June 12, 2013

The First To-Tell-Ya (First Tortilla Review – Rockville Centre)

By heynardo

I’ve said it before, but Chinese Tex-Mex is pretty legit. Not legit in that it is authentic in any way, shape or form. But legit in the fact that its usually pretty awesome when you’re hungover and want someone to deliver you tacos while you lay on the couch all day watching West Wing. The First Tortilla Grill was not legit. It wasn’t horrible, and maybe I’ll have to try it again when I’ve got the Tequila flu, but overall I was not impressed.

To put it plainly, there wasn’t much to get excited about. The ingredients weren’t super fresh. the meat wasn’t expertly prepared (save the shrimp) and despite trying to fake authenticity by calling steak tacos ‘tacos el carbon’, there was nothing authentic about these tacos. It was basically like going to a below average Chinese restaurant and feeling like you’re rolling the dice with each bite whether you’re going to get food poisoning or not.

Oddly enough there was one taco that they did really well…the shrimp taco. I will get into that more below, but if you happen to go there I recommend a shrimp hard taco. If you don’t partake in the consumption of crustaceans, I would still offer this simple tip; hard tacos over soft taco from here.

Shrimp Hard Taco

Shrimp Hard Taco

Shrimp Hard Taco – The one shining star of this taco outing was the shrimp hard tacos. They were grilled nicely, and I’m a fan of whatever they grilled the shrimp in (if I had to venture a guess I’d say salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and a touch of garlic powder). The taco shell was open and wider like I mentioned in the Ay! Carumba! review last week, and I’m sold on this tortilla shaping. The cheese was typical shredded cheddar, the pico was average and the lettuce was…well shredded iceberg. But those shrimp were great, and because of that I give this 3.5 out of 5 tortillas.

Chili Soft Taco - The best description I could give this taco would be ‘hot mess’. It was so sloppy I couldn’t even open the tortilla to take a picture of its content. Grease had seeped into the tortilla and sort of glued it shut. I can’t speak definitely, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t a good thing. The chili had a weird aftertaste too. It was reminiscent of the aftertaste of homemade chili, but a little too bitter. I got the impression if I got there at like 9 am when they made this chili it would have been decent, but after probably sitting under a heat lamp for 12 hours…ew. I give this 2 out of 5 tortillas.

Steak Soft Taco / Black Bean Soft Taco – There was nothing in the former taco but gristly steak. It was not “al carbon” as advertised. It was just mehh skirt steak done on a slinger (diner grill). As for the Black Bean taco, it was arguably the most nondescript taco I’ve ever had. The only thing I can say is that the soft taco again was molded closed, this time by black bean paste. It was not horrible, but not good either. In short it was the very definition of taco purgatory. I give both these tacos 2 out of 5 tortillas.

Chicken Hard Taco – I had high hopes for this taco based on the shrimp taco, but it fell short. The chicken was kinda gristly. The cheese, lettuce, pico and sour cream were just there. Overall another relatively non-descript taco. I give this taco a 2 out of 5 tortillas.

Bottom line: If you go here for tacos, get the shrimp hard taco or prepared to be disappointed. I should add however that the quesadillas looked pretty stellar (even if they spelt it Quecidilla on the wall advertisement).

Website: www.456taco.com
Twitter: No Tweets, Just Meat
Facebook: No pokes allowed.

The First Tortilla Grill (Rockville Centre, Long Island)
169 Maple Ave.
Rockville Centre, NY 11570

Peace,

- TS

 

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June 6, 2013

Ay! Carumba! (Ay! Carumba! Review – Long Beach)

By heynardo

A look at the Ay! Carumba! menu would reveal a Tex-Mex restaurant unafraid of adding a dash of pazazz to their food items. Of the many traditional dishes, burrito options, smoothies, desserts and most of all quesadilla varieties one is sure to find something both interesting and up their alley. Unfortunately, they do not show the same sort of adventure in their taco options (See below).

Screen shot 2013-06-06 at 10.18.33 AM

Obviously when a place has such an interesting menu, but skimps on the taco options its discouraging. In fact, I felt the need to order a burrito as well in case the tacos were too cafeteria-esque for my liking. I’m glad I ordered the burrito (The Wild Texan to be exact), because it was delicious. But, much to my surprise it wasn’t necessary. The tacos were great! 

I’m not going to lie and tell you that my mind was blown, they were pretty standard in terms of what went into the tacos. But the thing that set them apart was the fact that the ingredients were obviously made with care and not just thrown together. As I said, Ay! Carumba! is clearly built on their burrito and quesadilla options but they do tacos with care. And at the end of the day, as John Lennon once said “When it comes to tacos, all you need is love”…

Chicken Taco from Ay!Carumba!

Chicken Taco from Ay!Carumba!

Chicken Hard Taco - If there is one common theme in my Ay! Carumba! experience, its underestimation. Not only did I underestimate the restaurant as a whole, but I also ate the chicken hard taco first, under the impression that if something would be a standout it would be the ground beef soft taco. I was wrong. The Chicken taco was awesome and I could have housed about twelve of them. Again nothing overtly special, or authentic for that matter, about this taco. Just basic ingredient done well. The chicken was grilled just right, juicy but not greasy. The cheddar cheese seemed to be actual shredded cheese not the bagged variety, and the pico was a show stealer, sweet and fresh. When you order the hard tacos via delivery, they send you the ingredients separately and allow you to make it as you like. I thought this was cool and definitely worked out in my favor. It also ensured that the tortilla didn’t soften up during the delivery process. Another thing that was really cool about this taco was the tortilla. Not only was it delicious, but it was also a little wider and deeper than usually which made it easier to add the ingredients and resulted in less spillage. I give this taco 4 out of 5 tortillas!

Ground Beef Soft Taco

Ground Beef Soft Taco

Ground Beef Soft Taco - This was a very good taco in its own right, just wasn’t on par with the chicken hard variety. My favorite thing about this taco was the freshness of the ground beef. A lot of the time, as delicious as they are, when you order a ground beef taco it makes you feel like you’re eating junk food. That was not the case here. This was freshly cooked and delicious, not something that was cooked 4 hours ago and sat under a heat lamp until I called my order in. I also really liked their soft tortillas. Overall a delicious taco which I would order again, just not if I had to choose between this one and the chicken hard. I give it 3.5 out of 5 tortillas.

Website: http://myaycaramba.com/
Twitter: No Tweets, Just Meat
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ay.caramba.716

Ay! Carumba (Long Beach, Long Island)
6 West Park Ave.
Long Beach, NY 11561

Love & Guac,

- TS

 

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May 30, 2013

Breakfast[Tacos] for Dinner (Chorizo & Egg Taco Recipe)

By heynardo
Chorizo & Egg Breakfast Taco

Chorizo & Egg Breakfast Taco

Chorizo…is a beautiful thing.

The most delectable of all sausage-type meats? Perhaps.

The best for filling tacos?

Definitely!

Any taco-slut true believer knows that both the Doc and I favor the chorizo arts. At any given taqueria, if there is chorizo on the menu we’ll probably give it a go. Yesterday afternoon I attempted making my own chorizo tacos for the first time. Largely influenced by my love of Dunkin Donuts sausage, egg & cheeses in the morning, my initial inclination was to do a chorizo & egg breakfast taco. Unfortunately, it proved to be an exceptionally busy morning and I didn’t get the chance to actually start making the tacos until late in the afternoon.

Technically it was still a ‘breakfast taco’ for me in that it was the first thing I ate for the day. But due to the time of day, it could also be consider a ‘breakfast-for-dinner taco’. Meal classifications be damned, this was quite possibly the most delicious taco I’ve ever made personally (I have to add ‘personally’ here as Taco Queen still takes the cake for best homemade taco chef).

If you like chorizo, give this recipe a go. I am confident you won’t regret it!

What You’ll Need:

  • 2 Eggs
  • 1 Chorizo Link (I used Aidells Chicken Chorizo)
  • 2 Small Tortillas
  • 1 clove Garlic
  • 3 thin slices from a Yellow Onion
  • 1 Jalapeno Pepper
  • 1 Pero’s Family Farm Mini Sweet Pepper (I used orange to add more color to the taco)
  • Olive Oil
  • Sriracha
  • Splash of Milk
  • A Pinch of Salt & Pepper

Directions:

  1. Dice the garlic clove and your slices of yellow onion.
  2. Cut 6 slices of Jalapeno Pepper.
  3. Cut the Mini Sweet Pepper into 8 pieces.
  4. Crack the two eggs into a small bowl; add a splash of milk and beat the contents.
  5. Heat the olive oil in a small pan on medium heat.
  6. Add the chorizo link. It will take approximately 5 minutes to cook, flip the link occasionally.
  7. About 3 minutes into cooking the chorizo, push it to one side and add the eggs. They will take between 1 and 2 minutes to cook and will likely require 1 flip. You don’t want it to cook all the way through as you want the inside of the resulting egg patty to have a slightly runny center.
  8. Once you remove the egg and chorizo, add the garlic & yellow onion to the pan and cook until browned. You can start step 9 while this is happening.
  9. Cut & crumble the chorizo.
  10. Slice the egg patty. I did 6 slices. 4 of these slices went into the taco, and the other two as a mid-preparation snack.
  11. In a bowl, mix the onion & garlic into the chorizo.
  12. Add salt & pepper to the pan. Heat the tortillas a little (about 20 seconds each side).
  13. Plate the tortillas and add the chorizo to the center of each tortilla.
  14. Add a strip of egg on either side of the chorizo (two strips per taco).
  15. Place 4 slices of the Sweet Pepper & 3 slices of Jalapeno to each taco.
  16. Give a swirl of Sriracha.
  17. Eat the ish out of those tacos.

You can also add avocado, radish or cotija cheese on this. Honestly I don’t think they are needed though.

Enjoy, and let us know if you have any questions!

<3

Taco Slut

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May 24, 2013

Return of the Taco Truck (Blend LIC Truck – Review)

By doctaco
Slingin' Tacos Curbside

Yes, that’s an ATM.

It’s been a long time since a new taco truck has rolled up near my office in Midtown. Sure, Mike N’ Willie’s has been around. And yes, the mighty Korilla still rolls through. So I was pleasantly surprised this week to see a bright, shiny new truck on Broadway: Blend LIC. Judging from their website, the Blend restaurant in Long Island City serves mainly Latin-Fusion cuisine. This mobile concern, however, mainly our favorite Mexican fare, tacos and burritos, as well as empanadas, Cuban sandwiches and salads. The folks slinging the tacos in the truck were quite a friendly bunch and eager to serve.

So how could I possibly pass up their lunch deal of 3 tacos for $6? COME ON!

Photo1 (5)

Beef, Pork, Chicken Taco Friends

For my lunch, I selected the power trio of tacos: Beef, Pork and Chicken. All of these were topped with lettuce, guacamole, cilantro, pico de gallo, some crema, and a dusting of cojito cheese. I also asked for some of their chipotle hot sauce on the side.

Beef - The clear, runaway MVT (most valuable taco) of this group. The marinated skirt steak was excellently complimented by all of the above toppings. It was simply delicious. I give this taco 4 out of 5 tortillas.

Pork – The meat for this taco was slow roasted in a mojo sauce*. The meat was a little too fatty for my liking, and I couldn’t really pick up what was going on with the mojo sauce. I poured some of the deliciously spicy chipotle sauce onto this one to add some more flavor. The pork gets 3 out of 5 tortillas.

Chicken - This tortilla had shredded chicken that was cooked in a sofrito sauce. I could be wrong, but I tasted something citrusy in this chicken, which for some reason was not pleasing to me. Just not the taco for me. I also doused this one with the chipotle sauce, proceeding to set my mouth on fire (it was worth it). It’s 2 out of 5 tortillas for the chicken.

Despite my lack of enthusiasm for 2 out of the 3 tacos in my lunch, I’ll definitely visit this truck on a lunch break in the future. The beef tacos deserve a repeat eat and I would also love to try Blend’s veggie taco, which comes with zucchini, squash, and a mushroom medley. It’s always a pleasure to see a new taco truck in the work zone, so please check out their Twitter feed. They offer a Tweet for Taco, so if you Tweet at them, you might yourself a free taco!

 - Doc

Blend LIC (Location Varies By Day, Check the Twitter!)

Website: Blend
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Blend_Express
Facebook: Not active since March 2012…

 *I link because I had to look up what these sauces were. Good to know, eh?

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May 15, 2013

Enter Generic Taco Blog Title Here (Taco Hut Review – Baldwin)

By heynardo

Generic Taco Restaurant

Taco Hut is the very definition of a generic Tex-Mex taco joint in the northeastern United States. Even the name sounds like a place characters in a Kevin Smith movie would congregate. I’ve been around the block enough times to know that the taco-slingers at these sort of establishments aren’t going to wow you by any means, but I decided to give it a go anyways. After all Taco King and Taco Hut would be indistinguishable from the outside looking in, and that place is so nice we reviewed it twice (Part 1 / Part 2).

Unfortunately Taco Hut swings a little south of the thin line between generic comfort-tacos and ‘mehhh’. In fact they were so generic and forgettable I don’t even have anything bad to say about them. They were just kind of there…and I ate them…and now they’re a vague memory in the endless sea of tacos I’ve experienced in my life.

As a result I can’t comfortably recommend you go to Taco Hut, nor do I advise against it. If you’re in Baldwin and Taco Bell is closed due to construction this place is probably in your top three remaining taco options within a one mile radius (I say this only because its the only other taco option I know of within a mile of Taco Queen’s house and I assume there is at least one or two bodegas that can beat this place for tacos).

If I had to equate these tacos to something, it would probably be Cameron Frye from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Personally, when it comes to tacos I’m looking for more of a Sloane experience…

Chicken Taco from Taco Hut

Chicken Taco from Taco Hut

Grilled Chicken Tacos - Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nulla sagittis venenatis libero eget faucibus. Suspendisse ut mauris et libero posuere lacinia vel eget odio. Nam fringilla, neque nec faucibus aliquam, nisi tellus viverra odio, vel sollicitudin augue nulla a ante. Nam neque neque, posuere nec adipiscing sed, rutrum eu purus. Fusce diam erat, tristique ut varius a, malesuada sed orci. Curabitur auctor placerat quam cursus porttitor. Fusce sit amet augue vitae ipsum facilisis gravida. Quisque in lacus eros, in ultrices elit. Vestibulum nibh ipsum, lobortis quis feugiat at, suscipit in felis. Nullam id nisl a erat condimentum sodales sit amet a quam. Aliquam erat volutpat. Nunc at ipsum ut purus pharetra luctus. Cras cursus dapibus neque, quis egestas augue auctor sit amet. Vestibulum dignissim urna placerat massa pulvinar sit amet imperdiet nisi dapibus. Donec mollis, felis in pharetra egestas, felis lorem suscipit nisi, in iaculis dui ante at libero. I give this taco 1.5 out of 5 tortillas.

Ground Beef Chili Taco from Taco Hut

Ground Beef Chili Taco from Taco Hut

Ground Beef Chili Tacos - Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nulla sagittis venenatis libero eget faucibus. Suspendisse ut mauris et libero posuere lacinia vel eget odio. Nam fringilla, neque nec faucibus aliquam, nisi tellus viverra odio, vel sollicitudin augue nulla a ante. Nam neque neque, posuere nec adipiscing sed, rutrum eu purus. Fusce diam erat, tristique ut varius a, malesuada sed orci. Curabitur auctor placerat quam cursus porttitor. Fusce sit amet augue vitae ipsum facilisis gravida. Quisque in lacus eros, in ultrices elit. Vestibulum nibh ipsum, lobortis quis feugiat at, suscipit in felis. Nullam id nisl a erat condimentum sodales sit amet a quam. Aliquam erat volutpat. Nunc at ipsum ut purus pharetra luctus. Cras cursus dapibus neque, quis egestas augue auctor sit amet. Vestibulum dignissim urna placerat massa pulvinar sit amet imperdiet nisi dapibus. Donec mollis, felis in pharetra egestas, felis lorem suscipit nisi, in iaculis dui ante at libero. I give this taco 1.5 out of 5 tortillas.

Black BeanTaco from Taco Hut

Black BeanTaco from Taco Hut

Black Bean Taco - Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nulla sagittis venenatis libero eget faucibus. Suspendisse ut mauris et libero posuere lacinia vel eget odio. Nam fringilla, neque nec faucibus aliquam, nisi tellus viverra odio, vel sollicitudin augue nulla a ante. Nam neque neque, posuere nec adipiscing sed, rutrum eu purus. Fusce diam erat, tristique ut varius a, malesuada sed orci. Curabitur auctor placerat quam cursus porttitor. Fusce sit amet augue vitae ipsum facilisis gravida. Quisque in lacus eros, in ultrices elit. Vestibulum nibh ipsum, lobortis quis feugiat at, suscipit in felis. Nullam id nisl a erat condimentum sodales sit amet a quam. Aliquam erat volutpat. Nunc at ipsum ut purus pharetra luctus. Cras cursus dapibus neque, quis egestas augue auctor sit amet. Vestibulum dignissim urna placerat massa pulvinar sit amet imperdiet nisi dapibus. Donec mollis, felis in pharetra egestas, felis lorem suscipit nisi, in iaculis dui ante at libero. I give this taco 1.5 out of 5 tortillas.

In short, Taco Hut should be renamed Taco Purgatory…

Website: No website, just blahhh
Twitter: Would be the most boring use of 140 characters ever..
Facebook: Would be the biggest waste of time spent on Facebook since the ‘poke’

Taco Hut (Baldwin, Long Island)
654 Sunrise Highway
Baldwin, NY 11510

Lorem ipsum dolor,

- Taco Slut

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May 10, 2013

Just Because It Sounds Good…. (Rosa Mexicano – Lincoln Center – Review)

By doctaco

Rosa Mexicano has been one of my favorite restaurants in the Columbus Circle area. It’s a classy spot, perfect for a business lunch, a nice meal before a show at Lincoln Center, a night out with your best guy or gal, whatever. I’ve been coming to this place for a few years now and always expect a quality meal (especially considering their prices). This past time however….

This past week I ventured out to the Rosa Mexicano by Lincoln Center for lunch with some colleagues. We had all been there together a number of times before, so we were all surprised with their new menu of lunch options. Gone were the old steak or chicken tacos (which I had always enjoyed). There are now three new selections: Baja Fish, Seasonal Vegetable, and Pork Belly & Scallops. Yes, you read that last one right. Now I am huge fan of both of these on their own, so joining forces in a taco just seemed, well, GENIUS.

Look at these massive piles of taco:

Looks can be deceiving...

Looks can be deceiving…

So these tacos were just overflowing with scallops and pork belly. They were topped off with what the menu called a “spicy orange-habanero salsa”. On paper, my tastebuds were in for a treat. Oh, but what a disappointment it all was. The scallops lacked any real flavor. I couldn’t tell if they were cooked with anything besides, I don’t know, a hot pan. The pork belly was nothing special either. I’d rather have some of the real deal at Fette Sau! And for the ”spicy orange-habanero salsa”? Well, it was definitely orange. Spicy? No, no, no. Not at all. I give this taco offering 2 out of 5 tortillas, just for the combination even existing.

I suppose the scallops and the pork belly were just not meant to be taco friends. They just need to live their separate entree lives, on separate plates, for separate tastes. Like they say: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

(Sidenote: One of my work friends got the Seasonal Vegetable taco, as recommended by our waiter. She was pretty pleased with her lunch, so there may be hope yet.)

Website: Rosa Mexicano – Lincoln Center
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RosaMexicano_NY
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosamexicano

Rosa Mexicano – Lincoln Center 
61 Columbus Avenue at 62nd Street
Manhattan, NY 10023

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April 26, 2013

Buffalo Wings and Tacos Together.This is My Thesis (Buffalo Chicken Taco Recipe)

By heynardo
Buffalo Chicken Tacos

Buffalo Chicken Tacos

If there is one thing that rivals the sheer ecstasy experienced while biting into a perfectly planned out taco, its digging into a plate of top-tier buffalo wings. This past weekend the Taco Queen and I finally experimented with a fusion of the two, and its safe to say our lives were instantly bettered by doing so.

Are we the first to go this route? Not by a long shot. You can pretty much find buffalo chicken anything these days. But the problem with most buffalo chicken tacos is that they are largely just buffalo chicken with some variation on the  accompaniments associated with eating buffalo wings (lettuce, shredded carrot, bleu cheese, celery). This doesn’t necessary lead to an un-tasty taco, but it doesn’t make for a unique experience either.

What we found made these particular buffalo chicken tacos so special was the dichotomy between authentic taco ingredients and those associated with a traditional buffalo wing outing. We weren’t 100% sure how it would turn out, but the melding of the two flavor profiles couldn’t have gone smoother. What resulted was a taco that was at once comfort food and inherently unique.

The fact of the matter is everyone has a buffalo wing recipe they prefer (if you don’t, leave your email in the comments and we’ll give you one of ours). Further, a wing recipe tends to be something people wants to keep to themselves. So rather than tell you how to make our buffalo wings, we suggest you use your favorite variation. Just make sure to use boneless chicken. We also suggest you cook the chicken ‘low and slow’ as they say in the world of BBQ, and shred it.

As pointed out earlier, it was the blending of authentic taco and traditional buffalo wing flavors that we thought really made these tacos stand out. So, without further ado here is what was between our tortillas this week:

  • Boneless Buffalo Chicken (We didn’t this time, but as mentioned earlier its probably best to shred it)
  • Marie Callenders Bleu Cheese (although we decided bleu cheese crumbles might be a better fit, think about how much cotija cheese crumbles add to a taco experience).
  • Radish
  • Red Onion
  • Avocado
  • Celery (diced VERY small)
  • Fresh Cilantro

There you have it. Give these a go and we promise you won’t regret it. Let’s just hope Doritos doesn’t turn this combination into some sort of XTreme flavor and ruin it for everybody.

If you need a little help in the buffalo chicken recipe department or have any other questions hit us up!

<3

The Slut

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