July 30th, 2009 in Tacos! by Jay | 3 responses
Aptly named, the Tacos Tierra Caliente truck has one blazing characteristic: their fiery red salsa. This salsa is the real thing, and is similar to the salsa roja found at Tijuana taco stands (which are the benchmark upon which all taco stands are judged). It’s not just hot, it is delicious. Most of the time, you can judge the heat index of salsa just by looking at it. If it looks like bright, molten lava, well, yep. Their green salsa is excellent as well.
Tacos Tierra Caliente
Tierra Caliente’s lengua tacos are some of my favorite in town. I ordered one lengua (beef tongue) taco, one bistek (brisket) taco, and a mandarin soda.
I recommended the lengua to J.C. Reid from The Houston Press, and these lengua tacos soon became the subject of the historic Do-It-Yourself TacoBurger, which marked July 2, 2009 as one of the greatest moments in Houston taco history. To this day, it brings tears to my eyes.
One lengua taco, one taco al pastor. Two sorry-looking limes.
Did I drift off? Back to the tacos. These looked and tasted fantastic.
Folks, that lime is there for a reason. Put it on your taco. I don’t know much about the physics of citric acid and its effects on meat, but something remarkable happens when you squeeze lime juice on tacos.
A bad lime can almost ruin a taco, that is, unless you smother it in really delicious hot red salsa.
Their tacos al pastor are made differently than some of my favorite places in town, but don’t let that dissuade you. Tierra Caliente makes the Mexico City variety, which is stewy and paprika-red (or achiote-red) with bits of pineapple mixed in. As much as I love a juicy pineapple, I’m just not big on mixing sweet fruit with my tacos. However, Sierra Caliente’s al pastor is one of their specialties, and people come from far away to get it. If you’ve really got an appetite, order one of their tortas, topped off with lettuce, tomatoes and fresh avocado.
Tierra Caliente also offers barbacoa, beef fajita, and “Chicharrones”, or fried pork skin tacos.
Another specialty is Sierra Caliente’s agua fresca, made with fresh cantaloupe juice. They’ll serve you a huge cup for a buck or two.
July 30th, 2009 in Insanity! by Jay | no responses
I actually read this one. Not that I recommend reading these. At all.
July 30th, 2009 in Insanity! by Jay | no responses
Dios Mio!
I flipped through this one, which seems to glorify the cartels of Mexico. The funny thing is, the comics themselves don’t have an abundance of scantily-clad women. They just put them all over the cover. Many of these comics are black and white on the inside.
July 30th, 2009 in Tacos! by Jay | no responses
- This is how you sell barbacoa.
Notice the “E” in Caldo de Res, which is a semi-nude lady. Chank Diesel, eat your heart out. I laughed so hard when I saw this that I couldn’t hold the camera still.
July 30th, 2009 in Insanity! by Jay | no responses
Comic book picked up at Supermercado Favorita
July 29th, 2009 in Insanity! by Jay | no responses
I’m excited about getting this started, because I’ve got a lot of entertaining content planned, and I’ve taken some hilarious photos today. Here are a few categories I’m planning on:
- “Scary Bars”. I’ll visit scary bars around Houston dressed like a nerd, and tell you all about them. This is easy for me, because, well frankly, going to scary bars dressed like a nerd is pretty much what I do anyway.
- How to Order Tacos at a Taco Stand. A brief translation guide on how to get the good stuff without feeling like a gringo. This is important if you don’t want to end up with lettuce and tomatoes on your magnificent taco.
Stay tuned!
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.
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