81 Tacos: Phoning it in

Trip #2 to El Taco de Oro in Alviso, CA. This time, however, I went in the building rather than just hitting up the truck. I soon realized that I had committed a serious faux pas: ordering takeout from a place that was intended to be sit-down. Despite looking like the hands-down biggest taco dork on the planet, I proceeded with my mission and ordered four tacos - three regular and one super.

They phoned it in on their restaurant labeling, so why can't I phone it in on this post?

To make matters worse, I forgot my camera and had to use my cell phone to take photos. To make matters even worse, I am feeling extremely lazy today. So in more than one way, I'm going to phone this one in.

Yep, tacos. The carnitas one is the "super taco" with lettuce, tomato & crema.

Finally, the phoned in rundown:
4) Pollo asado. Nothing special. 5.5/10.
3) Carnitas. Good. 7/10.
2) Al pastor. Great. 7.5/10.
1) Carne asada. Awesome. 8.5/10.

Good stuff. More research is needed to decide whether the truck or the building is superior. The truck, however, is a hell of a lot quicker.

4 tacos consumed.
81 total tacos this year.
Current pace: 352 tacos.

68 Tacos: The golden taco

The little town of Alviso is about as isolated as it gets in the Bay Area, which is home to over 7 million people. Bordered by the San Francisco Bay on the north, about 1/2 mile of hilly plains and then the CA-237 freeway to the south, and swamplands to the east and west, Alviso is not exactly an action-packed hot spot. However it does do one thing well: tacos. Along the main drag, N. 1st St., sits the El Taco de Oro taco truck, parked right in front of the El Taco de Oro Taqueria. For those of you out there who are Spanish-illiterate, "el taco de oro" literally means "the taco of gold."

Truck yeah!

When you roll up to this joint, you will find yourself immediately faced with the quandary of whether to patronize the truck or the building. Some people ponder this question for hours before finally deciding on one or the other. I, however, had my mind made up before I got there and had no time to second-guess myself. I made a beeline for the truck like Rush Limbaugh for the last piece of cheesecake.

So, were they good enough to be called "tacos of gold?" No, they were much better than that. Seriously, who wants to eat gold? It's metallic, awful-tasting, and expensive as hell to boot.

Not even the radishes and lemon wedges were spared.

Here's the rundown:
5) Pollo asado. Pretty solid, but not spectacular. 6/10.
4) Al pastor. Not quite as flavorful as other places' tacos of this kind. 6.5/10.
3) Carne asada. Meat was not quite as tender as I would have liked. 6.5/10.
2) Pollo. The chicken was great and it was the only one with salsa verde (green sauce), making for a nice mid-taco scarfing session change of pace. 7.5/10.
1) Carnitas. I didn't even recognize this as carnitas initially. It was excellent though, and came without the usual sensation of instantly clogging your arteries and expanding your waistline. 8.5/10.

5 tacos consumed.
68 total tacos this year.
Current pace: 388 tacos.