Taco Circus!

Sooooo….Long time no hear and I know...probably not missed.  I have been lazy and distracted and probably too opinionated to be doing my job and keeping the world safe for diners in St. Louis.  There have been a LOT of great developments in town in the last year on the low and intermediate “culinary” spectrum.  Today we discuss and disect Taco Circus.

If you had the pleasure (because it a delightful town for food, music and weather) and or misfortune (because it has become a city replete with traffic jams and angry Republicans) of going to Austin in the last few years you will hopefully availed yourself of the pleasures of their two GREAT taco chains.  Those are Tacdeli http://www.tacodeli.com/ and Torchys http://www.tacodeli.com/.  It is a matter of fighting words to chose one over the other but the fact is that they are both….absolutely fucking great.  Mexican street tacos… fanccified up for the family and made simple and exotic at the same time.  I would like to have the local franchise but… no one has called me and of course… I dont have any money.

So I eat a LOT of tacos in town.  Most of them are nice mexican places on Cherokee, up in Overland or over in beeeeeeutiful Fairmont City.  So when a culinary expert (Commissioner of my Fantasy Football League) told me about Taco Circus...on Morganford… I was intrigued.  Morganford by Bevo Mill has lapsed from its Germanic heritage and now is a bastion of Bosnian culture.  I dont know anything about Bosnian food but have not been impressed with my limited culinary tastes but tacos? In Bevo?  So I went.

I was… not impressed with the location.  It seems neither smart, nor particularly well thought out. I assume one of the partner’s mother must own the building.  It is slightly omantic just because it is positively off beat but… that front porch is positively not up to code.  

I was espcially intrigued however because they advertised “BREAKFAST TACOS!”  So I went and found their egg and chorizo was unstoppable.  Small and easily edible and easy to eat two.  They claim to have good coffee but I cannot speak to that.  There is on the other hand a slight problem with their brewed iced tea and their styro-foam cups but… the breakfast tacos were worth overlooking.  I cannot speak to the rest of the tacos in the morning but…

Everything they make is cooked right behind the counter.  There are normally two guys.  One cooking and the other taking orders and doing a little bit of prep.  Everything seems very fresh and they after several visits I believe they have good quality control as they turn out a consistent product and it is a nice quality product.I think breakfast tacos are only served until 10:00 and they dont compromise.  

Lunch...lunch is excellent at well.  They make their bones on a pork steak taco.  Obviously the pork steak taco is a St. Louis favorite and they sell a ton but I have a strong CHRISTIAN bias against the St. Louis pork steak.  There is always a tough bite and I have NO patience for anything tough in my tacos.  They were really good but… I also have a bias against ground beef tacos (I think Taco Bell) but these are to die for.  They reminded me of Delta Hot Tamales and i dont think they use Frank’s hot sauce but they make a hot sauce that goies on the ground beef tacos that make me eat 3 of them and three equals a belly ache… but damn their good. The chicken fajita taco is also excellent and flavorful as well.  

I have not tried the burritos because they flour tortillas (of course) but every taco is offered on soft corn, soft flour and hard corn.  They also seem pretty “clean” from a gluten free/celiac front.  I have not had any bad reactions other than the one brought on by eating 3 ground beef tacos.  

The place is not perfect.  It is small.  It has two picnic tables outside and likely seating for about 6-8 comfortably inside.  It is hot.  No airconditioning or weak air conditioning but over all, this place is a gluten free winner and I strongly reccomend!  

Additionally… here is a picture of my daughter with our late and much lamented rooster.

Schmeliac Pulled Pork, Verde Salsa "Street" Tacos

Soooo….when you cannot eat out as much you need to learn to kick for yourself a lot more and when you get through cooking steaks and baked potatoes and then you have the need to feed a group or something like that, and it needs to be “clean” (gluten free) it takes a little bit of planning, a little time and a lot of love.  My wife is always complimentary of my cooking but at the same time gets irritable because I cook mainly by feel (having a general understandings of what ingredients I want and then adding things and being inexact as to amounts of each one along way can lead to some inconsistency so as a favor to you, my loyal readers and in my continuing effort to stay married I am going to offer as detailed directions as I can for making this fan favorite.

There is much to be said for “the big meal”.  Something that can feed a lot of people and provide tasty leftovers.  There really is nothing like the communality (word?) of dining en mass and when you have children, or grown children and their friends and they are kind enough to spend some time with you, cooking for them is a great way to show your joy at having them around and modeling behavior that is related to service that is a benefit for everyone.  Also… and this speak especially poorly of me, there is nothing like when you stop and lay it out and watch it get devoured, and watch the larger of the mammals go back for seconds and thirds and soaking in some kind accolades and thinking to yourself, well… if I did not thing else good this day (week, month, or year) at least I did this.  And the great thing about cooking is that it is under your control and you always have the ability if you go slow, to make it great.

HOW TO GO SLOW AND MAKE IT GREAT

One of the key things I have learned from cooking a lot is the importance of the
“mis en place”.  Anothony Bourdain introduced me to the concept in his book “Kitchen Confidential” which if you have not reads it, shame on you.  It essentially means “everything in it’s place” and when cooking you want to get all your ingredients out first and lay them out.  For a Becker this is doubly important because often i will forget a key ingredient and not have it available and will have to run to the store in the midst of cooking which, for lack of a better term, fucks everything up.  A great explanation of the concept can be found here:

http://cookoutofthebox.blogspot.com/2010/07/hands-on-mise-en-place.html

I think for myself and a lot of men who like to cook, but are not chefs, that this is really a key concept to internalize.  Make a grocery list, go to the pantry and make sure you have all the ingredients because sometimes we forget that we used all the coriander last time.  Sometimes, like with this gem, you might also need to get it started the day before or at least several hours before with some marinade or in this case some brining.  

TOOLS

Martha Stewart Blue Roaster (ceramic iron)

Cutting Board

Sharp knife

Garlic Press

BRINING

To people like me who were not raised as cooks, brining can sound intimidating.  Maybe you are smarter than me but I always thought of it as some kind of alchemy similar to “letting yeast rise” or  “making a soufle” that I would consistently screw up.  The fact is that bringing is monkey stupid and easy.  An excellent description of why you brine is excerpted here from the “Fine Cooking.com”

“Moisture loss is inevitable when you cook any type of muscle fiber. Heat causes raw individual coiled proteins in the fibers to unwind—the technical term is denature—and then join together with one another, resulting in some shrinkage and moisture loss. (By the way, acids, salt, and even air can have the same denaturing effect on proteins as heat.) Normally, meat loses about 30 percent of its weight during cooking. But if you soak the meat in a brine first, you can reduce this moisture loss during cooking to as little as 15 percent, according to Dr. Estes Reynolds, a brining expert at the University of Georgia.”

That having been said...

Ingredients for Pork Shoulder

8 llb pork shoulder (some call it a pork butt and what you really want ideally is a chuck of meat with maybe a ¾ layer of fat one side and some bone in it.  It does not have to be a lot bone.  Even a little, say a thumb worth of bone, is good).

½ cup of brown sugar.  Any crappy brown sugar will do but in a perfect world C&H sugar, the really dark brown stuff is my favorite but seriously...any brown sugar.  Half cup.

½ cup of Morton's Kosher Salt.  You can use regular iodized salt but seriously, why would you.  You can get kosher salt anywhere and it is just better and it certainly cooks better.  Coarse sea salt is also an excellent option but there are a lot of options so..Morton's Kosher is a great “go to”.

¼ cup of chili powder.  Once again, any generic kind is fine.  I love Ancho chili pepper or Chipotle but they are expensive so for this, just get any generic brand of chili powder.  One good idea here is to go to a local Mexican market or most international markets and pick up some of their bulk generic chili powder.  It is always a slightly higher grade.

Four cloves of garlic.

Tablespoon of black pepper (any kind)

One whole large white onion

One cup of Cabernet, Merlot or some dry red wine.

INGREDIENTS FOR VERDE

15 Tomatillos (Tomatillos are little green tomatoes that com in a husk.  They are a pain in the ass because:

1. Some regular grocery stores do not carry them (most do)

2. The husk needs to be peeled which it does easily but then they have a sticky film on them that is best rinsed off.

3. They are small so it takes a lot of them.

2 whole white onions (chop them as fine as your attention span allows but other than avoiding long strands i believe vagaries in size of the onion and most everything else you chop) makes for a better mouth feel.

2 jalapenos (this is totally a personal preference for heat and the heat your crowd might like.  If you have a group of younger men… a “quiennes mas machos?!” type crowd  go with three Jalapeños and leave the seeds and inner membrane in.  

That is where all the heat is.  For a normal batch I will casually de-seed and de-membrane the jalapenos meaning I chop the top off and then with the point of the knife over the sink ro cutting board loosely remove 90% of seed and membranes. Don't be fussy.  If you really want milder salsa use Anaheim peppers which still have some good flavor and a little heat.  Poblanos are even milder but they taste too much like green peppers for me.  I have no experience with Habaneros.  The concept of that much heat cannot do anything but rob flavor in my opinion.  But the bottom line is that jalapenos are easy to come by and make for excellent slasa verde.)  

Once I de-seed them I take the ½ a pepper and meat side down press it into the cutting board, flattening it to slice and chop.  

If I know I have people who hate jalapeno I will make bigger pieces for them to pick out but generally I chop them pretty fine.

Garlic (two cloves minced or pressed)

Cilantro  On bunch, sloppily de stemmed and chopped up in an uncaring manner. (Cilantro is hard to work with if your fussy.  Sometimes i just chop up the stems too because they can give a nice crunch but normally i just hold the bunch in hand by the stalks and run a knife over it and then rotate a little bit and to the other side.  Most of the leaves fall off.  Then chup but not too much because it becomes pasty.  Don’t be fussy!

Two Limes each cut into 6ths or 8ths.  

One Tablespoon kosher salt

Two Ears of Corn (only if in season and please don’t use canned corn)

VERDE PREP

Ideally you want to make it a day before.  A day in the fridge really allows it to brew, mulch… whatever.  It will stink up your fridge for a day in a heavenly sick way.  Also remember that because everything in it is fresh it has about a 3 day refrigerator life.  By day four it gets sketchy and it can start to stink after 5… but make it a day early and you will get better results.

Start with the tomatillos.  Husk them.  Rinse them.  I cut off the top but that is a little fussy.  After cutting off top I slice into horizontal chips and slice those chips into strips and those strips get the final chop.  I do it a Tomatillo at a time for quality control.  It is annoying, there are a lot of them and it will take you 15 to 20 minutes.

Do the same with onions.  Cut off outer layer and slice of the top and chop them till the cows come home.

You can chop the garlic but I disagree with Mr. Bourdain here (he insists that anyone who uses a garlic press does not deserve garlic.  He is an asshole.)  You can shop your garlic yourself (me personally I live the smell on my fingers) or press it.

Jalapenos take care as indicated above.

Cilantro take care of as indicated above.

Limes… squeeze each wedge into the bowl, then mash them against the side and then leave their dead husks in there to stew.  They don’t hurt nuthin.

Corn… if in season bring a pot to a boil and boil two ears of corn for 3-5 minutes.  Then take a steak knife and slice it onto the cutting board and into the mix.  BUT ONLY IN SEASON!  The corn adds a nice color and makes it “pop” a little to the eyes.  I KNOW it ruins the “verde” quality of it but holding to cooking traditions is for Quakers.

Tomatoes:  Also ONLY IF IN SEASON LOCALLY!  Sometimes chopping one fresh tomato up adds a little more popping color as well.  I like it but don't do it often.

Pour in the salt

When I first started making this (Tim Tiemann had read ingredients to me over the phone) I didn't chop anything and just threw it into a food processor.  If you are lazy, this is a time saver but your Verde ends up more like a relish than a salsa in my opinion and done not have such a good mouth feel as it does when the ingredients are chopped and left unmolested by the food processor.

So seriously, you just keep emptying what you chopping into the bowl and then you stir.  I would stir it for several minutes to make sure it is properly mulched (I understand “mulched is not a cooking term.  Don’t be prissy.)  Cover it tightly with a lid or some press and seal and stick in the fridge.  If you have a “funny” fridge that freezes things in the back, do not put it back there because that will ruin it.  

Take it out the next day.  This is for pulled pork but I also use it on my tamales and it is great with a chicken breast or eggs as well.  This is simply a killer condiment and when sat out with some decent corn chips will be scarfed up in a manner which is slightly frightening.  I normally just leave the husked limes laying in there for people to scoop and pick around but the aesthetics of the dish will often call for their removal.

PULLED PORK PREP

After you make your Verde.  Brine your pork.  People say do it for 3 hours.  I say, do it all night long.  24 hours is not too much for a big piece of pork.  If you only have a few hours, chop it up into fist sized chunks but if you have your shit together, brine the whole thing in a gallon Ziploc all night long.

To make the brine, take a mixing bowl and pour in the brown sugar and the kosher salt and the chili powder and the black pepper.  I formerly used hot water for this but I think it mixes better with cold and that cold water is better for brining generally.  Stir it all up with a wooden spoon.  If you do not have a wooden spoon buy a few and treasure them.  Seriously, this is important.  Wooden spoons are THE aesthetics of cooking like this.  Once you got it mixed up put the shoulder in the bag and dump the brine on it.  You will still have glop at the bottom of the bowl.  Scrape it into the bag.  Gently push the air out of the bag and then massage it to make sure you get liquid more easily dispersed and then put into the fridge.

PULLED PORK COOKING

Get up early.  In a perfect world you have 10-12 hours to cook it.  This is the KEY to good pulled pork.  You want to cook it low and slow (like a witch would do with a small child).  This allows it to become “succulent” and this is what you are really going for.

Heat the oven to 275.  

Chop up the onion...just a rough chop up your garlic.

Fry 3-4 strips of bacon.  Fry it until crisp.  Remove the bacon from the pan and place on a two or three paper towels.  Take the bacon drippings and pour them into Martha Stewart roasting pot and place on medium heat.

Take a fork and remove the pork and drop into the pot.  Hopefully it sizzles.  Let it brown for 5 minutes and hopefully caramelize a little on one side and then flip and let it caramelize on the other side a little.  Don’t be fussy.  If it does not caramelize at all that is fine, the main thing is the bacon grease.

Remove from heat.

Pour the brine and the pork shoulder into your big blue Martha Stuart pot.  Pour in your onion and garlic and pepper.  Cover it and place in the oven.  Lots of people will blanch at the idea of pouring that brine into the pot and cooking with it.  Screw them.  Listen to me.  Pour it all in and let it go for 2 hours at that temperature.

After two hours get it out and flip it around and reduce the temperature to 200 and then… forget about it for another 5 hours.

After five hours more (total of seven) or even after six hours (total of eight) pull it out.  

Drain ½- ⅔ of the remaining brine.  Hopefully it has not boiled away.  The pork should pull apart easy.  Take to forks and fork pull it.  Try and peel off and pull out the larger hunks of fat gristle and bone.  Don’t be too fussy.  Getting all the bone and 70% of the rest is a good job and try and fork it pretty thoroughly.

Pour in the wine.  

Cover and put back in oven for another 1-2 hours.

Pull it out and serve it in the pot with a serving fork after stirring it around one more time.

I really like to serve it with the Verde and heated corn tortillas.  Maybe a little cheese and make sure you have some fresh onion and lime for classic street tacos.  It should easily serve 8-10 with leftovers.

This is my gift to you. Life is good.

Highway Tacos

Sooooo... during the summer I drive to Michigan a lot.  I believe in the Ballad of Lilly and Lola I regaled you with tales of an idiot eating their way north.  Their are many ways to northern Michigan but the fastest way, "as the crow flies" is to buzz up 55 to Joliet, shoot on 80 across the remainder of Illinois (South Chicago), zip across the northern most portion of Indiana (from Gary to Michigan City and then hit Michigan and head up Highway 31.

The problem is the first part.  That first stretch from the river in St. Louis to where it hits 80 in Joliet.  It is at best a wasteland of corn and wind and that it only during the time when the corn is growing.  The rest of the time it is wind and soybeans or wind and dirt.  It is a miserable 4 hours plus no matter how you cut it.  Last weekend when traveling home from #Beckerwedding (more on that later) I decided that since I was driving home by myself, I had gotten a late start and because I wanted to ruin another shirt that I should find every taco place on that strip of road or thereabouts.

I think it is pretty well established that I give too much.  I do too much for other people.  I extend myself in really unbelievable ways to do tremendous acts of savage kindness which are too many to be listed and frankly I would be embarrassed by their sheer volume but there is no question that no one gets more of this unbelievable sacrifice.... than you people.  So as i am driving and ignoring calls from work, emails from work, cried of help from work, injured people on the highway, monsoon warnings, deadly heat and the sad fact that I left my Ray-Bans up in Michigan I am typing in Google searches of "Street Tacos" along with a city name.

I have come to think of "street tacos" as two corn tortillas, overlapping with any meat (other than ground beef which is verboten) along with some onion, cilantro and a lime wedge.  That is the street taco.  Sadly there is no Wikipedia definition of "street taco" but I am going to stand by my definition.  A lot of interesting things come up but when traveling at high speed along the highway and avoiding deer and occasionally people you cannot read too closely.  Hy the way... this is another way I give too much.  DO NOT TEXT AND DRIVE.

Even when you have the whole day it is difficult to eat tacos too many times.  It wears you out.  They burn.  They got processed (sometimes unhappily by your body.  They can kill you.  There, I said it.  When booming over highway 80 and stiffing the toll booth lady for a dime I came across a place in Joliet called Ricos.  All i read was "it is in a silver trailer behind the SuperMercado.  What could possibly go wrong.  With the iPhone I got my directions and off I went!  The Google Maps gave me a stupid way to get there but that happens.  I got there and BOY did I get there.  I arrived around 11:30 to a full parking lot and had to jockey.  there were anglos around but not too many and I spotted the trailer and knew I had done well.

It was... beautiful.  I watched the two gentlemen in front of me order their lunches and tried to gain my bearings.  There were tubs of sodas from other countries and the menu was half in Spanish, half in english.  Everyone around me was speaking Spanish and I had read about their pork tacos and I ordered them and stood around,  pretending to stare at my phone as life teemed around on the parking lot.

My tacos came up and she put them in a styrofoam container and put them in a plastic grocery bag and I hopped in my car and was on my way.  Twisting out of Joliet and back onto 80 I sampled my first one and it was chewy, spicy perfection.  I had an iced tea which I needed to gulp and I got my big allergic sweat on as I got on 55 and headed south.  This place is about 3 minutes off the highway in Joliet.  I will be back.

Then I decided to double down.  I tried to find something in Springfield and if anyone has a place for street tacos in Springfield, I want to know about it.  Striking out on "the Google" I then tried Bloomington which was just a little too close but.... what the hell.  There were a couple of places but ultimately I chose La Carniceria.  It too was awesome.  Three more tacos Pastor that looked like this.  

Not Everyone is crazy about tomatoes on their street tacos.  These were good and they were served with a green (verde) and a red sauce.  I have found generally that the green sauces are  milder.  These too were OUTSTANDING!  One of the sad casualties of the outing was my WEATON T-Shirt but there prices a man has to pay for this type of searching and eating for the benefit of other people.  Trying to find highway tacos... my white whale... my quest.... as I said... I give too much.  Google map these things.  You dont need me to do it.  When you head north on 55 to Chicago or points further north... think tacos... this delicious and enjoy and thank you hard working diner reviewer.

Diner Review: Mi Ranchito

Sooooo.... As I have previously stated there are a great number of Mexican places that have opened in the last few years. Lots of good tacos and burritos and carnitas and asada and what not. Great tacos served on corn tortillas with a little cilantro and some lime. When the tortillas are warm and the carnitas is good it is more than a little bit of heaven. They have sprung up all over place. It is a treasure. I keep my eyes peeled and when a place pops up I like to check it out and the more off the beaten path, the better. Last year I touted El Ranchito in Fairmont City and it should not be confused with this impostor called Ml Ranchito.

So this place has been getting good reviews and there has been a lot of talk. It is on Kingsland just north of Olive and about 5 blocks south of Delmar. It is in the end of a crappy little strip mall and when I went on a recent day for lunch it was easy to get a table at 11:45 and it was a waiting line by noon. People seem to love the place and I had a table by the door and people just kept rolling in. it is hugely popular as a lunch destination right now.

The chips and salsa were reasonably good. Nothing too special. The sauce was read and clumpy with onions but not too hot. 4 kinds of hot sauce on the table to spice it up. Chips were clearly not the standard store bought chips and they crunched in a way that was not displeasing.

The menu was a disappointment looking to me like a slightly more authentic Casa Gallardo. Your meat choices for the tacos were “chicken” or “beef” rather than all the different delicacies that I have grown accustomed to. There was no beef tongue. There was no goat. There was no “asada”. I mean there has to be 4 different kinds of pork at El Ranchito in Pontoon Beach. But still, there were a ton of people there and quite a few cops (they know where to eat) and so it was with great anticipation that I ordered the carnitas plate.

While I would not classify it as a disappointment, the meat itself was great, the rest of the plate was uninspiring yellow rice and some lettuce with tomato pieces in it. I had to ask for some lime wedges. Then I unrolled the aluminum foil I was doubly disappointed to see flour tortillas. How does that happen? I know I am no expert about Mexican food, or tacos, or the law, or marriage or...well obviously anything... but FLOUR tortillas? Really? Still as I said, the meat was good and and it was acceptable but I want JOY from my food.

The iced tea was brewed. The bill was not too expensive but I just cannot recommend the place. It has no personality, an uninteresting location and a quality of food only slightly higher than chain Mexican restaurants. And flour tortillas? Blech! 6 Slingers on the ten scale.

here is their web site but it is down or at least was today. That says about all you need to know.

http://www.mi-ranchitostl.com/

Diner Review: La Tienda Ranchito, Fairmont City Illinois

Sooooo seriously, it would appear that my FFL Franchise is on it’s way to a really, REALLY unprecedented 2nd year championship. If that happens I plan to quit practicing law and just bask in being a GOD AMONG MEN for a year or so. Fantasy Football might easily be one of the stupidest things that i do but it does keep you focused week to week on the NFL which I guess is a good thing if you are 50, like me, your children have abandoned you, like me and your wife is happiest when you are parked in front of the TV (where you can be found, observed and or quaranteened) and not pressuring her for sex on the weekend. The league is made up primarily of plaintiff’s attorneys and as near as I can tell they take great risks and generally make butt loads of money. There are some losers in the league who are not like that, like me and an investigator and an “Investment advisor”. It is NOT an exlectic group but it is an interesting one.

Three of us are pretty much locked at our desks all day emailing inanities and annoying the others by filling their boxes. The rest occasionally wade in. One of the only benefits I have seen from the league other than the millions in prizes I won last year is that it gives me a network of people who really like food and eat out almost every day and several of them eat out every night. This has lef to the following discovery in Fairmont City Illinois. It is Tienda El Ranchito, located at 2565 N 32nd St. in Fairmont City, IL 62201. Their phone is (618) 875-1521.

This place is....unstoppable. I have been to all the places on Cherokee and have a great respect for them. the same can be said for Durango on Page and a couple of the places in Overland. They are all literally shovelling out high quality food every day at a very reasonable price but Tienda is to be much lauded and glorified. Every time I go (and I have been there 5 times now) I drive by it. Take 55/70 East and get off at the fairmont City Exit that has the place that was formerly an old Venture. take a right on Collinsville Road. If you go left you see the burial mounds and eventually get to Fairmont Park, but if you go right it will sneak up on your left. On your right you will see the looming landfill by the highway. It sits back from the road and has one sign. When you park go to the left to find the door.

When you go in it is just a Mexican grocery with all the beauty that entails including tons of pepper and peppers and masa and Mexican sugar cane coke and little Mexican chotchkes and a full meat counter with all nature of chicken, pork and other treats, If you bear to your left as you go in and follow the wall it leads to to the restaraunt and bar in back and you have arrived in heaven. The TV’s during the week carry a steady stream of some Mexican MTV and another one will have on the Telemundo soap opera and if at all possible soccer will also be on. That is VERY important. On Saturdays there is also football (as opposed to Futbol) and Sundays they shgow the pro games. They have a full bar. they have a Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tienda-El-Ranchito/120919354588146

The place is normally chocked full of the nicest people in the world. the staff tends to be helpful and patient although they can get busy. they will bring you out home made chips along with verde and a little red sauce and some of the best salsa your going to get. really simple with onions, tomato and cilantro and with the chips, heaven. They have a decent selection of cerveza and all the Mexican beers are of course served with lime because without the lime they have almost no flavor at all. Still, they are refreshing.

I must admit that I have been relatively narrow in my review of their offerings. As with breakfast I play in a certain wheelhouse and have a fairly telescopic view of the oferings. That having been said they are making the BEST tacos in a town that now has a LOT of good places to get good tacos. Recently I went for a Saturday lunch because I had heard (therough the FFL grapevine) that they make fresh corn tortillas on Saturday. This was not a lie. I ordered the carnitas and the pollo. They are served with onion, cilantro and lime and with the fresh buttery corn tortilla it was more than a small slice of heaven. My date had a chalupa which although i was incredulous about, looked good and he said was outstanding. The meat in both my tacos was floavorful without being overly seasoned and the heavy cilantro, fresh onions and a squeeze of lime made them absolutely perfect.

It is not often i can write about a place as nothing but a fan but that is the case with Tienda El Ranchito. I did a little more fact finding in another taquiria over there in what we will now dub :The Fairmont City Project”. I will report more on that later. For now, Tienda El Ranchito. 9 Slingers on the 10 scale. Quoting the old Milwaukee’ss Best commercial, “It don’t get no better!”

St. Louis Tacos: The Real Deal

Sooooo....tacos. I have an odd, inexplicable penchant for tacos. Tacos of many different types and styles. I tire of anyone calling such a bastardized item “authentic”. There are Mexican, New Mexican, Texas, Thai, Korean.... the road goes on forever and the party never ends. I have developed a preference generally for simple soft corn tortillas with some type of meat and a little lime and cilantro. They seem pure to me and when I discovered i could get them down on Cherokee Street it was yet another thing that made me smile about St. Louis. Sure, we have lost our brewery to Brazilians, the cardinals are owned by some rich boys from Country Day and every large company worth it’s salt has run (not walked) out of our little town. But we have some damn fine tacos.

La Vallesina with it’s outdoor dining is my favorite but on some days my inadequacies at Spanish can limit my meal. So this week I went on a small but interesting taco binge trying two new places. The first is The Farmhaus. I had tried to dine there last Friday fro fried fish but they were “sold out” when I went. The Farmhaus is open for dinner but has reved up a small, ravenous fan club for it’s daily Blue Plate specials. They tend to be comfort food and started being whatever they wanted to cook. There are no choices. you pay 10 or 11 bucks and you eat whatever they serve you with a side, salad and a drink. If nothing else it is a cute idea. So I went with my niece and nephew this Tuesday because the Farmhaus has announced taco Tuesday. I was unnaturally excited. the place is sparse in decoration but was already filling up at 11:30. The salad was suspicious to me with the dreaded “field greens” which I view to be weeds but they had an excellent dressing and in an effort to continue to broaden my tastes I ate it. They have flavored iced tea which is a strike against them but the water was cold. they then served each of us three tacos, chorizo, carnitas and veggie. They were all good but surprisingly the chorizo was the best. they were served plain with a lime along with Spanish rice and big meaty beans (which i hate but understand that I am in a sad, unschooled minority. It was all good. My complaint is that they were not great. Tacos should be great. i will not need to go back for Taco Tuesday but I look forward to experiencing other Blue Plates. it is a great kitschy idea. All you need to know:

http://www.farmhausrestaurant.com/farmhausabout.asp

Which brings me to my favorite, great kitschy idea....the taco truck! They have had these out in L.A. for years. Large wagon like trucks with a ull kitchen jammed inside. In L.A. it was the Korean taco truck that really got peoples attention. They were hard to find but a treat and developed quite a following. The thought of getting food from a truck is VERY appealing to me. I fondly remember the ice cream stock and the hot dog stand and the taco truck seemed a natural. For the last year I had been blathering in my tiresome way to friends that I was going to revolutionize St. Louis cuisine with a taco truck and that my son could run on it on his graduation. Alas he graduated and got a job and I got distracted...probably by a shiny object or perhaps a gum wrapper, and it never happened. And them the bastards stole my idea.

This is what a taco looks like on a car seat...as you drive.



So after taco Tuesday at Farmhaus I was leaving court on a Wednesday and got the tweet from Cha Cha Chow that the taco truck was outside Barnes Hospital on Euclid and Forest Park. Yes, I follow both Farmhaus and Cha Cha Chow on Twitter. Yes, i am not cool or young enough to be on Twitter. Get over it. I was done with court at 11 when I got the Tweet heading back to Clayton. Why not? I want to say for the record that it was an excellent decision. I pulled up behind the truck illegally parked on Euclid (and i illegally parked behind it). there is something illicit abd buying your food from a truck, especially when you are driving up behind it. it is kind of like a drive by shooting... with food. I hopped out and jogged to the sidewalk side of the truck and asked after the tacos. They assured me that they were life changing and I ordered the chicken, the carnitas and the fish. 9 bucks. I think that breaks down to 3 bucks each. The pork was mouth watering and flavorful with a verde that was not hot but very bright with great tomatillo bursting out and served as god intended on corn. The chicken was similarly flavorful with cheese and onion. the fish was a little disappointed because it was covered in their mayo, cha cha sauce.

I ate them all in the car as I drove. Even the fish. they did not change my life but it was oh so good and I know i will be hitting the taco truck at least a few times a month. If you do not tweet I think you can find it through their website of Facebook page but go hear to get the delicious menu.

http://chachachow.com/menu.html

Cha Cha’s Taco Truck, if they play it right will become a cherished St. Louis tradition. Even for the sober. Go there. Now.