E. MexiKinney St. Taco Crawl #2: Taco Lady

For many months, I have heard the lavish praise ladled upon this taqueria. (Owen Ashworth: "The carne asada will change your life." Justin Collins: "The barbacoa made me quit my job. Don't try the eggs.") Why the fuck haven't we made it over there yet?

Bryan (Tre Orsi drummer and my partner in the Taco Crawl) made the executive decision to skip over the place in line after Veronica's and head straight for the supposed queen of E. McKinney St. taquerias. Why the fuck not?

Between the two of us, we had chorizo and egg, barbacoa, and carne asada tacos. In that order:

• Chorizo and egg: fine flavor, iffy on the texture (almost like tofu scramble), but a fine enough example of the form if you're in the mood.
  
• Barbacoa: Bryan's favorite. Very juicy, great beefy flavor. She does a nice mix of cabbage, onions, and cilantro, and those mixed w/ the corn tortillas are divine.
• Carne asada: Look, here's the deal w/ me: I still consider myself mostly a vegetarian. I'll try just about anything that's great in the interest of science or blogging or cultural goodwill, but day-to-day? I'm a vegetarian. Taco Lady's carne asada has changed the game. It has rattled me to the core, made me question my beliefs. It has put the urge inside me to bike my fat ass back down there before she closes and get two dozen, then crawl into my closet and stuff my face with the lights off so the cat can't see me in my shameful pose.
  

I don't know how I'm going to recover from this. Damn you, Taco Lady!

Bookish Coffee

I was recently turned on to (and I forget by whom -- many apologies) local (Denton, TX) coffee roaster, Bookish Coffee. My maiden order, a half-pound of Nicaragua (Fair Trade/Organic) arrived on my doorstep on Wednesday, and I finally fired up a pot in the Ilsa Moka this morning.

The verdict: nice body, good flavor, very enjoyable. It's no Intelligentsia, but it also walked itself over to my house, rather than coming via FedEx or UPS or USPS. I'm most definitely subscribing to support this great local company.

Howard stopped by his place and talked for a while, and got a look at his roaster. Hopefully he'll write something up about it here soon.

E. MexiKinney St. Taco Crawl #1: Veronica's Cafe

In our lovely home of Denton, TX, East McKinney street is full of small taquerias, most of which are not frequented by we gringos. To bridge the cultural divide and fill our bellies, Bryan (Tre Orsi's drummer) and I are making our way up McKinney St., hitting every single taqueria and cafe.

Stop #1 was Veronica's Cafe, today at 3:30. They were out of a lot of stuff. Note to self: must wake up earlier.

Specifics:

• Carne con chile taco: C+. Not bad, not that exciting, either. This is their "spicy" beef?
• Lengua taco: C-. Not flavorful enough. Like my mom's brisket. (Sorry, mom!)
• Salsa: B. Consistency like Mexican Sriracha.
• Service: A

They do their morcilla Mexcian-style, as one would suppose. They were out, so no dice.

(I should add that the only time I've had morcilla was in Valencia, Spain. There, it's a sausage made of pig heart, lungs, neck, blood, and spices. Was served in a super-light crepe, drizzled with honey.

I asked the guy at Veronica's how he makes it: "Just blood.")

Also of note: our friend, Mariel Tam, (who knows her gastronomy like no one's business), says: "The caldo de pescado from Veronica's cured my case of mono. For like a day, anyway. It is fabulous."