TacoTown had an absolute BLAST at the BACON TAKEDOWN this past Sunday at Emo’s during the 2010 SXSW Interactive conference.

The 22 Bacon-centered entries ranged from ridiculously meaty – Frank Mancuso of Saint Arnold & his Bacon Explosion - to the sinfully sweet – Laura Finger’s Bacon Cups filled with peanut butter chocolate pudding, topped with banana & maple glaze). Not to mention Bacon Booze! Lucky 13 Mixology served up killer Bacon Bloody Mary’s…and it would be an Austin takedown with out some tacos! Absolutely NOT. That’s where we come in…So, what did we make??

Crack taco - Our Winning Entry (credit Nelson Flores onthe last one)

Crack Tacos!
Maple blueberry glazed bacon inside a fresh flour tortilla (made w/ bacon fat),
topped with blueberry-habanero hot sauce – ftw.

And to top it all off- We Won!
TACO TOWN took home 1st place in the Judges category and 2nd place in the people’s choice!

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BIG BIG ShatOut to: Arnold Perez- our partner in crime and official chef of Purple Bee Crew. Arnold was the ever-smiling brown fellow rolling out over 250 fresh tortillas LIVE on-site for the hungry carnivores! We couldn’t have done this without him…really…

Big ShatOut to: Takedown honcho Matt Timms – Let’s do a TACO takedown next year, Matt!!

Big ShatOut to: The esteemed judges- Local food-blog-queen Addie Broyles and Bon Appetit Magazine’s Emily Fleischaker.

Big ShatOut to: Nelson Flores of show me your taco for sharing that last bacon photo with us.. check out his great taco blog

Big ShatOut to: our old pal Hilah Johnson’s and her Caballero Candy: a Chocolate bacon Fantasy – which narrowly beat TacoTown for the People’s Choice 1st place – also be sure to check out Hilah’s badass online cooking show.

Here’s The Official Results:

Judge’s Choice
#1 Tacotown.org – Crack Bacon Tacos
#2 Vanessa & Lisa Blackwell – Bourbon Bacon Pecan Pie
#3 Amanda Joyner – Bacon Jam

People’s Choice:
#1 Hilah Johnson – Bacon Chocolate
#2 Tacotown.org – Crack Bacon Tacos
#3 Josh White - Avocado Bacon Salad on Toast

more coverage:
Takedown Website
Addie Broyles Coverage for Austin360
Hilah’s Awesome Video of the event

WANT! Taco Wallet

Tacos: a good place to put your money
No, literally.  Its a freakin taco wallet! Thanks for the tip Fuck Yeah Tacos!

Stand Up!
Awww snap! Taco night at Bernie’s just went PRO with these interlocking taco holders. Now use both paws to stuff that taco with our delicious Bison Picadillo Recipe.  These things are dishwasher safe, but in Texas we like our carbon footprint XL, so we’re waiting on these disposables.

Patented Taco Shells:
only thing better than a taco stand is a freestanding taco, and the only thing better than an ice cream cone is a taco cone!

Nuked Crispies?
Taco Pablo brings you the Taco Toaster, a revolutionary device that turns soft corn tortillas into crispy taco shells with your microwave.  Genius.

Amaya’s Taco Village is a mainstay of the i-35 taco scene.. Not much has changed in years… expect to find the place packed at lunch time.  The highlight of the (otherwise lackluster) menu are the Village Tacos.. Served in thick yellow corn fried shells that are a combination of chewy, crunchy, and greasy..   with processed yellow cheese, lettuce and tomato.. then your choice of ground beef, shredded chicken, or beef fajita.  Though you can get as many as 3 tacos to a plate, with rice and beans, 2 is more than enough to keep your belly full for the rest of the day.

For me, its the combination of the greasy, chewy shell  and the half-melted yellow cheese that make these tacos taste so damn good.. sometimes you just have wipe that  ’south austin – holier than thou – organic – whole food ‘ look off your face and enjoy the beauty of processed cheese… at least i do.  The ground beef is ok, but i would reccommend the fajita beef at a small extra charge.. it adds to the amazing texture of these tacos.. Amaya’s tacos have a weight/mass to them that is unrivaled.. a true gut-bomb if there ever was one.

Amaya’s Taco Village
www.amayastacovillage.com
5405 N Ih 35
Austin, TX 78723-2429
(512) 458-2531
Get directions

After trying TacoDeli’s bison picadillo tacos, and becoming intrigued by this wonderful red meat.. I decided to try making my own version for dinner last night.

I had to start with a little research into traditional forms of Picadillo. With roots in Cuba and Puerto Rico, this meat hash can include olives, capers, tomatoes, raisins, and pototoes. The name comes from the spanish word “picar” which the means to mince or chop. Its often used as a stuffing for empanadas. [ the delicious history of picadillo ]

Nueva Cocina Picadillo Seasoning

I decided to take the quick route with my preparation and start with a pre-packaged picadillo seasoning.. I found an all-natural seasoning from Nueva Cocina at Central Market that worked out nicely.. It includes sun-dried raisins, olives, vinegar powder, garlic powder, etc..

But i couldnt just go with the store-bought flavors, i had to add my own twist.. So i sauteed some sweet potatoes and pickled carrots in olive oil to create a nice hash with a bold color..
next I browned my bison meat, making sure not to overcook it as bison meat cooks faster than other red meats.
then i combined the picadillo seasoning, the sweet potato hash, some fresh ground cloves, and a sprinkle of sharffen-berger cocoa powder (gotta rep chocotown.org dog) to bring it all together..I covered the picadillo and set the burner on low to let the flavors all meld together while I steamed some rice and heated up some fresh HEB flour tortillas.

the finished tacos were amazing. the taste was so savory and comforting. bison is a great meat to cook with because its quick, flavorful, and healthy. [Bison Health Benefits]

Taco’s in Heaven
Taco Town sheds a collective tear today in rememberance of Joe “Taco” Navarro, a 69 year-old log cabin builder from Smithville, TX.  joe lost his battle with cancer last Wednesday at MD Anderson in Houston.  Condolences to The Navarro Family…On the bright side – we hear the taco trucks up there are off the chain…R.I.P. Taco Navarro.

Assault with a Deadly Taco
Orlando, Fl - Zachary Moir, 19, was arrested and charged with assaulting his mother-  with a TACO!  “When he refused to stop playing his X-box and come down for dinner, Dena Moir says she went upstairs and unplugged the game, that’s when she says Zachary pushed her and called her a bad name…then he slapped her arm and threw a taco in her face.”…While we support Zach for defending his right to grip the sticks, Taco Town must denounce and reject the wasteful and potentially lethal use of tacos as weapons…STAND DOWN son! <original article>

Two Words: Holy Taco!
My new favorite blahg doesn’t have anything to do with tacos the food- we’ll cover that. But it does have tons of funny shit.  They say its like a guy’s bible –a guyble, if you will look at this>

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 Cafe, a modest little taco shack out in San Antonio that has garnered nationwide attention and acclaim. Bon Appetit, in a Best American Restaurants series, crowned the Mexican mainstay as having the “Best Breakfast Taco in America”; Food Network concurred, awarding the Cafe “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 Cafe 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.

Read the rest of this entry »

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. (pictured at right: the Barbacoa Adobado Dinner)

Not to be outdone- Chapala’s fresh red table salsa is SO GOOD…whips Arandas ass… Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

Houston is BIG.  And Cabeza has but one stomach.  I was happy to find out some other Houston blogs have joined the taco review party.  Shit, the more the merrier.  The Houstonist Bites gives a berry favorable review to this unassuming Heights joint.

Chilosos has six varieties of breakfast tacos, all of which are $1.35 (add $0.30 for additional toppings). As we walked up to the counter to place our order, we were greeted with a smile and could see the fresh tacos being prepared in the background. We opted for one bacon, egg, and cheese (for comparison purposes) and one chorizo, egg, cheese and guacamole. Although there were no chips and salsa to munch on while we waited, we did enjoy the checking out the house’s decor…Full Review>

Another blog called Food In Houston skews their review of Chilosos to the lunch fare with equal enthusiasm. they say:

The breakfast tacos are good, but my favorites are two lunch tacos: carne guisada and puerco en salsa verde. Carne guisada is a stew of beef tips in gravy. Chilosos’ version does not have quite as much cumin as my favorite carne guisada recipes, but it is far above average. Even better is the puerco en salsa verde, chunks of pork in a mild green salsa. This thick, yummy salsa is not as spicy as I might expect, but it is full of flavor. Chilosos also makes a good chicken fajita taco, which is greatly improved by a liberal dousing of the salsa verde. Although the default tortillas are flour, I prefer the corn tortillas which are thick and taste homemade…Full Review>

Chilosos Taco House
701 E 20th St
713.868.2273
Mon.-Sat. 7am – 4pm