Dans La Rue party serves up the ultimate taco!

By P.A. Sévigny , October 3rd, 2012

As ever, the moon was rising over Ste. Helen's Island and even if it was still early evening it was nothing less than blue skies for the 9th consecutive edition of Dans La Rue's big 'De La Rue aux Étoiles' fund-raising party. For the third year in a row, the Old Port's Science Pavilion along with its belvedere that overlooks both the river and Île Ste. Hélène were once again turned into party central for what has become one of the city's favorite annual parties.
“It's always good fun,” said Caroline Dufour who is the director of Youth Intervention services for Dans La Rue. “We don't take any money from the government so everyone knows that we're doing the best we can with every dollar they give us.”
 In exchange, people pay good money to come to the annual party because everybody knows it's going to be new, it's going to be fun and most of all, everybody knows it's going to be interesting. Based upon the spectacular success of last year's quest for the perfect hamburger, this year's party was all about the search for the perfect taco.
With eight of the city's top chefs working hard to create the ultimate taco, everybody at the party knew that it was going to be a tight race. Following the late afternoon cocktail party where the margaritas set the tone for the rest of the evening, the tables were open and ready for business. After Boo's Jonathan Fournier put together the Stan stead Rabbit Taco, Bobcat's Benjamin Leonard performed a minor miracle with his own Guinea Fowl taco. At this point, it was getting loud and the race was on. As people were lining up in front of Bike's Samuel Maude for some of his Braised Ribs Tacos, others were waiting for their chance to taste the Tuck Shop's Taco Al Pastor-so-named to honor Father Emmett 'Pops' Johns. Café Ferreira's Marino Tavares Fish Taco with a Green Salsa was a taste sensation as was the Taco de Canard-comfit put together by Pinto's Chef Alonso Ortiz. Three hours into the evening, a panel of judges made up of five of the city's best food writers declared Maude's Taco to be the best of the lot after which Marino Tavares won second prize with his fish and Green Salsa taco.
While there were more than a few of the organization's staff available for a brief chat or an interview, there's something about Detour's look that lets you know that she's got your number and there's nothing you can do about it. As one of the organization's longtime veterans, Detour's 10 years of work on the floor with troubled, abused and sometimes desperate kids would probably earn her a PhD in any good university across North America. When asked if she had any kind of academic ambition after everything she has done, she laughed after which she told The Suburban that all she really wants to do is to take her sailboat out for a good long run up the river.
Twenty four years after Father Emmett Johns first took out a $10,000 loan to buy the massive road vehicle he required to go out to find and feed the kids who needed his help, Dans La Rue has become one of the city's working models for what it takes to help desperate teens in an a urban environment. Aside from his respect for each and everybody's personal ration of human dignity, the priest's friendship has taken the organization a long way from its early days when he used to wheel his way around the city handing out hotdogs to hungry teens who had nowhere to go. Twenty four years later, more than 65 people and other a hundred volunteers are working to do what they can for those who just might get by with a little help from their friends.
“It's not easy,” said Dufour, “…but we've done it before and we'll do it again.” Aside from the two metric tons of patience that it sometimes takes before young people finally realize that they do have a number of options, Dufour said the results are always worth the effort.
“We've managed to rescue a lot of kids,” she said before going back to the party where hundreds of people were having a great time over plates full of tacos and beer.n