Find Tostadas Food Truck for a Taste of Guatemalan Cuisine

Emanuel Romero Guzman, owner of Tostadas Food Truck, was born in Antigua, Guatemala. "It's a mix of Mayan and Spanish culture, so that's what I cook. The food culture in Guatemala is huge," he says.

When he was in high school, he worked at his family's tortilla factory, making and delivering fresh tortillas to local restaurants. While his family owned and operated many small businesses, it was his experience at the tortilla factory that led him to pursue a career in food.

After graduation, Romero Guzman left the mountainous region of Antigua for the coast of Guatemala to attend culinary school. "My goal was to open something, mostly a coffee shop or cafe back in Antigua, because I like people and I like food," he adds. But then he met someone who changed his plans. "I'm part of the statistics of people who move out with a foreigner. ... I was in a relationship, and she asked me if I wanted to go check out New York, and I was like, 'Yeah, New York City sounds good."

He made the move to NYC in 2008, arriving with only a tourist visa, which didn't allow him to legally work. Despite that, "I wrote a bunch of restaurants, and one of them that replied to me was Mario Batali's Lupa," he recalls. "I was like, Monday through Friday, eight hours a day for three months, you got me for free. Like an internship. They accepted me, and after a couple of months, I got my green card and they hired me. So I started at that kitchen."

After he'd spent over a decade working in restaurants across New York City, in 2019 a close friend convinced him to move to Boulder, and he fell in love with the mountains and biking. In a way, he says, it reminded him of where he grew up.

He landed a job at Strade Bianche Cafe, a Tuscan cycling cafe on Boulder's Pearl Street Mall. He was working there in 2020 when he got a tip from a friend. "'Listen, a couple of blocks from here, my friend Steve Fenberg has a truck in his backyard. You should go see it, because I don't think he uses it,'" Romero Guzman recalls being told.
Two weeks later, the pandemic shut down indoor dining. "I didn't have a job, and I was scared," Romero Guzman remembers. "I needed to find something to do. So I'm thinking about that truck and I go talk to Steve, and he says, 'If you fix it, it's yours.' I picked it up and built it in the driveway."

In July 2020, Romero Guzman officially launched Tostadas Food Truck. "The concept comes from the small size of the truck," he explains. "Tostadas are a big part of my cultural background. In Antigua, women will come from the mountains with baskets full of tostadas and beans. It's very efficient and doesn't occupy a lot of space. So they set up in churches and on corners and sell two to three tostadas per order, mainly black beans and avocados. But I expanded because it's America — so I have meat and stuff."

Romero Guzman says his favorite part of running the business is introducing people to Guatemalan cuisine. "I have cooked so many other foods and never really cooked Guatemalan food professionally," he notes. "That's what excites me, being able to share my background with people."

His favorite menu item is the traditional black bean tostada. "I grew up eating them," he says. "You can find them all over Guatemala...but I also really enjoy the pork fritango with avocado. We prepare the pork with onion, garlic and tomatoes and then serve it with salsita and pickled cabbage. The base is avocado, and then the pork is on top."

The truck also serves steak and chicken tostadas, and a vegetarian version made with locally grown fungi from Jacob's Mushrooms. You can try a classic breakfast tostada as well, made with sofrito and scrambled eggs served on top of black bean spread and smashed avocado.

This summer, you can find Tostadas Food Truck at the City Park Farmers Market on Saturdays and the Highlands Square Farmers Market on Sundays. For more information, including the truck's weekday schedule, visit tostadasfoodtruck.com or follow it on Instagram @tostadasfoodtruck.