This place has the best tacos in Des Moines, and here's where you can find them

Rain didn't stop 4,500 hungry taco-lovers from attending the inaugural Taco Festival at Western Gateway Park on Saturday.  

Festival-goers chowed down on more than 40 kinds of tacos from 20 different food trucks, restaurants and other vendors. The assortment included tacos made with beef, pork, chicken, seafood — even veggie and dessert tacos.

Tacos ranged from mild to spicy and from traditional to international fusion, including a Filipino-Pakistani fusion taco made with homemade toasted roti and filled with roasted pork sisig from Lola's Fine Kitchen, opening in Ankeny in spring of 2018.

Another hit was Mo' Rub's braised chicken tacos with sautéed vegetables and Mo' crema  — a Mo' Rub-spiced sauce — in a flour tortilla. 

And these tacos not only fed the masses. Each vendor entered their best tacos into the Best Taco contest to see which taco would reign supreme.

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The winner of the Best Taco Overall was Mamma's Tacos for its light and crispy homemade flour taco shell, deep-fried and filled with seasoned ground beef and pinto beans with shredded Colby cheese, lettuce and tomato with sour cream, jalapeños and black olives on the side. 

Owner, Melinda Burriola uses her mother, Grace Burriola's recipe for the tacos. "The recipe was passed down from my father's mother to my mother," Melinda Burriola said. "She taught my mom how to make it and my mom changed the recipe to suit American tastes and this was the end result."

Mamma's Tacos also took the top spot for Best Pork, Best Beef, Best Seafood and Best "Anything Goes" tacos.

Here are the winners:

Best Tacos

Best Overall Taco: Mamma’s Tacos

Best Chicken Taco:

• First Place: The Big Red Food Truck
• Second Place: Lola’s Fine Kitchen

Best Pork Taco:

• First Place: Mamma’s Tacos
• Second Place: The Big Red Food Truck

Best Beef Taco:

• First Place: Mamma’s Tacos
• Second Place: The Big Red Food Truck

Best Seafood: ​​​​

• First Place: Mamma’s Tacos
• Second Place: The Big Red Food Truck

Best 'Anything Goes' Tacos (dessert or other):

• First Place: Mamma’s Tacos
• Second Place: Lola’s Fine Kitchen

Big Red Food Truck took first place for Best Chicken Taco, made with a crispy fried wonton shell, diced chicken breast, cabbage slaw, an Asian-style orange-sesame-ginger dressing and garnished with homegrown microgreens. Owner Shon Bruellman plans to offer a salad version of the taco at his new permanent spot in Valley Junction next month — The Hall at The Foundry.

A serious panel of National Taco Association judges was sequestered to determine the winners in double-blind tests in a closed tent for anonymous scoring. Points were awarded and weighted for presentation, taste and execution.

Both Mamma's Tacos and Big Red Food Truck will get to enter their winning tacos in the Taco Festival Grand Finale in Las Vegas held by the National Taco Association in 2018.

Tacos weren't the only competitors at the Taco Festival, which will come back around in the fall of 2018. Lucha Libre wrestlers also battled it out in the ring. People dressed in taco garb strutted their stuff around the taco grounds (due to inclement weather, the costume contests were canceled).

But the weather didn't stop the Tiny Taco Dog Beauty Pageant and the eating contests.

Here are the winners:  

Tiny Taco Dog Contest

Chloe the Chihuahua won the Tiny Taco Dog Beauty Pageant. Her owner Shelly Lee dressed her up as a tiny piñata. 

Eating Contests

• Taco Eating Contest: Ryan Olney of Grimes — he completed 4 of the 6 tacos from Taco King in under three minutes. 
• Nacho Eating Contest: Nick Ceolla of Urbandale — he completed a pound of nachos from The Fighting Burrito in a minute in a half. 
• Hot Chili Pepper Eating Contest: Wyatt Feilmeier of Auburn — he won in round four of seven. It was a 7-Pot Pepper (a pepper with 1.1 million Scoville heat units).

Here's where to find award-winning tacos:

The best way to seek out Des Moines' award-winning tacos is to follow the Facebook pages of the food trucks and vendors for their daily locations. 

Mamma's Tacos

• Facebook

The Big Red Food Truck

• A salad version of the chicken taco with crispy wonton strips is coming soon to Valley Junction next month at The Hall at The Foundry. But look for the location of the food truck on Facebook.
• Facebook
• thebigredfoodtruck.com

Lola's Fine Kitchen

• Coming soon in Ankeny in spring of 2018. But Lola's full line of Fine Hot Sauces are found in grocery stores, farmer's markets and restaurants around the metro.
• Facebook
• lolasfinehotsauce.com