Rapper 50 Cent doesn't like tacos enough to change his name to 79, 89, or 99 Cent. As part of Taco Bell's "Why Pay More?" campaign—where menu items stay under a buck—the fast food chain jokingly implied this in ads, but without his permission first. 50 Cent is now suing for $4 million.
In 4,200 words, Robb Walsh valiantly searches the Lone Star State for old-school Tex Mex. We're talking chili con carne before Velveeta was ever a thing, third-generation tamale carts, and what tacos used to be: tortillas dipped in oil, filled with smoked brisket, and then griddled. If anyone can build a Tex-Mex time machine, Walsh can.
The thrill of eating tacos for breakfast is similar to that of eating waffles for dinner: slightly rebellious and definitely not to be allowed all the time, but a good way to change things up. At the roadside stand Rosie's Tamale House in Bee Cave, Texas (near Austin), floury tortillas wrap up cheesy eggs, bacon pieces and fluffy potato slices—that's the trademark breakfast taco order.
Of course my eyes gravitated to the "Suicide Taco" which includes all of the above, plus chorizo. With contents overflowing, this one can barely fold into the typical taco posture, leaving you a second course of leftover innards. Breakfast tacos are only available here between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m., after which you will be restricted to regular tacos.
Bill Addison sampled nearly 300 tacos and 100 burritos in an incredibly cool ten week-long quest for the best that the Bay Area offers. Do click through to his story because and admire with me the meticulous and thorough way he went about this Pancho Villian–sized task. I also admire his intestinal fortitude (literally). His favorite was the relatively unheralded Sancho's in Redwood City. Here's what Addison had to say about it:
Burritos and tacos are everything they should be at this diminutive storefront with expansion plans. Each element zings with freshness and quality. The bonus of well-made fish tacos, a rarity in the Bay Area, makes this a must-try. Super burrito: $6.55, Regular taco: $1.25
Sancho's
3205 Oak Knoll, Redwood City CA 94062 (near Canyon Road; map); 650-364-8226
Cinco de Mayo is a day of national pride for Mexicans around the world, commemorating Mexico’s victory over French forces in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. We join in the celebration with our favorite Mexican food and drink.
Just in time for Cinco de Mayo, Julie Besonen hips us to a couple of Santa Barbara taquerias that sound awesome, including El Bajío for its "sensational seafood soups, fresh moles and well-seasoned, slow-roasted meats," and Los Arroyos, "famous for warm, freshly cut chips and creamy guacamole heaped in a molcajete."
Los Angeles District-1 County Supervisor Gloria Molina is not on great terms with her cilantro-loving community right now—they've rallied against her proposed elimination of taco trucks. New rules require mobile taquerias to actually be mobile, moving at least every hour, or else they'll run the risk of a $1,000 fine and six-month jail sentence. No more walking up to the same street corner to sniff the same meaty smoke clouds. Your friendly carne asada dealer might be a few blocks away. Why all the hate for a vehicle hawking folded maize pockets of deliciousness?
We asked Taco Bandini of the popular L.A.-based blog The Great Taco Hunt, who has been documenting and scoring taco experiences on his five-point scale since 2005, for his opinion on the street food mood swings.
What is it about taco trucks? Does anybody not love them, aside from competing Mexican restaurant owners? Do four-year-olds love taco trucks?
I decided to find out. I took my four-year-old daughter, Iris, to Tacos El Asadero this week, and I think it's fair to say Tacos El Asadero is now her favorite place in the entire world.
El Asadero is Seattle's best-known taco truck—a bus, actually, where you can sit inside and enjoy your taco, mulita, or torta while staring through filmy old bus windows. We stepped inside and ordered several tacos at $1 each. Iris's favorite was the lengua, tender braised beef tongue. She entertained other customers by singing, "Lengua, lengua, lengua," to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Then she stole one of my tortillas and created her own taco with a mix of lengua, carnitas, and carne asada. "I'm eating a real taco!" she declared, dropping meat on the floor of the bus.
In December, we brought you a Serious Eats Fish Taco crawl, but played special favoritism to Orange County. Commenters squealed when San Diego got no love. Herewith, a second chapter of the crawl, focusing on the San Diego county. This one especially goes out to observant Catholics, looking for more than just the local parish's fish fry on tomorrow's last Lenten Friday.
There are at least a thousand taquerias in Chicago city proper, though only about ten of them actually sear their meat and season it properly. Still, ten is a pretty hefty number. Hell, growing up in the suburbs of Detroit, we didn’t even have one good taqueria, only a second rate Chi-Chi’s serving up enchiladas “Cancun” filled with fake crab meat and krill-sized shrimp. Faced with this gluttony of “local” options, I wondered why I was driving 40 miles to check out a suburban taqueria. But I try not to leave any stone unturned when it comes to food tips, and I'd heard from a good source that the folks at Bien Trucha were tearing it up.
Posted by Erin Zimmer, December 28, 2007 at 2:15 PM
When in Rome, eat spaghetti, and when in SoCal, inhale the fish tacos. Outsiders may find the beachside tradition gross or confusing, but it’s home between two corn tortillas for locals. Staple components include: diced green cabbage, grilled or breaded white fish (usually Mahi Mahi) and fresh pico de gallo salsa. Within a five-mile radius of my childhood home, covering such beach towns as Laguna Beach, Dana Point, San Juan Capistrano and Laguna Niguel, the fish taco mecca rests. Whether kitschy Mexican restaurant or mini-mall taco chain, the drill is the same. Wrap 'em with foil and love.
Check out the SoCal stops and superlatives below, each with a unique twist on the fishy mainstay. For the record, this is the first "fish taco" mention on Serious Eats. We're making history, kids!
Forget the taco trucks in Los Angeles and the green-chile spots in New Mexico, when it comes to finding the best regional Mexican dining outside of Mexico, Chicago ... is the best spot in America.
The cookbook pimps are out in full force. As is the case every fall, publishers aiming to capitalize on the Christmas shopping season and the subsequent loosening of foodie purse strings, release a trove of culinary related tomes and celebrity driven cookbooks. The authors of said cookbooks get sent on book tours, drop in on big food cities, sign some of their wares, and, depending on their celebrity, get courted in various media outlets and at hot local dining spots. As such, authors return the hospitality by giving a shout out to their hosts and friend’s restaurants in whatever city they are visiting. According to the Chicago Tribune’s excellent food blog, The Stew:
Need to find a taco truck in California? Yumtaco.com is your answer. A handy Google map of a hundred or so trucks from Northern California to Southern.
I'll admit it. We didn't go out this past Saturday night, so I found myself watching the Bon Appétit Best American Restaurants special hosted by Alton Brown on the Food Network. The show itself was reasonably entertaining, though no one would call it suspenseful. Brown is perhaps my favorite Food Network personality, but he looked totally bored and disengaged on this particular show. Andrew Knowlton and Barbara Fairchild of Bon Appétit were knowledgeable and credible as the magazine's on-camera experts, but they kept talking about passion without exhibiting very much themselves.
Citing safety and health concerns, along with cries of "unfair competition" from brick and mortar restaurants in the area, the City of Salinas is considering an outright ban on "mobile vendors" or a severe restriction on their business. In January, the city set a cap on the vendor permits at the current count of 31 and no new permits will be issued causing a gradual fade-out of taco trucks in Salinas. Next week, an as-of-yet unpublicized proposal is scheduled to go before the city council that will further restrict the taco trucks. The proposal could include possible time restrictions instructing taco trucks to only operate between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., could require that the vendors move their trucks every 15 minutes to one hour, or could cause taco trucks to have to move off of public streets and on to private property zoned for the business.
There's nothing quite like a fresh made tortilla, but if you've got to use one that's pre-made, this week's Taster's Choice panel over at the SF Chronicle's says Trader Joe's thin corn tortillas reign supreme over a field of thirteen. The judges said they "were "pliable and supple," if a little "flaky." And they had a "decent corn flavor" with "nice browning on the side." Mission's white corn and yellow corn tortillas took second and third place respectively; Trader Joe's thicker corn tortillas scored at the bottom of the pack, interestingly enough, along with Ranchero's.
The director Robert Rodriguez has a new movie out, Grindhouse, which I haven't gotten around to seeing yet, but I did love 2005's Sin City, his adaptation of the Frank Miller comic book. Turns out if you get the Sin City DVD, one of the special features on it is the second episode of Rodriguez's 10-Minute Cooking School, for his Sin City Breakfast Tacos:
He makes his tortillas from scratch, and uses both lard and butter! I may have to fight his new girlfriend Rose McGowan for him.
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 1, 2007 at 4:59 PM
Korean-Mexican Fusion: Kalbi Tacos? eat drink & be merry lives in ethnically diverse LA and ruminates on the fusion of cultures by... making tacos with korean bbq ribs instead of carne asada. YES.
(Also: someone please get the Pushcart NYC guy to start making these for me? Kalbi rolls are great but now that my mind has been awakened to the possibility of kalbi tacos, it will not rest.)
I don't know who Cindy Price is, but she wrote a great mouthwatering story in today's NY Times about her search for the ultimate taco along Route 1 between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Cindy hit 28 taquerias in five days. That's some serious taco eating. She started in LA, and hit my favorite taqueria there, El Taurino. El Taurino is a little scary (the last time I was there an armed guard kept watch over the dining room), but the tacos there are fantastic.
She headed up to Santa Barbara, where before she tried the late Julia Child's favorite taqueria, La Super Rica Taqueria, she posed the following question: "Do rich people eat tacos?" I actually think the question is a food rorschach test for rich folks. That is, if they don't eat tacos, they are only rich in a material sense. Anyone who doesn't eat tacos cannot be spiritually enriched.
But this is a question I would like everyone to ponder: "Do rich people eat tacos?"
In her story Cindy also mentioned the phenomenal taco blog
Rapper 50 Cent doesn't like tacos enough to change his name to 79, 89, or 99 Cent. As part of Taco Bell's 
Of course my eyes gravitated to the "Suicide Taco" which includes all of the above, plus chorizo. With contents overflowing, this one can barely fold into the typical taco posture, leaving you a second course of leftover innards. Breakfast tacos are only available here between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m., after which you will be restricted to regular tacos.
In December, 
