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Dallas D Magazine tacos

miner1liner

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Feb 10, 2014
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I've been posting on Twitter about their claim that Dallas is THE Taco capital of Texas. I said that there's no one over here that has a clue about making a genuine taco. I said any restaurant in El Paso blows away anything they have in Dallas. They talk about competition from San Antonio, Austin, Houston, etc., but no one recognizes that anything they do is merely a failed attempt to copy the real thing from the true home of Texas Mexican food.
Can someone grab the post and add it here?
 
El Paso has good Tacos, but so does the rest of Texas. The thing that seperates Dallas,Austin, Houston and San Antonio from El Paso is the diversity of Mexican food. El Paso has a heavy Norhern Mexican influence especially from Chihuhua. You dont get the diversity of Mexican cuisine in El Paso that you get in the major Texas Texas markets.
 
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El Paso has good Tacos, but so does the rest of Texas. The thing that seperates Dallas,Austin, Houston and San Antonio from El Paso is the diversity of Mexican food. El Paso has a heavy Norhern Mexican influence especially from Chihuhua. You dont get the diversity of Mexican cuisine in El Paso that you get in the major Texas Texas markets.

I do agree. I love El Paso Mexican food, I have no problem with it but stylistically the vast majority of restaurants are similar to what you grew up with at home. You travel to bigger markets, and you see other influences and you also see restaurants that are willing to try new things. A lot of that stuff doesn’t fly in El Paso.
 
I do agree. I love El Paso Mexican food, I have no problem with it but stylistically the vast majority of restaurants are similar to what you grew up with at home. You travel to bigger markets, and you see other influences and you also see restaurants that are willing to try new things. A lot of that stuff doesn’t fly in El Paso.
Nor should it. Guess I’m just a homer!!!
Utep will win everything this year. (At least in my dreams).
 
El Paso has good Tacos, but so does the rest of Texas. The thing that seperates Dallas,Austin, Houston and San Antonio from El Paso is the diversity of Mexican food. El Paso has a heavy Norhern Mexican influence especially from Chihuhua. You dont get the diversity of Mexican cuisine in El Paso that you get in the major Texas Texas markets.

The one thing that is absolutely true (at least in DFW). Found so many unique and different types of Mexican food from the various regions. Another difference, more variety of Latin American restaurants.
 
The discussion is intended to be...where are the best tacos???? For those of you native EPers that know how tacos are prepared at L&J, Avilas, Leo's, Carlos & Mickey's, Kikis, etc; have you ever experienced a basic Dallas taco? A pre folded dry taco typically out of a box that disintegrates in one bite. It's like a giant tostito. Some joints will just warm a corn tortilla so that it's like a limp noodle or offer a "soft" taco using a flour tortilla which they should call a burrito.
Enchiladas, rellenos, tamales, etc are another matter.
 
I agree with the amount of diversity that can be found in the bigger Texas cities. I’ve had tacos that are made with recipes from Monterrey, Guanajuato, Tamaulipas, Guadalajara, DF and many other regions that are rare to El Paso. As others have mentioned there is also a nice influence of Central American tacos available. Let’s not forget all the gringo taco places that are actually good but would never fly in El Paso such as Torchys Tacos, Fuzzy’s Tacos, etc.

While I personally do love El Paso tacos they’re all similar style as opposed to the different taste available in the likes of Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston.
 
I was in New Jersey last year and my sister in law was telling the Mrs and I last year that we have to try this Mexican restaurant. I was skeptical but the food was really good.

You got to take some of those write up about "The Best in Texas" with a grain of salt, especially with Texas Monthly. Some, not all, are pay to play. I am waiting for the "Best Ludafisk in Texas" issue. If an El Paso joint makes it, I'll let you know.
 
True only recently have some different places opened up. Rivas is Sonoran/Californian influenced Mexican food and is quite good. Also, Birrieria Jaramillo sells goat meat that is quite popular in central and southern Mexico. Do you guys know of any other "different" places around El Paso? Yes, all our Mexican places are Chihuahuan.
 
Black beans and warm salsa? bluhhh. :eek:

But the next time you're in Vegas, take a trip out to Roberto's tacos. There's one by UNLV. That place is solid.
 
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I have lived in San Antonio since moving here from El Paso in June. I can understand both 1liner's preference for El Paso tacos, and the comments of others that there is greater diversity in the Mexican food in big, non-border cities, such as San Antonio. And I can definitely state that I've had some good tacos in this city. The thing that drives me absolutely crazy about the local Mexican food scene, however, is the green sauce. Be it green enchiladas or green tamales, instead of being made of green chiles, as God intended, the stuff we get here is tomatillo based. At first I thought that this sacrilege was unique to the restaurant I was eating at, but every restaurant I've eaten at, with the exception of Chuy's, only has that blasted tomatillo sauce. And Chuy's food reflects the fact that it is part of a large chain. I would love to love to find a good local restaurant where I can order a plate of green enchiladas and have them prepared the way the Almighty intended.

And speaking of green chile, while some local stores, especially HEB, do sell Hatch green chiles in the late summer/early fall, that drives me crazy as well. I wince everytime the locals refer to the fruit as "Hatch peppers" instead of green chiles, but I was still excited to buy some last year. I head to my local HEB, see that they are charging $0.79/lb., and pick up a box to restock my freezer. I then ask around to find out where to get them roasted. The answer: they don't roast them at that particular HEB. So I put the box back, look up the nearest HEBs on Google, and make four or five calls until I find one that does roast them. I drive to that HEB, and find out that they pre-roast them there, and roasted "peppers" are $2.49/lb. I ended up getting about half of what I was originally going to buy, which was a mistake, as I've had to go easy on the chile this year, am still almost out, and chile season is still months away.

The morals of this story?
1. Order tacos in San Antonio, just stay away from the green enchiladas and tamales, and
2. If you move here, encourage your friends and family to visit you around September, and offer to reimburse them for some roasted chile.
 
Try the green enchiladas at L&J. Hatch green chili! Delicious. I order two scrambled eggs on top for breakfast or lunch.
 
I have lived in San Antonio since moving here from El Paso in June. I can understand both 1liner's preference for El Paso tacos, and the comments of others that there is greater diversity in the Mexican food in big, non-border cities, such as San Antonio. And I can definitely state that I've had some good tacos in this city. The thing that drives me absolutely crazy about the local Mexican food scene, however, is the green sauce. Be it green enchiladas or green tamales, instead of being made of green chiles, as God intended, the stuff we get here is tomatillo based. At first I thought that this sacrilege was unique to the restaurant I was eating at, but every restaurant I've eaten at, with the exception of Chuy's, only has that blasted tomatillo sauce. And Chuy's food reflects the fact that it is part of a large chain. I would love to love to find a good local restaurant where I can order a plate of green enchiladas and have them prepared the way the Almighty intended.

And speaking of green chile, while some local stores, especially HEB, do sell Hatch green chiles in the late summer/early fall, that drives me crazy as well. I wince everytime the locals refer to the fruit as "Hatch peppers" instead of green chiles, but I was still excited to buy some last year. I head to my local HEB, see that they are charging $0.79/lb., and pick up a box to restock my freezer. I then ask around to find out where to get them roasted. The answer: they don't roast them at that particular HEB. So I put the box back, look up the nearest HEBs on Google, and make four or five calls until I find one that does roast them. I drive to that HEB, and find out that they pre-roast them there, and roasted "peppers" are $2.49/lb. I ended up getting about half of what I was originally going to buy, which was a mistake, as I've had to go easy on the chile this year, am still almost out, and chile season is still months away.

The morals of this story?
1. Order tacos in San Antonio, just stay away from the green enchiladas and tamales, and
2. If you move here, encourage your friends and family to visit you around September, and offer to reimburse them for some roasted chile.
In Dallas you can also go to Central Market and Whole Foods for roasted Hatch chile. I'm still waiting for someone to direct me to a Dallas taco.
 
Sorry, guys, but the L&J recommendation does me no good here in San Antonio. Would that I could enjoy me some of their green enchiladas right now.

I realize that Central Market and some HEBs have roasted chiles, unfortunately they charge 2.5 to 3 times more per pound for the roasted chiles, while in El Paso and New Mexico they'll roast them for free. I'll just have to bite the bullet and order a large amount of them this year, however, as it beats driving all the way back to El Paso for some chile.
 
A little early for the annual taco discussion isn't it?

I don't think so. The spring practice thread will wind down soon. We still have a basketball assistant to hire, possibly a player to bring in, and we'll see some football recruiting news here and there. Other than that there isn't really much to discuss until football practice starts in earnest in a few months. Until then it's time to OT the board to death to stave off boredom.
 
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I don't think so. The spring practice thread will wind down soon. We still have a basketball assistant to hire, possibly a player to bring in, and we'll see some football recruiting news here and there. Other than that there isn't really much to discuss until football practice starts in earnest in a few months. Until then it's time to OT the board to death to stave off boredom.
And Uni's "babe of the day" pics.

Gotta give UTEP athletics credit. Nothing is leaking our of that office and they are in full positive social media mode. Kind of miss the Kug and Floyd days when a head scratching coaching decision was done by them. Wasn't it in spring when Floyd ambushed Kappy during a media presser? Kug came clean and announced M.J. McFarland was off the team when it was announced on Kyyote's many months earlier by a UTEP staff assistant? Aaron Jones "did his time" under Kugler disciplinary action plan and will miss no game time? Boy the spring was fun back then.
 
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I don't think so. The spring practice thread will wind down soon. We still have a basketball assistant to hire, possibly a player to bring in, and we'll see some football recruiting news here and there. Other than that there isn't really much to discuss until football practice starts in earnest in a few months. Until then it's time to OT the board to death to stave off boredom.
Fine. Just don't dial up the conference realignment post until June please.
 
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I have lived in San Antonio since moving here from El Paso in June. I can understand both 1liner's preference for El Paso tacos, and the comments of others that there is greater diversity in the Mexican food in big, non-border cities, such as San Antonio. And I can definitely state that I've had some good tacos in this city. The thing that drives me absolutely crazy about the local Mexican food scene, however, is the green sauce. Be it green enchiladas or green tamales, instead of being made of green chiles, as God intended, the stuff we get here is tomatillo based. At first I thought that this sacrilege was unique to the restaurant I was eating at, but every restaurant I've eaten at, with the exception of Chuy's, only has that blasted tomatillo sauce. And Chuy's food reflects the fact that it is part of a large chain. I would love to love to find a good local restaurant where I can order a plate of green enchiladas and have them prepared the way the Almighty intended.

And speaking of green chile, while some local stores, especially HEB, do sell Hatch green chiles in the late summer/early fall, that drives me crazy as well. I wince everytime the locals refer to the fruit as "Hatch peppers" instead of green chiles, but I was still excited to buy some last year. I head to my local HEB, see that they are charging $0.79/lb., and pick up a box to restock my freezer. I then ask around to find out where to get them roasted. The answer: they don't roast them at that particular HEB. So I put the box back, look up the nearest HEBs on Google, and make four or five calls until I find one that does roast them. I drive to that HEB, and find out that they pre-roast them there, and roasted "peppers" are $2.49/lb. I ended up getting about half of what I was originally going to buy, which was a mistake, as I've had to go easy on the chile this year, am still almost out, and chile season is still months away.

The morals of this story?
1. Order tacos in San Antonio, just stay away from the green enchiladas and tamales, and
2. If you move here, encourage your friends and family to visit you around September, and offer to reimburse them for some roasted chile.
FYI, the most beautiful woman in the world lives in San Antonio.
 
Black beans and warm salsa? bluhhh. :eek:

But the next time you're in Vegas, take a trip out to Roberto's tacos. There's one by UNLV. That place is solid.

You are kidding I hope. That is the generic crap with a whole bunch of salt and salsa thrown on top of it. There are way too many of them now and they have gone the gringo route:
If you want a better version of Robertos the way it used to be, you try Habaneros. If you are looking for better than that:
Tacos El Compita, El Pollito Charro fit the bill.
If you want the best seafood tacos: Bajamar.
An honorable mention is El Dorado Cantina if you want to sit and eat.
But Roberto's is all over and is not close to what it was a few years ago.
 
You are kidding I hope. That is the generic crap with a whole bunch of salt and salsa thrown on top of it. There are way too many of them now and they have gone the gringo route:
If you want a better version of Robertos the way it used to be, you try Habaneros. If you are looking for better than that:
Tacos El Compita, El Pollito Charro fit the bill.
If you want the best seafood tacos: Bajamar.
An honorable mention is El Dorado Cantina if you want to sit and eat.
But Roberto's is all over and is not close to what it was a few years ago.
Nah dawg, that's why I said go to the one near University. Old school.
 
I have lived in San Antonio since moving here from El Paso in June. I can understand both 1liner's preference for El Paso tacos, and the comments of others that there is greater diversity in the Mexican food in big, non-border cities, such as San Antonio. And I can definitely state that I've had some good tacos in this city. The thing that drives me absolutely crazy about the local Mexican food scene, however, is the green sauce. Be it green enchiladas or green tamales, instead of being made of green chiles, as God intended, the stuff we get here is tomatillo based. At first I thought that this sacrilege was unique to the restaurant I was eating at, but every restaurant I've eaten at, with the exception of Chuy's, only has that blasted tomatillo sauce. And Chuy's food reflects the fact that it is part of a large chain. I would love to love to find a good local restaurant where I can order a plate of green enchiladas and have them prepared the way the Almighty intended.

And speaking of green chile, while some local stores, especially HEB, do sell Hatch green chiles in the late summer/early fall, that drives me crazy as well. I wince everytime the locals refer to the fruit as "Hatch peppers" instead of green chiles, but I was still excited to buy some last year. I head to my local HEB, see that they are charging $0.79/lb., and pick up a box to restock my freezer. I then ask around to find out where to get them roasted. The answer: they don't roast them at that particular HEB. So I put the box back, look up the nearest HEBs on Google, and make four or five calls until I find one that does roast them. I drive to that HEB, and find out that they pre-roast them there, and roasted "peppers" are $2.49/lb. I ended up getting about half of what I was originally going to buy, which was a mistake, as I've had to go easy on the chile this year, am still almost out, and chile season is still months away.

The morals of this story?
1. Order tacos in San Antonio, just stay away from the green enchiladas and tamales, and
2. If you move here, encourage your friends and family to visit you around September, and offer to reimburse them for some roasted chile.

Just roast them over the stove like my grandma used to. She would turn on the stove and place some type of wire cover over the fire and roast them that way. Just keep some windows open for the smell lol

So it looks like best tacos in Texas are in El Paso and best variety of tacos in the rest of Texas?
 
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Funny- I never go out to eat Mexican unless I have to, meaning work function or whatever, bc NOTHING compares to Mom’s! Sis in Denton is close enough when I have a craving. I will say that overall throughout the country Mexican food has gotten a lot better, but again, nothing like Mom’s!! :)
 
Funny- I never go out to eat Mexican unless I have to, meaning work function or whatever, bc NOTHING compares to Mom’s! Sis in Denton is close enough when I have a craving. I will say that overall throughout the country Mexican food has gotten a lot better, but again, nothing like Mom’s!! :)
Funny- I never go out to eat Mexican unless I have to, meaning work function or whatever, bc NOTHING compares to Mom’s! Sis in Denton is close enough when I have a craving. I will say that overall throughout the country Mexican food has gotten a lot better, but again, nothing like Mom’s!! :)


Nothing compared to mom's or grandma's cooking lol
 
I can tell you that in Chicagoland, there are large ethnic, Hispanic neighborhoods (probably the same population as El Paso if you sum them all up, if not bigger) where you will find all varieties of Mexican food (can find goat meat and beef brains and all sorts of stuff), just about everything under the sun EXCEPT for the style of food that you find in El Paso! I could never find a restaurant that served a taco that resembled what you'd find in El Paso (mostly the shells; they're almost always floppy corn tortillas). Forget the green chile sauce, as has already been stated in this thread. The enchiladas are inferior every place I ever tried. If you order a green enchilada, it's usually just chunks of chicken wrapped in a tortilla and topped with tomatillo sauce. Or you can get the same with ground beef instead. The simple cheese enchilada, which is a staple of El Paso cuisine, is probably fourth or fifth down the list of "types" of enchiladas that are typically ordered, and they're always terrible.

I have found some good tamales and they generally get rellenos right.

But overall, I got sick of the "variety" pretty quickly. Novelties wear off after the first time or two. My soul yearns for El Paso Mexican food; El Paso does its thing better than these melting pot places.

I will say that the one area El Paso style definitely suffers is in the seafood variety. If I want styles of Mexican food with seafood, El Paso is probably one of the worst places to go.
 
I can tell you that in Chicagoland, there are large ethnic, Hispanic neighborhoods (probably the same population as El Paso if you sum them all up, if not bigger) where you will find all varieties of Mexican food (can find goat meat and beef brains and all sorts of stuff), just about everything under the sun EXCEPT for the style of food that you find in El Paso! I could never find a restaurant that served a taco that resembled what you'd find in El Paso (mostly the shells; they're almost always floppy corn tortillas). Forget the green chile sauce, as has already been stated in this thread. The enchiladas are inferior every place I ever tried. If you order a green enchilada, it's usually just chunks of chicken wrapped in a tortilla and topped with tomatillo sauce. Or you can get the same with ground beef instead. The simple cheese enchilada, which is a staple of El Paso cuisine, is probably fourth or fifth down the list of "types" of enchiladas that are typically ordered, and they're always terrible.

I have found some good tamales and they generally get rellenos right.

But overall, I got sick of the "variety" pretty quickly. Novelties wear off after the first time or two. My soul yearns for El Paso Mexican food; El Paso does its thing better than these melting pot places.

I will say that the one area El Paso style definitely suffers is in the seafood variety. If I want styles of Mexican food with seafood, El Paso is probably one of the worst places to go.
AMEN, AMEN, AMEN, AMEN, AMEN, AMEN, ETC. You sound Like my echo. Tacos... like you said floppy corn or flour. I am a "Gringo" but being raised in EP; I think I know the " Good from the bad and the ugly." when it comes down to EP Mexican vs. the rest of the world. That's just the way it is.
 
AMEN, AMEN, AMEN, AMEN, AMEN, AMEN, ETC. You sound Like my echo. Tacos... like you said floppy corn or flour. I am a "Gringo" but being raised in EP; I think I know the " Good from the bad and the ugly." when it comes down to EP Mexican vs. the rest of the world. That's just the way it is.
Believe it or not I had some EP borderland style tacos in Hammonton, NJ two and half years back taking my kid up to college. Damn they were good.
 
Sorry, guys, but the L&J recommendation does me no good here in San Antonio. Would that I could enjoy me some of their green enchiladas right now.

I realize that Central Market and some HEBs have roasted chiles, unfortunately they charge 2.5 to 3 times more per pound for the roasted chiles, while in El Paso and New Mexico they'll roast them for free. I'll just have to bite the bullet and order a large amount of them this year, however, as it beats driving all the way back to El Paso for some chile.
There are some Hatch stores that ship their roasted chiles. Just FYI
 
I just responded to an article probably written by someone from New Jersey rating the top "TexMex" restaurants in El Paso. She picked L&J as No. 1. I agreed, but told her it was a sacrilege to call it along with our other locally owned restaurants " TexMex". Told her to educate herself about TexMex and authentic Mexican dining.
 
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