Guns and Tacos

Let’s get this party started.

July 28th, 2009 in Insanity! by Jay | 2 responses

As an introductory post, I’ll explain a little about me. I work for a tech company in Houston. There are plenty of nice places to eat, and also a lot of unusual folks in the neighborhood to keep things interesting.

I also have a part-time job at Top Gun Range. I enjoy teaching people how to shoot, and it’s great to have the opportunity to shoot just about any kind of kick-ass armament they may have for rent.

Unfortunately, it caught on fire a few weeks ago. I wasn’t there when it happened, but it caught fire very quickly in the middle of the day, and everyone had to be evacuated. There were bags of live ammunition on the range when it lit up, and I’m sure it was a challenging endeavor for the Houston Fire Department. A few lanes are still open, but I’m not sure how that’s going to work out since there is currently no AC on the range, and Houston this time of year is hotter than any similes or metaphors I can come up with at this time.

Now let’s talk about tacos.

I was in the US Navy for a while, stationed in San Diego, and instead of paying a ridiculous amount of rent in the 2nd highest price-of-living neighborhood in the US, I came up with this great idea to live in Tijuana instead, and commute to work on some sort of trolley/train gadget that went from San Diego to San Ysidro (the border). I had to learn Spanish really quickly. I paid $75 per month for my apartment, which I shared with a few local folks. I learned a lot about good people, and I learned a lot about people who promote donkey shows and carry knives. I learned how to open beer bottles with my teeth. The most important thing I learned was this fact:

FACT: Tijuana has the best taco stands in the world.

There are magnificent taco stands everywhere in Texas, and many great taco stands in California. But no single taco stand that I have tried has ever held a candle to the Taco Stands of Tijuana.

I’ve learned to accept this fact, after sampling tacos from every taco stand I’ve been able to find in Texas and California. Sure, there are top-ten lists and articles from famous and semi-famous food critics about many of these stands, but man, nobody knows tacos like I know tacos.

And I can’t wait to tell you about each and every one of them.