vs.

El Paso’s “rolled taco” stallwarts Chico’s Tacos is suing Austin’s own Chuco’s for swiping their name (close-anyway) and their signature dish- which is basically taquitos drowned in broth and smother’d in cheese. I admit i’ve never been to El Paso, but Chuco’s version was a soggy disaster- not impressed.

and the citizens-against-frivolous-lawsuits weigh in:

“If Chico’s wants to sue, then the German guy who came up with the hamburger and the Italian guy who came up with the pizza should also sue,”Read the article here >

BREAKING NEWS: They must’ve sent the goons in to intimidate these newcomers, cuz they alreayd changed their name- its now called “10th Street Tacos“…I like that better anyway.

more: Statesman Article on Chuco’s

-cabeza

Taco Taco Cafe
145 E. Hildebrand - San Antonio, Texas 78212 | (210) 822.9533

Perhaps by now you’ve heard of the taco phenomenon that is Taco Taco Café, a modest little taco shack out in San Antonio that has garnered nationwide attention and acclaim. Bon Appétit, in a Best American Restaurants series, crowned the Mexican mainstay as having the “Best Breakfast Taco in America”; Food Network concurred, awarding the Café “Best Tacos in America” (beating out Atlanta’s Taqueria Del Sol and South Beach Bar & Grill in Ocean Beach, CA);

Even Details magazine has thrown in their two centavos, designating the morning fare “Best Breakfast in America.”

Now, clearly Mexican food in general is the best type of breakfast food. Look at the citywide incredulity and panic generated by the infamous freeze of 2006, when you couldn’t get a breakfast taco. In Austin, Hell had officially frozen. So, Details saying that Taco Taco has the “Best Breakfast in America” isn’t rocking the boat too much. However, two major epicurean experts declare that Taco Taco Café has the “Best Taco in America”?? (breakfast and otherwise?) That’s no laughing matter. I mean, fights have been fought over much, much less, especially in the Tex-Mex Capital of the World. Thus, I decided to see for myself if the proclamations rang true. Twice, just for good measure.

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The first casualties of low blood sugar- Decision making and creative thinking/ you ever wait too long to take that lunch break and you end up pacing south congress like a zombie in search of any meat-based meal that’ll quench the pangs? yeah, maybe we should bring snacks to work or somethin…tacosnax…

Well, said pangs led me reluctantly to that mediocre stripmallueria they called Garibaldi’s on South Congress (just south of Ben white). BUT I was overjoyed to see that Baldi’s had been replaced by a shiny new Taqueria Chapala- IMO the best of all ATX Jalisco-style restaurants.

Chapala is sure to challenge the Tapatia family’s stranglehold on Ben White- much more class and quality (though to be fair- Tapatia has bigger portions than anyone).

At Chapala the decor is bright and simple, the service is lightning fast, the prices are dirt cheap, and the food is outstanding.

I ordered the old faithful - Combination Plate with all Beef Fajita (which i recommend to all virgin jalisco diners). I also took a chance on the barbacoa Adobado taco- a grilled taco stuffed with juicy, spiced up bbq beef cheek meat…the best barbacoa I’ve tried in some time.

BUT, not to be outdone- Chapala’s fresh red table salsa is SO GOOD…whips Arandas ass…

Chappy got the Torta Sandwich with Beef Fajita. no complaints.

ATTENTION/ 78704-ites: I strongly suggest you temper that “Torchy’s & highlife” fad-diet with some good ol’ jalisco-style at least once a week…its good for your helf.

Score:
Atmosphere: 6 (small, but bright and clean)
Price: 8 (hard to beat for the price)
Salsa: 7.5 (simple and tasy- the Chips suck though)
Food: 9 (first rate jalisco)
Service: 8 (all spanish/ but Fast & with a smile)
total: 77% Rating:

~Cabeza De Taco

I was lucky enough to discover this 24-hr drive thru taco shop directly across from the my motel in Tempe, AZ.. after a long night of playing and a hearty helping of booze, this place might as well have been the pearly gates of taco heaven.. we ordered a whole mess of regular beef tacos - these are deep fried tacos - similar to the kind you may have tried from jack in tha box, only these suckers are made with love and cooked to perfection.. the beef is shredded and savory.. the cheese is american, grated and generously applied to said tacos.. bottom line: these are the best tacos anyone could ever want at 3 in the morning.. toeing the line between heaven and hell..this food was sinful , greasy, delicious, perfection..
[more pics after the jump] Read the rest of this entry »

editors note: say hi to El Capitan! TT’s newest contributor- fresh off the boat from the exotic beaches of Costa Rica. Revel in his far-away taco knowledge…apparently, when you get this close to the equator its necessary to add another “c”to tacco…enjoy!

Welcome to the wonderful world of Taccos! These lovely ladies hopped right out of the Pacific Ocean on to my plato where I was pleased to see an array of colors calling my name. At the top a special tartar sauce with a bit of a tang to it. A medium bodied Pico de Gallo accompanied by a rich, lightly chunky guacamole. First bite of the lightly toasted tacco was mostly tortilla, as the meat was secretly hidden away in the center-a few bites later and viola there it was! Scrumptious, delicious, yum are a few words that came to mind as the guacamole, pico and tartar garnishes enveloped all the warm delectable meat inside! With my eyebrows arise, I quickly ate it all up. You will notice by seeing the menu that this filling meal was listed as a snack…

Our first meal in Costa Rica was the best. I talked about this meal for the remaining 5 days. So much so, we returned to Nibana for dinner the last night. We heard of another local eatery called Taco Stop (with the A in Taco turned upside down). Much to our dismay, after walking the dusty roads of Tamarindo, the eatery was closed. It must be the Tico nature of ‘Pura Vida’ as we heard later that they were probably on holiday! Naturally, this entitles us to another trip to Costa Rica!!!

more pics after the jump>

EL CAPITAN!

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I and I always say, the best food be made with one love and positive vibrations. Jah loves tacos. And now, 2 of his more enterprising children have created Rasta Taco. Them be a restaurant and taco cart movement in California mon, combining da rasta lifestyle with mexican food.

Chappy here be gearing up for a west coast exodus with Moving Matter this munt mon, and he be doin him some California taco research. After reading the review over at the DreadHead Times blog, him think this joint might posess the best tacos this side of Zion. Dem gots plenty of menu selections for which to lively up yourself, items such as the Pato Potato Taco and Eek-a-Mouse Quesadilla, this place be taking taco fusion to a new level mon. Hopefully dem food wont burn and loot your bowels either. and if dem belly not full, dem can even finish dem meal with a Jah-colate Chip Cookie! Respect. [Review from dreadheadtimes.com here]

Idgy Vaughn : Austin, TX
We caught her short set at Ruta Maya on Saturday and were drawn in by her delicate voice and tasty instrumentation (Austin mainstay Will Sexton accompanied her on a reverb’d out dreadnaught acoustic). Turns out her folky story-songs are autobiographical- in a nutshell: midwestern girl ends up working at a truckstop in Buda, TX; a customer finances her album after winning the lottery; instant success is marred by a bitter custody battle for her daughter that leaves her estranged from her family. Its the stuff country music is made of…KUT did a nice audio-story on her here>

Liam Finn : New Zealand
We had already attempted to catch Liam, the eldest son of Neil Finn (lengendary leader of Crowded House and Split Enz) Thursday at The Ale House - but like I said 10 times this weekend, “if you’ve heard of them, the line’s too long.” Luckily, we had another chance Friday at the Paste/Stereogum Party. Armed with electric guitar, drumset, two Line-6 delay pedals, and one talented female sidekick, Finn proceeded to floor the 200 or so in attendance. Great hooky songs (instantly Finn-like) that build into layered sing-along anthems. The drumset was probably his most impressive talent - pulverizing finales over looped grooves / I suspect the album sounds very different- which makes his live act even more a MUST SEE.

just 1 night down at SXSW, but here’s 2 very good bands we stumbled onto:

Afenginn : Copenhagen, Denmark
We caught them by chance while grabbing dinner at Rio Grande - the brisket taco’s were bland, but these bad ass gypsy pickers brought the Danish Sabør - very melodic and inventive klezmer jams. And their bass player is disgusting/

…

AND

…

The Aggrolites : Los Angeles, CA
It was nearing 1AM, and the Black Keys showcase had an absurb line outside, so we took a chance on the Flamingo Cantina - IMHO the most reliable venue on 6th street. The Aggrolites dropped our jaws immediately with their air-tight Ska/Reggae/Funk stew- like The Specials meets James Brown in East LA. They had this vato on the B3 just rippin it up…really impressive live band/

-cabeza

[updated - 2008.02.22]
NEW! Here’s Holstein’s Flickr Pics of the event

Thanks to Joby for his hard work and big thanks to everyone who participated in this growing event…we hope to see more of you guys next year.

[updated - 2007.11.11]
THE RESULTS ARE IN!
Winner: Chappy’s Elbo Green Salsa
2nd Place: Meredith Oakes’ ASS PUCKER
3rd Place: Teresa’s fresh red salsa
4th Place: Grego Loboz “Polish Power”
5th Place: Dan’s Delicious Red

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Another South Congress discovery! We’ve passed this place numerous times, and for some reason never thought too much about it.. But sooner or later, a true taco explorer has to head into uncharted waters in search of mexi-gold. So it was on Monday February 18th that we set sail for this exciting new land, albeit with low expectations.

The vibrant colors are a nice change from the old-hat look of nearby El Gallo. El Flaco Cafe is a small restaurant of maybe 15 tables. The waitresses were eager to serve and friendly from the get-go.. We got our chips and salsa promptly. The salsa was roja.. pureed thoroughly.. and mighty tasty! It was mild, not much heat, but the flavor was unique and tantelizing.

The menu featured a standard selection of tex-mex fare.. Enchiladas, tacos, chalupas, and combo plates of the sort. Both Cabeza and I decided on combo plates.. I got the standard mexican plate with 2 beef enchiladas, a taco, rice, beans, and tortillas. Cabeza got the special plate- same as mine, but with carne guisada.

The food arrived in no time, and we dug in.. Wow.. this is as good as anything else in town. It was simple tex-mex, done right.. The beef taco was savory and fresh.. a perfect beef crispy taco.. no frills. The enchiladas were excellent, cheesy and smothered in a classic con carne sauce.. Nothing bland or tasteless about this meal.. we were enjoying every bite. The carne guisada on Cabeza’s plate took the prize though.. it was just the way I like it, full-flavored and tender, with no fatty chunks just mouth-watering morsels of roast beef in a delicious brown gravy.

The icing on the cake was El Flaco’s homemade tortillas, both flour and corn that came with our meals and were wrapped around our enchiladas.. They were perfectly done and they added to quality of our meal immensely.

The tortillas are a small detail that, to me, indicate the amount of pride a restaurant takes in its mexican food - and its is an art that seems to be lost on Austin.. hardly anyone in the ATX is making their own tortillas anymore, whatup with that? do we have to go to Taco Cabana for a fresh tortilla? perhaps we need to start a coalition to advocate fresh tortillas in more mexican joints around town..i mean, apparently this is not a problem in Houston, c’mon people!

Whale, definitely check out El Flaco if you’re down on south congress and you want a quick, laid back, and quality tex-mex experience. The manager was even cool enough to come out and check on his patrons a few times, pitching in to help the waitresses when he could.. I appreciate that kind of attention to detail.

heres the score:

El Flaco Cafe [map]
3632 S Congress Ave
Austin, TX 78704
(512) 444-2767

Score:
Atmosphere: 6 (casual, but clean)
Price: 7 (inexpensive)
Salsa: 8 (unique, tasty)
Food: 9 (great)
Service: 9 (great)

total: 78% Rating: