Category: Tacos

Tacos On A Saturday: El Morelia

Tacos are love.

At least to me they are. You can keep your Valentine’s candy and roses that will just die anyway, and stuffed bears holding hearts. You can also keep your poetry, unless it’s about tacos, of course. Mexican street-style tacos are like everything nice in food cradled between two soft corn tortillas.

This weekend, we continued our St. Louis taco quest. Previous outings brought us to La TejanaTaqueria El Bronco and Taqueria El Bronco again (and again).

A while ago, Whiskey & Soba mentioned how El Morelia, a Mexican grocery store in nearby Bridgeton roasts al pastor on a spit for Saturday and Sunday taco lunches.  I never forgot this.

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OK Now I Think Taqueria El Bronco’s My Favorite

We can’t stop eating tacos.

The other night Jake and I were watching an episode of the Jim Gaffigan Show. One of the jokes was that while he and his wife were looking for a new home, she fell in love with every one they viewed stating that it was “the one.” I feel this way about good tacos. On our first STL date night, we rejoiced upon finding street tacos and spicy salsa at La Tejana in Bridgeton and on our second, we did the same over tacos at Taqueria El Bronco.

Moving to a smaller city is one thing, and moving to a large city is another. The Twin Cities is larger than St. Louis, but it’s where I grew-up and had always lived within a few hours’ radius. I just kind of understood the food scene and restaurant dynamics because I collected experiences and knowledge in bits and pieces from multitudes of sources for 30 years! We took for granted knowing the places people generally regarded as the best in their category from the tourist traps.

In St. Louis, we are just beginning to figure out where we are at any given time. Therefore, we look to blogs, message boards, and St. Louis residents for advice. One restaurant that frequently appeared in my search for favorite Mexican restaurants is Taqueria El Bronco located on Cherokee Street. There are many Mexican restaurants and bakeries located along this stretch of Cherokee Street and I keep reading about it’s hard to go wrong here.

On Saturday night, we had to drive around a bit before finding a parking spot on a side street (still adjusting to parallel parking and remembering to carry quarters for meters). Once inside we were warmly greeted and quickly seated. We dug into the complimentary chips and salsas. The red was very mild while the green was wonderfully spicy.

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We’ve never tasted a green salsa quite like this and we put it on everything. Next time, we’d ask for two dishes of green salsa. My thirst still wasn’t quenched after climbing around The City Museum so I ordered a margarita ($6.25). Jake tried a Michelada ($5.74) which reminded us of a Bloody Mary-flavored beer.

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Jake ordered five different tacos while I chose two. They’re smaller and less stuffed than the tacos at La Tejana, but also cost less at about $2 each. Seafood tacos cost a little bit more. Our order arrived surprisingly quickly.

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Sliced radishes in my tacos make me happy!

Jake’s favorite taco was filled with finely crumbled chorizo. The meat wasn’t greasy at all and had a flavor we kept wanting more of. Jake said he liked it so much he’d just order chorizo tacos on a future visit.

I ordered one shrimp and one al pastor taco. The shrimp taco tasted light. The shrimp tasted fresh and weren’t strongly seasoned. I especially liked the al pastor meat. It had a wonderful griddle char. Some people hate the sight of fat on meat, but I loved that some of the pork pieces had a thin layer of caramelized fat.

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We left El Bronco glowing with green salsa-induced endorphins. The person who managed the griddle Saturday night was totally on point. There’s clearly many good tacos to be had in St. Louis and we’ve hardly scratched the surface. El Bronco’s were as delicious as any we’ve tried from our favorite Twin Cities restaurants like Pineda and Taqueria Los Ocampo.

Taco Tuesday: La Tejana, Bridgeton, Missouri

So, we didn’t actually eat these tacos on a Tuesday, but it is Tuesday and I’m writing about tacos, hence, Taco Tuesday! Have you ever wanted to blog a Meatless Wednesday, Wordless Monday, Thursday Favorites, Throwback Friday and watch the world burn, because I totally haven’t. . . 😉

After fifteen whole days in St. Louis, our belongings are mostly unpacked, but yet to be organized. While our condo isn’t much smaller than our Mason City town home, it contains less storage space. This isn’t entirely bad since it’s forcing me to go through our old moving boxes. I’m unpacking items I haven’t though about for years such as cards and letters from college friends and long-lost shoes. I found all of the pairs of glasses I lost after each move and two, life-sized stuffed dogs.

trayse dogs

Trayse is not amused. Rowdy(s), No!

This weekend was Jake’s pick for date night and he chose taqueria-style tacos; the type made with double corn tortillas, a plethora of flavorful meat choices, and garnished simply with hot salsa, onion, cilantro, and lime wedges. I searched local blogs like Whiskey & Soba and local publications’ lists rounding up the community’s best Mexican restaurants. It’s clear there’s a lot of incredible Mexican food to be found here, but we had to start somewhere and I chose La Tejana. The first line of this St. Louis Magazine article states it’s, “not for folks who want American-style tacos. . . ” which meant it served what we were looking for. The menu also offers tortas, gorditas, sopas, and goat and seafood soup among other items.

With the weather hitting 95-100 ºF, we explored our local mall before driving fifteen minutes to Bridgeton. La Tejana is located in a quiet strip mall between a Mexican grocery store and a small liquor store. We were warmly greeted and served chips and salsa.

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I loved the salsa’s flavor. It tasted a little garlicky and perfectly spicy. The complimentary table salsas Mexican restaurants served us in North Dakota and North Iowa tended to run mild and I felt pleasantly taken aback by its kick.

As much as Jake and I enjoyed visiting Las Palmas in Mason City, they did not offer horchata (and Jake misses their giant burrito). I ordered a horchata and received this giant cup which helped make up for lost time.

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We stayed true to our date night mission and ordered lots of tacos for dinner. Jake tried a handful of different fillings while I ordered one lengua and two al pastor along with a side of jalapenos. I haven’t encountered al pastor tacos as magical as those we ate in Puebla where pork and pineapple cooked on spits like gyro meat and cooks shaved the meat to order. Still, there are some of the better al pastor tacos I’ve tried in the Midwest.

I liked that the pineapple was cut into small pieces and mixed into the meat so each bite tasted sweet and savory. The lengua was tender like the softest pot roast and slightly fatty (my favorite tongue tacos might be the one I tried from El Taco Loco when I joined part of Heavy Table’s Central Avenue Checklist).

Jake’s favorite taco fillings were the steak and barbacoa de res.

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Our server brought over a red and green squirt bottle of hot sauces, explaining the red sauce was hotter. We liked them both. The jalapenos were nicely blistered and seasoned with a sprinkle of salt. I nibbled them between bites of taco.

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Overall, La Tejana definitely scratched our itch for street tacos. Our server was very friendly and the prices are affordable. Spicy food endorphins are my favorite endorphins.

One thing I’d like to find is a Mexican restaurant that serves sauces similar to East St. Paul’s Taqueria Los Ocampos. Who serves your favorite St. Louis tacos?

Coming up next: I got splashed by a puffin at the zoo!

My week in tacos: Courtesy of El Burrito Mercado

El Burrito Mercado

175 Cesar Chavez St.
St. Paul, MN 55107
http://elburritomercado.com

Remembering my rapture-worthy tacos from Los Ocampos, I shopped for this week’s groceries at El Burrito Mercado, located in West St. Paul.  “Taco Tuesday” might be your thing, but I wanted enough ingredients to supply a “Taco Week 24/7 week.”

A vendor located outside El Burrito Mercado sells fresh roasted corn, elote, and mangos on sticks covered in lime and chili.  I ate the most delicious elote and mango/chili popsicle in Queretero and look forward to trying this vendor on my next visit.  Last year, I tried elote from Los Ocampos and was disappointed by my small ear of waterlogged corn.  Was this just a bad night, and where else can I find elote?


At the meat counter, I bought a pound each of carne al pastor and cecina, thin, flat sheets of salted and slightly dried beef.  I also bought black beans, Salsa de Arbol and Drunken Salsa from the deli.  These salsas were marked with the store’s maximum spice rating of three chili peppers. 

Carne al pastor

Carne al pastor, unwrapped
I simply heated a grill pan to medium high and sauteed the meat.  I chopped the fresh pineapple ring that was included in marinade, and sauteed the fruit along with the meat.  The cooked carne al pastor was tender and juicy.  The marinade was flavorfully spiced and “cuminy” while the fruit added some well-balanced sweetness.  The carne al pastor didn’t quite remind me of the spinning meat cones of Puebla, Los Ocampos, or La Hacienda due to its marinade flavor, but it was tender and delicious.  I would certainly buy this meat again, especially at $3.99/lb.   

Cecina
Last month when I tried La Hacienda, located in the Mercado Central, Minneapolis, I enjoyed a taco filled with cecina.

I bought a pound of cecina which cost about $5.99/lb, chopped the meat into small pieces, and sauteed in a hot grill pan.  Because I did not rinse and dry the raw meat before cooking, the cecina was inedibly salty.  A quick Google search informed me to rinse cecina before cooking, reminding me to Google unknown ingredients first, and cook second.

In order to save the meat, I rinsed the cooked meat pieces in water twice, and re-sauteed in a hot pan with a lot of olive oil.  Despite my misstep, the meat still tasted really good.  The residual saltiness offset the blandness of the corn tortillas.  

The raw cecina was difficult to cut and I predicted the meat would be tough, however the cooked cecina was very tender.  I savored the carne al pastor and cecina equally while Jake preferred the cecina.

I served the meat along with finely chopped onion, cilantro, lime wedges, and corn tortillas I heated in the oven, in addition to El Burrito Mercado’s prepared black beans and salsas.

Until I spent time in Mexico, I did not understand the allure of dousing most foods in lime, chili, and salt.  Now, I can’t get enough of lime, chile, cilantro, raw onion, and salt.  I veer from Scott Conant’s “raw onions make everything a dirty travesty” mantra.

Frijoles Negros, $2.95

These creamy black beans had a nice firm texture and garlicky scent.  Even though I like salty foods, I felt the beans were a touch too salty, but not inedibly so.  I would love to try making my own batch of black beans during a less busy week. 


Drunken Salsa & Salsa de Arbol


I am addicted to El Burrito Mercado’s fresh salsa bar.  For the past two visits, I bought their green, drunken salsa.  This spicy salsa is chunky and contains peppers, onions, and fresh avocado.  I can’t remember why this salsa is so tipsy but recollect it may contain tequila.  The red Salsa de Arbol is given the same three chili pepper heat rating, but tastes less spicy than the Drunken Salsa.  It’s like Chipotle’s hottest salsa.  Except better.

For the first time, I bought some cactus paddles.  Online, I was instructed to trim off the edges, scrape away the spines, and boil for 15 minutes.  I added the cooked cactus to the tacos and to cheese quesadillas.

I would welcome any suggestions on cooking un-slimy cactus.  There ares still five cactus paddles dwelling in my fridge.  

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