tacotopia

First a couple of items of business:  Louie, thanks for the recommendation. We’ve had quite a few referrals from the Executive Surf Club, all have turned out to be very good.  Is it that the ESC has an unnaturally high percentage of tacologists?  Hmm, I wonder if I spent an hour every day at the gym if I’d find great taco tips there too.  Probably, but not likely. I’ll let you decide whether “not likely” applies to me-at-the-gym or to great advice from athletic (taco) supporters.

Shelly, the love of my life and partner in crime for the last 18 years told me of this place long ago.  It wasn’t Linda’s then, and it was about Milanesa, not breakfast tacos.

“Back then” she says, “they had the best Milanesa in town.”

Now I love to cook.  To try new tastes, new ingredients, new techniques…the whole gambit.  I don’t have many rules, but there is one near-constant.  A wooden spoon.  It’s hard to say where I got them.  I want to say it was back when Corpus Christi had a festival called “Art in the Heart” – a weekend-long, three-music-stage party in downtown that had great music, great art vendors, and an all-around great time for all that went.  That’s another story.

Anyway, somewhere back in time I bought a couple of mesquite spoons.  Right-handed spoons.  They have the perfect shape.  (For a Rightie.)  I’ve used them for almost 18 years now.  It’s always the first thing I grab when preparing a meal.  I’m convinced that there’s magic in them.  Magic from years of cooking for the two of us.  Of great meals and of those not-so-great – either way done with care and love.  That magic is passed on to others as when a sick friend needs some Chicken-n-Dumplings, or at family gatherings.  We joke that now I can’t cook without them.  I don’t believe it, but Shell is quick to implore that double-X-linked genetic ability to find things when one comes up missing.

It’s not too far-fetched to think that the taqueria now known as Linda’s has some of that same kind of magic.  Nothing quantifiable, necessarily.  But due to years in the neighborhood, cooking for people.  And the people, in some way influencing the place in a positive way.  Who knows – and my scientific mind waves its arms around and screams “Danger Will Robinson!” at the thought.  But there’s magic in those spoons, and there was magic in the tacos this morning.

I had two tacos, as is my wont – a nopalitos, chorizo, and egg (It was on the menu.) and a carne asada.  Both were excellent.  They were both as big as a VW van hood ornament and stuffed with the goods.  There was plenty of nopalitos in the chorizo offering.  There was also a taste that took me a minute to recognize, Louisiana-style hotsauce.  It worked very well in the taco.  Might have overpowered the nopalitos a bit.  Ian wondered if the vinegary taste might be pickled nopalitos.  A possibility, but I’ll stick to my original assessment.  The corn tortilla surrounding the taco was very good.  As I ate it, it bled an oranger-than-chorizo orange that stained the waiting asada.  The asada taco was exactly how I like it.  Basically fajita meat with lettuce and tomato.  The meat was seasoned very well and held up its end of the bargain.  The shredded iceberg was fresh as were the tomatoes.  Both the green and orange salsas where delicious and each added something different to the party.  The coffee was cafe good and the guy behind me could have definitely used a cup.  He cat-napped between visits by the waitress, as evidenced by a low growling snore heard ’round the restaurant.  Nighttime noises aside, we’ll definitely be back.  I’m curious now if they have Milanesa.