Taqueria La Hacienda
Central Mercado
1515 E. Lake Street
Minneapolis, MN 55407

To celebrate the completion of my statistics final, I decided to visit the Mercado Central on my way home.  I am curious if I can find some of the same foods and snacks I ate in Mexico.  Unfortunately, I did not find what I was looking for, but I enjoyed wandering around the market shops and exploring the restaurants’ menus.

In Mexico, I enjoyed snack bars made out of amarynth seeds and cocoa, small bags of crunchy snack sticks made of amarynth seeds and flavored with chile and lime, fresh milk candies studded with pine nuts or pumpkin seeds, and viciously spicy salsa.

I decided to order take out from Taqueria La Hacienda which advertises tacos al pastor.  Unfortunately, I may have arrived too early in the morning, as the spit of marinated meat was still raw.  I ordered two tacos al pastor and one taco cecina (filled with salted flavored beef).  The gentlemen crisped up my meat on a griddle and composed my order.  I also ordered a small horchata which is one of my favorite beverages.

And so I eat
I received three tacos with generous servings of meat.  The tacos al pastor were filled with flavorful bits of meat that were both salty, tangy, and sweet.  The meat was cut into tinier pieces than the spit roasted meat in the tacos arabe I ate in Puebla and was a bit dryer, but I enjoyed the flavor.

The taco cecina was filled with bits of dryish, chewy beef with a salty/savory flavor.  They were simply topped with onions and cilantro.  The salsa provided in the small cup would overwhelm those with little tolerance for heat but provides a pleasant kick for chili-heads.

The horchata was delicious, if a little gritty.

Each taco was $1.85 and the small horchata was $1.75.

Churros

 I also picked up four churros from the bakery located by La Loma.  They were crunchy and slightly warm.  They had a delicious fried flavor and were not too sweet.  I hate cloyingly sweet foods.  Although I enjoyed them a lot, the insides weren’t quite as creamy as those I ate in Mexico and were much larger.  Not sure if that only occurs when you eat a churro as soon as it exits the fryer.  Each churro was $1.