“This is like deja vu. I feel like I broke in here and I’m not supposed to be here,” says Ilse Jazmin “Jazz” Valenzula Sears while looking around the dining room of her restaurant, AZ Taco King.
The slate tile floors and brick walls of the former Pizza Hut on Camelback Road and 21st Avenue are the same as when she and her husband, Samuel, opened AZ Taco King there in 2020. The couple took their food truck to a permanent location after going viral for birria ramen.
AZ Taco King took off, Sears says, not only because it was among the early purveyors of now ubiquitous birria but also because their birria is a little different. Sears’ grandmother taught her the recipe, and she added her secret ingredient, an additional type of chile, to the pot of ruddy red braised beef. Those tender chunks of meat go into a tall cup with a brick of ramen noodles, which are topped with a savory, spicy broth and garnished with cheese, cilantro and onions. AZ Taco King also packs its popular birria into tacos, tamales, taquitos, pizzadillas and other bites…