{"id":89422,"date":"2025-12-10T18:46:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T18:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/89422\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T18:46:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T18:46:09","slug":"chef-gabriel-pulido-wanted-the-perfect-chorizo-breakfast-burrito-so-he-made-his-own-eat-see-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/89422\/","title":{"rendered":"Chef Gabriel Pulido wanted the perfect chorizo breakfast burrito, so he made his own \u2022 Eat. See. Do."},"content":{"rendered":"

The smell of fresh tortillas being made always brings memories flooding back for Chef Gabriel Pulido: watching his mom pressing the tortillas by hand, enjoying comfort foods like eggs with chorizo, taking a bite of fresh salsa or devouring one of those homemade tortillas with a little butter.<\/p>\n

Pulido and his lifelong friend, John Beck, opened Masa y Taza a couple of weeks ago on Fourth Street, hoping to bring Long Beach the same comfort that food brings to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure that when people come in, they feel at home,\u201d Pulido said.<\/p>\n

While working as a chef for the past decade throughout the Los Angeles area, Pulido was always on the hunt for a good chorizo breakfast burrito to match the ones he remembers eating, but he never found one that satisfied.<\/p>\n

\"\"The chorizo rojo taco with one over-easy egg at Masa y Taza in Long Beach, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n

\"\"A classic breakfast burrito called the El Classico burrito with eggs, potatoes, cheese, and bacon at Masa y Taza in Long Beach, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve moved all over Los Angeles and have not always been able to find the chorizo that I wanted to eat, so I learned how to just make it myself,\u201d Pulido said.<\/p>\n

Pulido makes two types of chorizo using hand-mixed spice blends: a red one made with pork and a green one made with chicken, but it\u2019s not just the chorizo that\u2019s made in-house; from the tortillas to the drinks, everything on Masa y Taza\u2019s menu is personally crafted using fresh ingredients.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really think that we can do food that\u2019s really good, that\u2019s quality, that\u2019s made by hand, and it doesn\u2019t have to cost you an arm and a leg,\u201d Pulido said.<\/p>\n

Their burritos range from $14 for the chorizo, which also includes eggs, refried beans, potatoes and cheese, to $21 for the ranchero burrito, which includes a choice of meat, eggs, potatoes, cheese, guacamole and sour cream. They\u2019re also serving up caf\u00e9 de olla, a traditional Mexican coffee brewed with cinnamon.<\/p>\n

Beck and Pulido \u2014 who met in school and have known each other for 30 years \u2014 are both from Whittier, but they spent so much time in Long Beach while growing up that they consider it a second home. With their connections here, it\u2019s where they knew they wanted to open.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to feed our people,\u201d Pulido said. And it appears to be working.<\/p>\n

\"\"Papas y salsa macha at Masa y Taza in Long Beach, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n

\"\"A caf\u00e9 de olla, left and pepino agua fresca at Masa y Taza in Long Beach, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n

According to Beck, a Cal State Long Beach graduate, in just the couple of weeks they\u2019ve been open, they have already had returning customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had a couple people tell me, and obviously this is all accolades for the chef, \u2018It\u2019s the best breakfast burrito I\u2019ve ever had,\u2019\u201d Beck said. \u201cThat\u2019s so amazing to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Someday, the pair hopes Masa y Taza will be a well-known name, but they have to get started first.<\/p>\n

\"\"Chef Gabriel Pulido is reflected in a cup of cafe deolla while at his restaurant Masa y Taza in Long Beach, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still moving in,\u201d Beck said.<\/p>\n

Masa y Taza will celebrate its grand opening on Saturday, Dec. 13.<\/p>\n

Masa y Taza, 1538 E 4th Street, is currently open Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Saturday through Sunday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The smell of fresh tortillas being made always brings memories flooding back for Chef Gabriel Pulido: watching his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-89422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}