Still catching up on the food-frakking of the past month. This entry, we talk about the food of Mexico and parts south.
There are so many ways that I love the Torta Bus.
At the Torta Bus I got this torta with egg and ham. You would think it was a breakfast torta, but I had it in the middle of the night! Isn’t that outrageous?
And as much as I love the Torta Bus, I also love Bimbos.
The frosted toast was a particular treat. Imagine a piece of cake baked crisp as astronaut icecream, and then smeared with crisco and sugar.
The fruit cup store near my place has a cup of granola and strawberries that float in a sweet, creamy sauce.
Through a total accident, I ended up with a friend at a taco stand near South Congress and Stassney. Like all truly premiere taco stands, this one sat in the parking lot of a Tejano music club. My friend had the quesadilla, something I’d never thought of trying.
They stuffed the melty cheese with suadero steak! I got a taco filled with campechano, a meat I’d never heard of before.
I believe that campechano is al pastor mixed with chorizo, but I could be wrong.
These things are billed as "liquid candy." You squirt them on your tongue like little sour-sweet syringes.
One flavor is called "chamoy", and the other "tamarindo." A team of experts agreed that although there was a subtle difference in taste, they pretty much both tasted exactly like tamarind and chili.
Just when you forget that the best snack foods in the world come from El Salvador, that’s when you find yourself buying their nachos in a bag.
Crispy and fried, with jelly in the middle.
If only all food could be exactly like that.
A foray to La Michoacana grocery on East Seventh meant a sampling of Mexican sodas. The green bottle on the far right looked the best, but actually tasted like apple, something of a disappointment.
The tortas at La Michoacana were astonishingly cheap. I got this "huarache" (the same word for sandal, it’s the usual ingredients piled on top of a sandal-shaped flap of flour) for a mere $2.70.
The taco lady couldn’t tell which steam tray of meat I was pointing at, so she asked if I wanted the "borrega" (mutton), and yes, I decided that was exactly what I wanted. The borrega was super-delicious. Flavorful and tender the way that only an adult sheep can be. The only drawback was the amount of stray organ and skeletal debris. In my huarache, I found a complete vertebra. My friend found some tissue that could have been tendon, could have been nerve tissue, or possibly could have been intestine.
Nevertheless, it was all quite good, and well worth the $2.70.
