Friday, August 6, 2010
Those new taco-things from Taco Bell
Posted by Kevin Allman on Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 7:50 PM
I grew up eating tacos once a week. My family liked them because they were easy, delicious and inexpensive to boot (buy meat on sale, freeze, cook in Crock-Pot, shred). We never had a box of those premade shells in the house; my mother would pour a half-inch of oil in a pan, quick-fry a fresh corn tortilla, flip it to make a pocket, hit it with some salt and drain it on a towel. I still make tacos that way, except now I'll just use some onions and cilantro rather than the shredded cheese and lettuce-tomato toppings we had when I was a kid ... unless I'm getting tacos from a truck or a roadside stand, and then I take (and happily eat) what I'm given.
All this is prologue to seeing a commercial the other night for these things -- Taco Bell's new "Cantinas Tacos":
It's in response, no doubt, to people's changing tastes and the food cart movement that's particularly popular on the West Coast, where tacos have always been popular. But these things don't look like tacos to me -- they look like the molded plastic sushi and sashimi you see in the windows of some Japanese restaurants, or those periodic attempts by pet-food manufacturers to make dog food look like human food. (Meat bits in the right-hand taco, I'm talking to you.) Also: are those tiny cubes of feta or are they onion dice?
All this taco-talk left me thinking about where the nearest Taco Bell might be. Turns out -- according to the TB website -- there isn't one on the east bank of Orleans Parish, so you really do have to run for the border if you want one of these things:
But why do that? Recipe for the world's easiest tacos under the jump. Jump!
• Corn tortillas (little tiny ones if you can find them -- try Ideal Supermarket on S. Broad)
• Half-inch of oil in a pan
• Meat of your choice, shredded (or fish, or whatever you want)
• Onions diced fine
• Cilantro chopped fine
• Lime wedges
• Salt
Heat oil in shallow skillet. Using tongs, quick-fry tortilla, flip, then bend it into the shape of a taco shell. (This takes seconds.) Hit tortilla with some salt, then put in a bowl lined with paper towels to drain and cool.
Fill with a bit of meat, top with onions/cilantro, squeeze a little lime over the whole thing.
Eat. Repeat. Drink beer.
Comments (10)
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Kevin, I LOVE Taco Bell as much as the next man (including yourself), but right now may not be the best time to enjoy Fourth Meal: http://www.wlky.com/r/24541461/detail.html
Last time I was there, a Taco Bell was operating inside the Tulane dining center.
@Alejandro: Plank-grilled salmonella! @Cousin Pat: Looks like Tulane has replaced it, or is replacing it, with a Baja Fresh.
Actually? The tacos in the picture look more like what you would actually find in Mexico than the crap USA people have been eating and calling "tacos". Good for Taco Bell.
For those in the uppernine & all and points downriver, there's a fine taco bell just along Judge Perez in Chalmette. Pretty much just take Claiborne headin' east across the Canal. Now you know... and knowing is half the battle. Judge Perez also sports a great taco truck-- Taqueria Koyote-- reliably parked just a couple miles from the Industrial Canal...
isn't the one in new orleans east on bullard open? right off of I-10? It certainly looks it. Da parish is certainly closer, though, to most people.
Who need hard-shell tortillas and iceberg lettuce? A real "cantina taco" (aka in Mexico: a taco) consists of two small soft corn tortillas with whatever meat (usually pork, but also fatty brisket -- my favorite, known as suadero -- or fried offal bits, not my favorite) and some onion/cilantro. Sometimes a real Mexican taco will have a layer of rice under the meat to catch the drippings, and sometimes topped with some black beans. And the lime to squeeze and radish slices for the crunch. One of my favorites when I lived in Mexico City was a taco de torta de espinaca. Some Mexico City taco street stalls serve little omelets called tortas (not to be confused with torta, the popular Mexican street sandwich, or torta, the big ole Spanish omelet). These little omelets (tortitas?) are usually made with shredded pork, but one of my favorite Mexico City street stalls (near Puente de Alvarado and Insurgentes Boulevard) serves spinach omelet tacos: two small soft corn tortillas, a layer of rice, a small spinach omelet, some black beans -- best eaten with sliced radishes and a icy cold Cidral. Man, I miss those little omelet tacos!
There is a Taco Bell in New Orleans East on Bullard. Taco Bell's website zip code search sucks BTW.
