Saturday, January 23, 2010

Taco tasting!

Nathan and I have been trying to find more things to do together, and Nathan always wants to try new restaurants. Today we went on a taco tasting adventure! We picked four restaurants and bought a single carne asada taco to share from each place (to keep it affordable and keep us from getting fat).


#1 - Beto's
$2.39 (I think). This was the largest taco of all, more Americanized. It had guacamole in it.

- Lots of tasty, tender meat, with a grilled flavor.
- This was the only taco with what I consider to be pico de gallo. The rest only had onions and cilantro.
- Overall flavor rating (scale of 1-5) Nathan 4 or 5, Cherish 3 or4
- Spicy after taste

#2 - Taqueria Mariscas
$.99. I was too distracted by the vegetables to take a picture. :( The plate included vinegary carrots, radishes, and lime. Restaurants #2-4 were much more authentic, and the tacos were very small.

- Lots of well seasoned-meat, not as tender
- Spicy at first but it faded quickly
- Overall flavor rating Cherish 3, Nathan 3

#3 - Los Coyotes (sit-down restaurant)
$1.25. Nathan really liked this place (we were the only ones there) and we want to go back to try the bacon-wrapped shrimp. This plate included radishes, cucumbers, and lime.

- Lots of well-seasoned meat, not so tender
- Overall flavor rating Cherish 2 (needed more cilantro), Nathan 3 (would be 3.5 but something was lacking)


#4 - Acapulco
$2.00. Ironically enough, this one was recommended by a coworker and we liked it the least. It was a sit-down restaurant and they brought us chips and salsa before I could say anything, so I felt obligated to buy more than one taco. Nathan is not driven by guillt at all, so we had quite the debate over that. In addition to limes, we were given a bottle of sauce that supposedly went with the tacos. I thought it helped the flavor; Nathan didn't like it.

- Medium amount of meat, but it was shredded finely
- Very chewy meat, with a different flavor. I thought it tasted greasy and gross, but Nathan considered it juicy.
- Overall flavor rating Cherish 1, Nathan 2
We decided that we don't like "authentic" tacos as much as Americanized tacos. It was a tasty adventure!

3 comments:

The Miller Family said...

I wish we lived close to you guys! We would have so much fun! Between best-taco-finding double dates and you teaching me how to become a whiz in the kitchen like you, life would be great! (You like how I volunteer you to teach me? Heeheehee!)

Truly though, I'm so in awe of you guys! Despite Nathan's job loss, you haven't gone into debt or dipped into savings?!?! And your food storage shelves are stocked?!?! You guys rock! I'm not saying it's easy for you...but you sure make it look that way!

One of my goals for this year includes cooking more from scratch. I just don't know where to begin! I feel like there's so much to learn and I'm so far behind it kind of makes me not want to start...does that make any sense at all? (And did you know you can wax your own cheese?!?! I may be way behind, but I just learned about it, and I'm so excited to try it! That's the one thing we cook with that I couldn't figure out how to store!) Anyway, another goal is definitely to build up our food storage. We'd be good for 2 or 3 months, but after that we'd be chewing on wheat berries, since I don't even know how to use my grinder, lol. A freezer is our next big purchase (see, we could be twins! j/k). We're debating between an upright or chest...economically and because it's more efficient, and since the food would last longer in a power-outage, a chest freezer fits the bill, but we want one that's big enough, and since we rent a teeny tiny apartment, an upright would give us MUCH more room.

Anyway, sorry to have written a novel!

Amy said...

Thanks for sharing the results. What a fun date idea!

Michelle said...

This would be super fun if Brian liked anything with cheese.. He says that he can't eat cheese because it makes him sick to his stomach.. Yet he could guzzle a gallon of milk without any problems.. Oy!! That sounds like a fun date though!!