Eddie’s Restaurant – Better With Age
Eddie’s Restaurant & Bakery
4810 Kostoryz Rd,
Corpus Christi, TX 78415
(361) 852-7281
Chorizo & Egg – $1.59
Carne Guisada – $1.99
Bottomless Coffee – $1.15
Opens 4:30 AM Weekdays, 2:00 AM Weekends
If blog posts were years, Tacotopia would be old enough to drink now. This is the 21st post, and soon this little blog will be moving out on it’s own to tacotopia.net. Before you know it, it’ll get a desk job and become it’s dad. Maurice Chevalier said Old age isn’t so bad when you consider the alternative. My wife is a fan of Gray’s Anatomy, which pretty much means I’m a fan of Gray’s Anatomy. Last night’s episode guest starred Adrienne Barbeau who at 64 is looking like a million bucks. As an adolescent I connected age with death, plain and simple, and while one inevitably leads to the other I’d say age also leads to life. The older you get, the more understanding you have of the beauty (and tragedy) of the world we live in, and the better you are able to find your way through it and to take advantage of it… at least for a while. Men were traditional beneficiaries of this attitude: their age being seen as distinguished, but recently we’ve seen women given their due as objects of aged adulation. On the one hand you have the more lurid characterization taking hold after ‘American Pie’ found purchase for the idea in the acronym-that-won’t-be-mentioned-here and more recently on ABC as the ridiculous Cougar Town but our culture has found expression of the sentiment all over, from Harold & Maude to Calendar Girls, and don’t even get me started on Jennifer Tilly and how she looks at 51.
Restaurants are no different. Some of them are great and die early, some of exist forever with a steady, plodding mediocrity, but a few continue to improve with each passing year. Eddie’s is one of those places. Recommended time and again, most recently by Solomon Ortiz, Jr. (who is in no way affiliated with this blog and likely has never read it), we threaded our way through the cluster of taquerias that is Kostoryz Road and met up at this venerable institution. Neither Kevin nor I had eaten here before and didn’t quite know what to expect. Google maps choked on the directions, possibly thinking there couldn’t possibly be so many taco place in such a small space. Then we saw the big red neon sign and there could be no mistaking it.
The place was big, fairly clean but crammed full of ‘flair.’ Halloween decorations were already up. Eddie’s has been around since 1975, and it doesn’t look a day over 25. A ‘distinguished’ and attractive waitress expeditiously took our order with wit and precision and before long we were feasting our eyes and soon our appetites on some of the best breakfast tacos Kostoryz has to offer. The coffee was good, and served in a mug that could barely fit through the Panama Canal. The tacos as well were abundant, but the quantity did not come at the expense of the quality. The chorizo & egg was good, the hand-made flour tortillas were good as well. The salsa is from pickled jalepeños and is very good. The best thing I had was the Carne Guisada, which had a sharp flavor but a gravy that was more brown than red with a healthy dose of black pepper. It was tender but substantial. My coffee cup was kept full as was my sonic-ice filled water.
Any two of these things would make Eddie’s a good taco shop, but if you put it all together you have something really special, something more than the sum of its parts, a timeless beauty. I only hope I can age as well as this place has.
From the Hat
It’s not telegraphed, but usually there’s an underlying theme to the weekly taco tome. One or two words to inspire. The goal is to ramble around for a couple of hundred words on something to do with the theme then talk about tacos. Sounds simple. Not always. Today’s theme, “Better with age,” is perfect for a whimsical, rambling, nostalgic thought tour. Plenty of opportunity to harken back to the old times or to make hackneyed references to wine, favorite boots, or an old chair.
I’m having none of it. You have to really think about it to find examples of things that get better with age. Tell it to my eyes, or my truck. Tell it to the plumbing at my house. Sure I understand the device. A mental trick we play on ourselves to help us rationalize our own mortality; to avoid thinking of the unavoidable.
But then I think of my grandmother Caroline. I’m sure she’d tell you of the wear of age. But when I see her, I see youth and beauty. She’s full of wonder for the world and new places. Full of joy when around her (now-extensive) family. Still learning – combating technology as a new user to FaceBook. I hope to learn to live with her joy for life long before I’m her age.
Of course, I’d like to reach her age. Not likely with a continued menu like this morning’s. A once-a-week limit on taco-tourism is a good thing. And so were the tacos…good things.
If Corpus Christi is the land of tacos, Kostoryz street could be its epicenter. The street offered up another outstanding taqueria, Eddie’s. Recommended by many, including one of our state reps, the place was really good.
For the SMEs out there, I had one each chicharron and molleja. I had the mollejas fried crispy. They were perfect – crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside. Those who like mollejas will really like these. The chicharrones were also very good. Meaty, soft, covered with a chili powder-based sauce. They were served in very good flour tortillas. Serious fatties too. I could not eat both of them. The salsa was also good. We will definitely return to this place. I think I need to try the mollejas with some frijoles.
Salud
If blog posts were years, Tacotopia would be old enough to drink now. This is the 21st post, and soon this little blog will be moving out on it’s own to tacotopia.net. Before you know it, it’ll get a desk job and become it’s dad. Maurice Chevalier said Old age isn’t so bad when you consider the alternative. My wife is a fan of Gray’s Anatomy, which pretty much means I’m a fan of Gray’s Anatomy. Last night’s episode guest starred Adrienne Barbeau who at 64 is looking like a million bucks. As an adolescent I connected age with death, plain and simple, and while one inevitably leads to the other I’d say age also leads to life. The older you get, the more understanding you have of the beauty (and tragedy) of the world we live in, and the better you are able to find your way through it and to take advantage of it… at least for a while. Men were traditional beneficiaries of this attitude: their age being seen as distinguished, but recently we’ve seen women given their due as objects of aged adulation. On the one hand you have the more lurid characterization taking hold after ‘American Pie’ found purchase for the idea in the acronym-that-won’t-be-mentioned-here and more recently on ABC as the ridiculous Cougar Town but our culture has found expression of the sentiment all over, from Harold & Maude to Calendar Girls, and don’t even get me started on Jennifer Tilly and how she looks at 51.
Does anyone here remember Robert Logan? I doubt it. I didn’t know his name as a child but I will remember forever hearing him cry out “We’re gettin’ out of here!” while stuck in traffic with his wife in The Wilderness Family, a bastardization of Swiss Family Robinson – which is itself a derivative of Robinson Crusoe. Both these movies were produced by Disney which continued to plumb the depths of family friendly isolationism with The Further Adventures of the Wilderness Family and Mountain Family Robinson which inexplicably also starred Robert Logan. He’s had a handful of parts in tv episodes and movies since then but for the most part he has disappeared from the world, just like the character he played. This scenario has continued to fuel my anti-social inclinations to this day. For 5 years I lived in a house on a mountain 7 miles from the closest gas station that was in a town of 600 that didn’t even have a stoplight… in the whole county. I’ve worked to deal with it. I get along with people and can keep up the small talk for the most part but it’s not easy, it doesn’t come naturally, and I still entertain fantasies of dropping out of civilization.
So in the end we lived through it, and in spite of what you might think neither of us has sworn off the Spam. Sonny’s takes the prize, but none of the tacos we ate was too bad. Now I have to figure out why there’s a pressure in my chest and my arm hurts. I hope I’ll see you next week.