Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Mike Obedoza. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Mike, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

The Filipino tacos idea came after a trip to the Philippines. I was born and raised in Carson, a city south of LA, and my dad took me across the pacific after I completed culinary school to learn about the motherland. Filipino culture has a word for food to have with beer, Pulutan (pah-luh-tan), and since we were there on vacation, the local brew, San Miguel was flowing daily. I couldn’t get enough of a Pulutan dish, Sizzling Pork Sisig. I was instantly in love. Sisig is served on a cast iron plate, kind of like how fajitas come out at a restaurant, it’s smoky and makes presence every time it enters a room. Sisig is pork braised until soft, kissed on a grill for smoke, marinated in soy sauce over night, chopped the next day and then sauteed till crispy and finally finished with onions, bell peppers and hit with an overwhelming amount of calamansi – a citrus that is like an orange and lime had a baby. If you wanted a touch of spice, you can ask for a side of labuyo – a red chili native to the country. It was perfect while drinking, Sisig is pork sweet, fatty and umami from that soy sauce and the brightness from the Calamansi was everything delicious that had me wanting this over everything, time-and-time again on that trip.
When I came back to the states, I was craving it and in chef form, I was looking to elevate the whole dish, knowing Pork was good with apples and started to take things a step further with my Mexican influences being from LA, and added jicama, lime and cilantro. The coleslaw was weird to eat on a sizzling plate so i got a tortilla and put it altogether and it was my best creation. What tripped me out about the dish though, was that it defined me, at the core Filipino but, was the fusion of Mexican in a taco and it was so fudging delicious.

I had a birthday party and delivered my new found creation for free. After the party, the guests were asking where they can get more and I was like this doesn’t exist anywhere else. I would get invited to do chef events at inline skating events and i would make these tacos.

I kind of just sat on the idea for years. I got out of working in a professional kitchen and was sitting at a desk as a marketing operations manager in e-commerce. At the tail end of covid, everyone was itching to get back out so I got with my skate entrepreneur friends and hosted an event every first sunday of the month and it got popular. It was the best Sunday ever, I’d blade a skatepark and eat some amazing tacos. I branded the concept, Banger Tacos and expanded the menu with Chicken adobo which tasted like it was missing onions and cilantro, Beef Mechado and a smoked jackfruit taco for the vegetarians.

I started to get invited to cater events and started going to breweries and went to food festivals. Then i just got into this place, where my curiosity got me wondering what if I went all-in on this and so I took the leap, going full-time selling filipino inspired tacos at any event I can get my hands on.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I grew up aggressive inline skating in the city of carson and after high school during my undergrads I made skate video sections for my inline skate boot sponsors. I competed in inline skate competitions and won 1st place in several street competitions. I went to school for business management, specializing in restaurants hoping to start a restaurant skatepark. I moved to Napa for a year to complete an accelerated culinary arts certificate at the culinary institute of america. I moved back to southern california and I tried to find a way to combine my passion for inline skating and culinary arts by creating a blog called blading with chef knives, documenting the food I’d eat at locations I’d go to on my skating adventures. I cooked in several hotel restaurants throughout southern california from the Hyatt corporation and finalizing my cooking career at the terranea resort. I then moved into marketing for an inline skate brand, Powerslide and then moved into ecommerce at a fishing company called AFTCO. From there, I began to find more ways to combine my two passions and began cooking filipino tacos at skate events which led to the beginning of Banger Tacos.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Being the new kids on the block at food festivals, we were placed next to a vendor that has been in the game for 5 years with over 100k followers. They had a line of people that were willing to wait an hour for their food and that was so long it overwhelmed our booth and people who may have known that we existed were unable to find us, afraid of getting consumed by the vendor with the long line. However, knowing that I had came to that event specifically to introduce people in our demographic that they needed to know what our flavors were, I realized, that we had all of the attention, as 90% of the people at the event were in that line right in front of our booth. So I handed out taste testers and 1 of 4 people immediately got someone else to come out of line while waiting or after they bought to buy some tacos as a snack while they were waiting for this other vendor. Word spread and in the second day of the event we sold out, accomplishing what we had set out to do.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Outwitting the devil by Napoleon Hill This book helped me to understand that the law of nature is that whatever you think of, be it positive or negative, nature will always make it happen. It’s similar to the idea that was shared in that movie, The Secret, where in essence if you are to have a dream board of what you want and throw that idea into the ether, and give it the positive energy it deserves, nature will find a way to give it to you. It’s helping me find confidence into believing the impossible and sticking by it. It helps me push as I have to create and manage my team, knowing that these days may be long and painful but, we’re getting to some form of the promise land and just to be grateful along the way.

Contact Info:

• Website: bangertacos.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/bangertacos
• Facebook: facebook.com/bangertacos
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeobedoza/
• Youtube: youtube.com/obedobe
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/banger-tacos-tustin-2

Image Credits
Profile Image: Noah Say the remaining images, were taken by me. Mike Obedoza