Casitas Tacos - No Trendy Strip Mall Tacos Please

You've seen all these little strip malls that are trying to be cool y todo Austin just because they have a coffee shops and trendy stores right? Well, they are still strip malls. So what happens when you add tacos to the trendy mix? You get bad tacos and that's what I got at Casitas Tacos. (FYI for good tacos, go to the strip malls with laundromats y tacos)

As I was saying, Casitas Tacos is on a South Lamar strip mall that wants to be the next "cool neighborhood spot," pero no! I had the migas taco and a bean, egg and bacon taco. They were both muy plentiful, the tacos were overfilled with huevos, frijoles y chips. That was about the only good thing about these tacos. The migas taco was bland and full of factory bought chips accompanied by store bought tortillas. The bean, egg and bacon was no better. I use a BEAN-METER to tell if a place has good food. This one did not pass. Someone needs tell these peeps to add onions, ajo or at least salt to their beans (Oh, I just did!). They we're pretty skimpy with the bacon as well. I also tried their salsa label HOT - NOT! Their green salsa must of been made of bell peppers or mibbe they were going for Gringo hot??? I don't know but what I do know is that was the first and last time I go to Casitas Taco. The end.


Casitas Tacos - 1 Estar - El Mundo de Mando

2310 South Lamar
Austin, TX 78704
512-916-8019

Fox7 Fearless Foodie: Face, Intestine & Tongue Tacos

Last week, Lauren Petrowski from Fox7 and I went on a taco hunt. Our goal was to find some of the weirdest tacos we can find in a trailer east of IH-35. So weird to most people is normal en El Mundo de Mando. We tried your everyday face (barbacoa), intestine (tripitas) and tongue (lengua) tacos. I thoroughly enjoyed it but Lauren had a harder time with one of them. Guess which one? Check out Lauren's Fearless Foodie segment on Fox7...

BONE TACOS!!!

YES I AM VERY EXCITED ABOUT THE BONE TACOS THAT'S WHY I'M TYPING IN ALL CAPS!!! Okay, settling down now. So when I found out that my neighborhood taco joint - Marcelino Pan y Vino - had what I call BONE TACOS! I was muy excited! They're called BONE TACOS cuz they gots bones in 'em. And they good! Imagine eating slow cooked pork tacos aka costillitas de puerco en chile cascabel. They don't mess around cuz they don't even bother removing the chile seeds. Yes, this is my kind of place. But you don't have to take my word for it, just check out the video with special guests Sandy and La Diana!

El Mundo de Mando

Marcelino Pan y Vino rocks the BONE TACOS!

TaKorea & Chi'lantro

Trailers, Trailers everywhere! Looking for Stuffed Doughnuts? There's a trailer for that. Pork Belly Sliders? Yup, there's a trailer for that. BBQ Pork Banh Mi? Check. Falling-off-the-bone Ribs and the fattiest brisket this side of Lady Bird Lake? Word. Tacos with Korean flavors, small fillings and not so fresh tortillas? We've got 2!

1. TaKorea: Located in the new trailer park on MLK and Rio Grande on the southern boundary of west campus lies TaKorea...and about 6 other trailers slinging everything from Chicken and Waffles to Root Beer Floats.

The tacos at TaKorea are aight. The ingredients are very fresh and the meats, ranging from pork belly to diced beef, are all really tasty and grilled nicely. The toppings depend on the taco and are a perfect compliment to the grilled meats they accompany...but there are some problems. The tortillas are god awful. TaKorea could do themselves a kindness and get some better, thicker tortillas stat. The thin grilled piece of cardboard that was served with both of my tacos took away anything good the taco had going for it. At $2.50-$3.50 a pop, these fellas need some work.

2 Stars - jarod

TaKorea
eastmeetsmex.com
1901 Rio Grande


2. Chi'lantro: The day we visited they were located at 2nd & Congress on what is left of the Las Manitas (may it rest in peace) foundation with a few other trailers that include an uber-clean coffee trailer with delicious espresso and pastries, kebabalicious and an interesting looking poboy trailer.

The Chi'lantro's tacos are pretty damn delicious and if they were a little bigger or less expensive I could see myself chowing on these regularly. They use fresh, soft white corn tortillas and quality ingredients with flavorful toppings...but they are just a tad light on fillings for $2.50 each.

3.5 Stars - jarod

Chi'lantro
www.chilantrobbq.com
Multiple Locations (Find them on Twitter)


Both of these tacos could be great if they added more meat or improved the tortillas (YES!! It matters that much), but tasting these fusion tacos makes me realize what all the hype is about. Koreans have tasty fucking sides that go well with grilled meats. Put that shit in a tortilla and it's going to also be tasty.


The Commish here: It's interesting that Jarod and I came to opposite conclusions on the two Korean taco trucks. I was much more fond of TaKorea than Chi'lantro. TaKorea killed its competitor in all of the areas that count: name (TaKorea is a way better pun), taste (the meat was more flavorful), and selection (Chi'lantro had a very limited menu.) I would go back to either, but given the choice, I would definitely go to TaKorea, first.

TaKorea - 3 stars - The Commish
Chi'lantro - 2 stars - The Commish

TacoCast: Veracruz All Natural

You saw it here on TacoJournalism - our first TacoCast, inspired by the NY Times slidecasts, a little rough around the edges and straight from my basic iMovies editor. I wanted to show the taco love a little different this time so I dabbled a bit, added some good looking fotos and cool musica by local indie Latino band, Maneja Beto. Plus you get to listen to my accent-uous voice-over or as my niece puts it, "uncle Mando, you sounded really Hispanic." Anyjuays, ju guysss.

So here's my TacoCast of Veracruz All Natural. They good!




4 Stars - El Mundo de Mando

Veracruz All Natural
1704 E. Cesar Chavez
Austin, TX 78702

Cisco's: It's all in the biscuits!

One of the nice things about living in East Austin is it's history, feel and old school Mexican joints. We like to go to Joe's Bakery and Cisco's from time to time. These places are historic. They've been around since the 50's, for reals! In the midst of all the changes happening in East Austin, new hipster bars, overpriced food trailers and crazy housing prices in the area, it's a nice thing to know that we still have these restaurants that "keep it real" in the Eastside.

Cisco's is one of the classics. Even though we've reviewed the place already, I wanted to give you another reason to eat at Cisco's while we still have it. Word on the street is that it's up for sale. So before the owner sells and retires to a beach community, you gotta try it. The biscuits do the trick for me. You won't find this in any Mexican restaurant so why not give the biscuits a try! They good!

Enjoy!
Mando

iTacos - The TacoJournalism App

What do tacos and technology have in common? Nowadays, everything! Over the last year, we've been working with our amigo Tony Buckingham on developing TJ's iPhone app - iTACOS. We've debated what should be included in it; any taco joint, our fave spots, our blog posts, ads, no ads, names, etc. So we finally agreed to publish the 2.0 taco version. Consider it an app that's somewhere in between the taco trailer and the full on restaurant. You'll like how easy it is to use but sometimes you'll need to speak Español or add some cebollitas to get the order just right! So here it is in all it's glory with some helpful tips...

The name: iTACOS
It is the Taco Journalism app but there was a limit on the letters. So we went with iTACOS. Also, the singular version was taken by one of those eating/drinking your iPhone types.

Price: Free! What a deal!

Locations: Austin, Texas only - The Breakfast Taco Capital of the World!

Functions:
Taco Locations - If we've tasted it, you'll find it. Only TJ taquerias make it on list.
Search - It's linked with Google GPS and will find the nearest TJ taco joint near you. You can search by zip and map the locations.
Taco Details - It's linked to our blog so you'll be able to read our posts, reviews & best rated tacos as well as the taqueria details.


Get it today! Download iTacos for free @ the App Store 

Stay hungry my friends!
Mando

Taco Stand Translation Guide

We did a similar taco survival guide for SXSW but this is more thorough. Read this, understand it, and use it.

Jay from Guns & Tacos says:

To optimize your taco-eating experience, I thought I’d relay a few tips that might prove helpful. Some are pretty basic, so bear with me.

1. Always bring cash. Preferably small bills.

2. If you’re not a fluent Spanish speaker, try English first. Most taco truck attendants have remarkable psychic abilities and can interpret your hungry non-Mexican gestures and awkward, ugly English quite well. Also, if you start using Spanish, they might think think you are fluent and respond in really fast Spanish.

3. Do not allow them to put lettuce and/or tomatoes on your taco. If this happens, write “CILANTRO Y CEBOLLAS” across the side of the taco truck with the nearby red salsa squirt bottle.

Taco Stand Translation Guide