such a delicious style of Mexican food that's maybe a little bit less common to find in New York. So the fact that it opened in the larger neighborhood, I was very excited about. You said Mexican food is hard to find in New York? No, just the kind of like aguachile, like ceviche. Like I feel like it's not hard to find, but it's probably like a little bit less commonly represented, at least in a certain parts of the city.

51:01It wasn't as diverse, I think.

51:03Alan Delgado:Yeah. And now you're starting to see food from all over Mexico, which is fantastic because they all have their own unique little twist, but also very similar at the same time, like the base of it. I do like Mariscos del Submarino. Tarahua Chile Negro is lovely. I do like that one too. Spicy. Yeah. I also go to La Dina because of my friend Sylvia. I love that place. Yeah, I don't know. Those are my hits. They're great neighborhood hits. and obviously the park, which is the perfect... This episode is brought to you by Quince. Recently, I've been paying more attention to the items in my kitchen. Not the wedding stuff I pull out for the guests, but everyday pieces.

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54:34Alan Delgado:The place to take your burritos to go. In the spirit of talking about favorite places in the neighborhood, I want to play a rapid-fire game with you to close. Okay. Your favorite cookbook? I mean, forever it'll be R 'Ele cookbook. I just, I can never cook like that, but I just, it's such an informative cookbook. Your favorite music to listen to while cooking? Oh, man. That's a tough one because I like silence. Oh. But if I do, it'll be jazz or oldies. I'll accept silence as an answer. I love silence. Your favorite burrito on the menu at Los Burritos Juarez right now? Bean and cheese forever. Your favorite restaurant to go to when you go back to El Paso?

55:25There are several. There's what's called flautas el cometa. So it's these long skinny beef flautas. And then you just put lettuce on top, crema, avocado, onions, cucumber. It's just packed with things on top. There's an old school spot. Some people hate it, but it's called Chico's Tacos. I don't know if you've heard of it, but also beef lautas, but they're in this tomato broth. And then this yellow cheese that never melts.

55:58Alan Delgado:Why do people hate it? Should we not fuel that discord? No. I used to, I don't know, it was not always my favorite, but nostalgia kicked in. Okay. Nostalgia gives it a spot on the list. It does. I mean, I'll stop there. Okay. Okay. We'll take it. Your favorite taqueria in New York? It has to be either taqueria Ramirez or El Chato. Both so good. They are good. Do you have a go-to thing to order at each of them? One of everything. Okay. I do. But there's also carnitas Ramirez, which is, I don't know if you've been, but it is fantastic. And their torta. It's a weekend thing that they do? Lunch, I think.

56:39Alan Delgado:Lunch. Yeah. I feel like I remember being there at the wrong time to get it and feeling really disappointed in myself. Yeah, I mean, you should. Oh, El Paso. There's a taqueria called Taconeta. And it's one of the first to introduce heirloom corn masa. They're making, like, the cook and grind in-house. Also very good. Very good. Your favorite special occasion restaurant in New York? Ooh, I was going to say Romans, but... No, my wife and I really like oijimi or their tasting menu in the back. It's called bomb. Delicious. Your favorite bakery in New York? My favorite bakery. Ooh, I am not a baked goods type of guy.

57:21Alan Delgado:He just said you wanted one in the neighborhood. Yeah, but... Just for other people. You're a man of the people. I like Mexican bakeries. That's what I grew up with. So any bakery in Queens, I will enjoy. I just tried masa madre for the first time and it's phenomenal. It's really good. Yeah. Your go-to ice cream flavor. My wife really got me hooked on chocolate mint, chocolate chip mint. What do you call it? Mint chocolate chip. Yeah, that one. I love it. It's a little frustrating sometimes when you're biting on the little chips, but I love it. Do you want it to be green? Is it not green? If it's like artisanal, sometimes they don't dye it.

57:59Alan Delgado:Sometimes you get like the really green. Yeah, I like that one. more commercial one. Sometimes people die green. Sometimes they don't. I've never had not died. Okay. We'll fix that later. All right. Let's do it. Final question. Is a fictional food scene like from a book or a movie that you wish you could eat in real life? Forever and ever Matilda. When the kid's eating that chocolate cake. Big cake? Yes. You think you could do it? I could try. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I could put it down. Well, I would like to witness that and thanks so much for coming on the show, Alan. You're welcome.

58:37Alan Delgado:This is Taste is hosted and produced by Matt Rodbard and me, Eliza Abarbanel. The show is edited by lead producer Clayton Gumbert and supervised by Pat Stango, director of media production and development at Penguin Random House. Thanks to Shalia Harris and the production team at Penguin Random House. Theme music by Steve Rydell. Episode portraits by Louise Zergang Pomeroy. Logo design by Ellie Skurzat and Ian Dingham. Visit Taste online at tastecooking.com and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to keep updated on all cool things in the world of taste.

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