Before they went soft.
Taco Tuesday came around again and I found myself at a divey little Mexican restaurant in El Segundo, called El Tarasco.
Hoping to find a great taco deal like $5 all-you-can-eat or $1 tacos, I was instead shown a menu that listed all the daily combos. Tuesday’s special was three tacos with chicken, ground beef, beans or chunky beef with medium drink. It’s seemingly a good deal until you look at the price: $6.50! These had better be damn good tacos. In an attempt to get variety, I ordered one chicken, one ground beef and one chunky beef. There was no need for me to waste precious stomach space on a bean taco. Remembering the drama from my last taco Tuesday, I made sure to order without lettuce, regardless of whether it already came with it.
As I waited, I snacked on the tortilla chips on the table, which were really more like flattened out hard taco shells. Nonethess, they were enjoyable. My tacos soon came, and to my surprise they looked delicious. They were fully-loaded with meat, cheese and salsa. I also glanced over to my friend’s tacos to see that they had lettuce. Veggie crisis averted!
My joy quickly faded, though, when I bit into my first taco and was showered with a spray of taco grease. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against grease when it’s used correctly (I still don’t understand the strange people who blot pizza with their napkins to get rid of grease), but this was truly excess. Obviously, I’m not exactly a health advocate, but by the time I finished my first taco I had turned three perfectly good napkins into translucent paper by wiping my hands on them. It reminded me of that Simpsons episode where Homer rubs his food against the wall, it turns clear and a bird flies into it. Classic episode!
I began my other tacos and realized that the grease affected more than just my hands and napkins (and most likely my stomach lining), because it had turned the beautiful hard taco shells into an near-shapeless goo. I was forced to use a fork to scoop up a decent portion of my meal. I ended up eating everything on my plate, but my stomach was filled (at least for a very very short time) with greasy sadness.
Of the three, the chicken taco was the best, but it’s really hard to define “best” when the tacos only takes about thirty minutes to run the course of your entire digestive system.
blogga please