Wednesday, December 30

2009: The Year of the Taco

At least it was for the Taco Journalism team. We probably ate more than 300 tacos this year and if you look at my belly, it shows! 2009 hit some people pretty hard but luckily for us, we mostly ate at cheap taco joints and were able to survive "these economic times." We did eat a lot of tacos, met some cool peeps, collaborated on projects (yeah, just like the hop-hop moguls), traveled a bit, ate more tacos, got our 15 seconds of fame, added a girl Taco Journalist to the team and watched a man eat 26 tacos in 15 minutes! All this and we all managed to keep our day jobs!

So here's a quick recap, from our taco world to yours!

Austin Taco Tours
Who knew tacos would bring so many people out for the rainiest East Austin Taco Bike Tour we hosted with TastyTouring? Yeah, I remember seeing all those bike riders (40+) at Porfirio's then it rained on our way to Piedras Negras & Marcelino's but the troopers stayed strong (20ish) finishing at Mi Madre's. We ate a lot of tacos aguados that day!

We also searched the best Taco Al Pastor in town. We did a video for Dishola and recruited some pretty committed pork eating peeps. Austin is not D.F. and we don't do our al pastor trompo stlye but we can definitely pass the health inspections. For this tour, we had to try the best al pastor taco in town. We searched far and wide; not really, we just went to 5 taquerias: El Taquito, Rosita's Al Pastor, La Guera, El Primo y La Flor. La Guera won hands down and we got a vid to prove it! We also had a pro photographer (Penny De Los Santos) taking the most amazing photos of any taco you'll ever see!

World Taco Tour
We'll go where ever the tacos will take us and where we can afford to go. This year, we teamed up with Austin & Houston food bloggers for the H-town Taco Tour. Addie Broyles was our fearless leader in this tour and the Catrachas closed the deal for us. Great times were had by all Americans, Mexicans and Hondurans.

SF - We also ventured to the west coast to rip on the burritos and take a taco tour of The Mission. Dishola's Lindsey Simon helped us out with some pretty good places and one joint to be remembered by all. Visions of the taco dorado at La Taqeria will be 4evah engraved in my belly!

We went all the way to San Antonio to try the "best tacos in America" and were not disappointed. In S.A. the tortillas bring it home. That pretty much wraps up the world tour.

Pissing people off
Yeah, we pissed some people off but we're sticking to our taste buds. El Chile, La Condesa, Zocalo, Flaco's, Curra's, Rio Grande, Cafe Hornitos, El Sol y La Luna, Ken's Tacos & Jalapeño Joe's: No Thanks!

And I thought we ate a lot of tacos!
Nope, there are some serious taco eaters in this town and that included Joey Fulcher, the winner of Open Door Preschool's taco eating contest. This guy downed 26 crispy tacos in 15 minutes beating out 14 other contestants! He barely stayed for the trophy ceremony cuz he had to go.


The Taco Journalista

We had one try out and she made it. This year, we welcomed the Undercover Mexican Girl to the team, mixing it up for the puro vato taco team.

RIP: Magic Taco Box
Yes, this year, we said good-bye to the Magic Taco Box aka Alayna's Taqueria. You will be forever in our hearts.

Our 15 minutes
Tacos: you love them, we love them and the media loves them too! This year, we were very fortunate to talk about tacos with media types including...

Austin360: Tour de Tacos
Austin Monthly: Will Work for Food
KGSR Food Show w TastyTouring: Breakfast Tacos
We Are Austin: A Convo with a Taco Journalist
Austin Vida: Meet Austin's Taco Experts
SF Weekly's SFoodie: A Texas Taco Blogger's Crawl Through the Mission
and we made the cut for Austin American-Statesman's Top Blogs

Finally, the 3 Taco joints to eat in Austin for 2009 are...
Taqueria Olivas by the Undercover Mexican Girl
San Juanita's by Jarod
Amaya's Taco Village by Cornbiter Deluxe

So what's in store for 2010? We don't know but mibbe we'll get more organized, the quality of our photos may improve (or not) and there's rumors of a Taco Council??? We'll see but I hope you will join us in our taco adventures!

Adios Mofos!

The TJ Team
Jarod
Cornbiter Deluxe
The Commish
Undercover Mexican Girl
El Mundo de Mando

Monday, December 28

My Rejected Food Network Video

Well, I didn't get a call back. That's pretty much rejection, right? Gotta keep trying though. We need a show that shines the light on all the taquerias from Austin to Akron, Ohio, right???

Muchisimas gracias to my friend, Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon for filming and everyone else for your ayuda!

Now for your viewing pleasure (or not), here's my rejected Next Food Network Star try-out video...

Sunday, December 13

The Case of the Mystery Chones!

Last week, I was in the outskirts of D-town, a place called Carrollton/Farmers Branch. Yeah, the same place that tried to ban colorful houses. Anyway, I went to this Mexican joint with the fam and found something curious while I was there....Chones - aka calsones/underwear/boxers, pronounced cho-nees! Yeah, can you believe it??? I didn't but it was true. I even made a short video of it. Check it out...



Have any stories to compare??? I've heard cucarachas and ratones, but chones?? Can you beat it?

El Mundo de Mando

Thursday, December 3

One Taco - Zen Taco Truck Madness


One Taco is a new-ish taco truck operating in the parking lot of the Little Woodrow's on West 6th street. One of the previous occupants of that spot was a Torchy's Tacos. So it is understandable that One Taco can't help but echo some of what people like and dislike about Torchy's. It is self-consciously stylish and clean. It is a bit overpriced (the price's don't approach Torchy's levels though). They both use high quality ingredients and neither serves 'traditional tacos'.

The differentiator, then, seems to be in the menu. Torchy's has a sprawling menu with tons of variations. One Taco took a zen-like approach with a minimalist menu: for lunch they serve breakfast, steak or chicken tacos. No crazy tacos named after fake sexual positions are served here. With such a limited menu, those tacos better be awesome.


The steak was broken up into small, pebble-sized bits, covered with white cheese and marinated in a chipotle sauce and served on a flour tortilla. Green salsa was served on the side. It proved to be rather bland. The steak was nice and non-gristley, but the chipotle sauce was lacking in any heat and was rather watered-down. Overall, it was a decent steak taco, but not memorable.

The breakfast taco was serviceable, but done in a style I dislike. The eggs were clearly prepared separately from the bacon with the bacon being added at the end, assembly-line style. While it probably makes for easier assembly, it definitely loses a lot of flavor. I was disappointed.

Finally, I'm not normally a 'bean guy'. I don't see the big fuss. However, in this case, I made an exception and was quite pleased. The beans were nice and smooth, not too thick and not too thin. They had a great consistency and were well complimented by the white cheese. I would definitely order it again.

If you're drinking at Little Woodrow's, One Taco is a serviceable choice for food. Actually, if you are drinking, you'll probably think it is amazing. Just don't go back, sober, expecting Torchy's.

One Taco - 2.5 stars - The Commish
520 West Sixth St.
Austin, TX 78701
info@one-taco.com

NOTE: The review was initially done when they were in the parking lot across from Little Woodrow's.