Author Archives: Taco Trail Jose

by | July 3, 2012 · 8:00 am

Chile Pepper Grill & Tacos El Barrio

A friend and I took off for a day of tacos in Fort Worth last month. By the end of the taco tour, we had visited three restaurants, one truck and one trailer. The trailer in question was Chile Pepper Grill in the Cowtown Chow Down food truck park.

What I noticed first about Chili Pepper Grill was the impressive menu. There was asada and tripe but also an alambre taco, meat with all the fixings. Choriqueso, a gooey hybrid of a taco, was another option. Huaraches, tortas, gorditas, quesadillas and burritos, each for six dollars, rounded out the available items.

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by | June 28, 2012 · 11:02 am

Choco Tacos

If you’ve been holed up in your house without a thermometer, a television set or an Internet connection, there’s a good chance you don’t know it’s hot outside. Yep, summer has come to roost in Texas.

In the spirit of the season, I picked up two boxes of Choco Tacos dessert tacos from Klondike* The store was out of the Peanut Butter option. So, I went with the Original and Chocolate flavors, each containing four tacos in a box. Continue reading →

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by | June 26, 2012 · 12:49 pm

Zombie’s Food Truck

I’ve eaten tacos made in a laundromat, tacos on the property of an automechanic’s garage and now I’ve eaten tacos from Zombie’s Food Truck, a Fort Worth-based mobile kitchen specializing in vegan foods. At the invitation of Dallas Vegan’s Jamey Scott, I hopped on the bus for a Dallas Vegan Drinks meetup during a Deep Ellum Brewing Company Thursday night tour, with food from the aforementioned operation.

Named after Texas Rangers starting pitcher (and native Dominican) Neftali Feliz—currently on the disabled list—Zombie’s Neftacos Feliz are small corn tortillas filled with partially shredded meat substitute seitan (wheat gluten) and topped with stringy onion, chopped avocados then given a sprinkle of cilantro. The pair are a solid meal with a few disappointments. Continue reading →

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by | June 21, 2012 · 11:38 am

My Five Favorite “Specialty” Tacos

I lump specialty and traditional tacos in my Best Of lists because the pesky issue of taco authenticity is something I overcame long ago. The breakfast taco (a Tex-Mex classic) is no less legitimate than a taco al pastor (an iconic Mexico City snack appropriated from the roasting preparation Lebanese immigrants brought with them in the 20th century). The same goes for Velvet Taco’s fare or the Taco Bell-Frito Lay chimera, the Doritos Locos Tacos.

Today, I temporarily separate the categories. The specialty/gourmet/gringo/upmarket/whatever you want to call the tacos that do not adhere strictly to a misplaced perception of the uber-traditional deserve as much praise and scrutiny as the liquid fire of the guisado verde from La Nueva Fresh & Hot or the crackerjack carnitas from El Pueblo Restaurant on Jefferson Avenue. This list, then, gives greater  attention to tacos and restaurants who have earned it. And now—with old favorites and double-takes—in no particular order: Continue reading →

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by | June 19, 2012 · 5:09 pm

La Gaviota Taquería

La Gaviota Taquería, a tiny restaurant—really, just a covered, unfinished patio with an attached kitchen—abuts an auto mechanic’s repair shop. More spacious is the outdoor covered seating area adjacent to the taquería. To the south is Interstate 30. Across the street in this industrial section of Oak Cliff is the city’s main post office. Only the delivery and dump trucks roaring past and area workers—letter carriers and grease monkeys—notice La Gaviota. It’s almost impossible to see from Beckley Avenue.

Yet, it was from Beckley that La Gaviota (Spanish for seagull) was spotted as my family approached the Commerce Street Bridge. I returned alone ready for garage tacos. Continue reading →

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by | June 15, 2012 · 11:56 am

Where to Eat Tacos During Craft Cocktails Texas and the Oak Cliff Film Festival

It’s a big weekend  for lovers of art and culture. When need you breather from the Oak Cliff Film Festival and Craft Cocktails Texas, recharge at some of Taco Trail’s favorite joints. Those in need of a change of pace, drop into the Filipino Fest at the Deep Ellum Outdoor Market. Market director Brandon Castillo tells me there will be a Filipino fusion taco available.

Craft Cocktails Texas
Hermanos Cruz Restaurant, 4525 Maple Ave., 214-586-6778
Up the road from the Stoneleigh Hotel, the cocktail convention’s nerve center, is one of Dallas’ great taco districts. This deserted-looking joint is sparsely decorated, but provides customers with knockout lamb barbacoa, a bit sweet, a bit gamey and 100% delectable. Continue reading →

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Filed under Bachman Lake, festivals, Maple Ave., Oak Cliff

by | June 14, 2012 · 1:01 pm

Taquería Ocampo Restaurant

Like the tremulous enthusiasm running up to the premiere of Star Wars: Episode 1: The Phantom Menace and the disappointment that, after credits rolled, threatened to crush the theater filled aghast fans, Taquería  Ocampo Restaurant was a minor lift and a major fall.

The fanfare was perhaps a year in length. Each time the missus and I would drive south on Interstate 35E, Taquería Ocampo teased me from the access road beyond the 12th Street exit. Its covered front patio was perpetually empty. A pickup truck or two occasionally were stationed in the parking lot. It teased me. It teased me with a humble façade, neglected picnic tables and corny icicle lights. Continue reading →

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by | June 12, 2012 · 4:46 pm

Taquería Mezquite

When I’ve eaten at Ojeda’s, I’ve not noticed Taquería Mezquite, a small restaurant across from the Tex-Mex citadel on Maple Avenue. When I’ve lunched at Maple & Motor or at any of the other surrounding establishments. However, I did notice the small restaurant while wasting time along Maple before an unfortunate meal at El Rey del Grill. With advertisements utilizing rough representations of a ram on the fascade and on the side of the pastel-green building housing it, the eatery should have never been missed by anyone, especially not by my lunch companions and I. We were about to rectify the oversight, ready for Taquería Mezquite’s goods.

And the one-room joint, humorously identified as a sports bar above the entrance, certainly was good.

None of the dollar tacos disappointed, not even Mezquite’s chicharrón, one of the few palatable examples of the style—fried pork skin reconstituted in safety orange-colored salsa—I’ve consumed in Dallas.

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by | June 12, 2012 · 11:46 am

Recipe: Green Chile Pork

I always forget to take a shot of the plated dish. This photo was taken minutes ago.

Living with persnickety eaters—admittedly, one is getting better—it’s rare that I, the primary cook at Casa Ralat, have the opportunity to prepare family meals I want. (Hola, cheese pastelillos.) Today is one of those glorious days. I’m preparing slow-cooked pork tenderloin with tomatoes and green chiles, what I call Green Chile Pork. And it’s full of home-cooking cheats. The whole dish is a cheat. My recipe, which originally appeared on the Slashfood website, is below. Continue reading →

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by | June 7, 2012 · 5:58 pm

Lavanderia

The assaulting aroma of dryer sheets and bleach overpower any whiff of food advertised at Lavanderia, the laundromat at the intersection of Rosemont Avenue, 10th Street and Jefferson Boulevard in Oak Cliff.

But if you walk up to the cashier’s stall, you can order tacos, pizza and ice cream. The tacos available, fajita and pastor, were initially pleasant. However, the demanding masticatory calisthenics revealed meat that was dirty—as if it had been run through a child’s sandbox before hitting the crusty grill—and got me sick.

Stay away from the laundromat tacos.

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