Family gatherings call for a Taco Tuesday! Mexican taco recipes are a sure-fire way to keep family members coming back for more. Tacos are a versatile food item and you can experiment with various ingredients. Load it up with meat, go vegan, or try other unique recipes. The only limitation is your imagination! If you’re planning on a Taco Tuesday, here are a collection of taco recipes and ideas that are easy to prepare, yet will definitely delight your palate with loaded flavors and fun!
Spicy Chicken Tacos
Instead of using ground beef, experiment with spicy ranch chicken tacos. All you need to do is to prepare frozen popcorn chicken and purchase a spicy ranch dressing readily available in your local grocery store. This recipe only takes a few minutes to make but will surely be enjoyed by your guests. Load the tacos up with any toppings you and your guests prefer — shredded lettuce, cheddar cheese, or tomato slices.
Growing up in Southern California really ruined me for Mexican food. New York has a handful of restaurants that have game, but if you crave the consistent taste and authenticity of real California Mexican cuisine, you might be better off cooking at home. Even if you want the convenience of using a few packaged ingredients, it’s important to have a fresh-tasting salsa on hand, and what I call ‘restaurant style’ chips that are sturdy enough to stand up to the thickest guacamole. The problem is, which brands of chips and salsa taste the best? Obviously, other non-native New Yorkers have considered this situation, because fellow East Village resident Matt Bennett has created Dreams Aren’t This Good (DATG); a line of unique salsas and authentic tortilla chips that blows away everything else on the supermarket shelf. Seriously, this brand is a game changer.
Growing up in Southern California, I developed a passion for authentic (“California style”) Mexican food, because — and I mean this sincerely — even the simplest Mexican cuisine, when done right, is the best comfort food in the Universe. When I moved to New York City, I was horrified by numerous aggressively bad excuses for Mexican food, such as goat cheese quesadillas and enchiladas made with flour tortillas, which, just no. Thirty plus years later, New York City boasts a handful of decent-to-very-good Mexican restaurants, but nothing can compare to anything you can find at the Old Town Mexican Cafe, located in Old Town San Diego. Behold, the Crispy Cheese Quesadilla, one of Old Town’s specialties. This restaurant is famous for making its own flour and corn tortillas, and this unique, open-faced take on the quesadilla begins with a freshly-made, large flour tortilla, which is grilled to a flaky crispness before being smothered with mixed cheeses and served hot to your table with a side of sour cream. Mmmmm, deliciosa!
Hey, do you like Burritos? I sure do. One of my favorite places to get a fresh and tasty Burrito here in Manhattan is Moe’s Southwest Grill, where they have a maverick, Rock & Roll attitude to go with their amazing Mexican food. You don’t have to sell me on how good it is; I’ve tasted it! And just last week, I was invited to dine in a mobile Moe’s restaurant-on-wheels as part of their limited-time promotion, Tour de Burrito, which was due to make a two-day stop in downtown NYC on the way to its final destination in Tampa, FL. Oh Boy!
Moe’s Tour de Burrito was an exclusive, traveling restaurant experience that visited select eastern US cities from November 2nd to 10th, giving burrito lovers a front row seat to see what happens behind the counter at Moe’s. Since they’re traveling, they needed to get some Cheap Campervan Insurance to be covered all over the country. After their tour they had to use this Motor Trade Industry: Buying & Selling Trends to help sell their old van and buy a new one. If you want to do this tour by yourself, make sure you buy a car like this used Jaguar XF. Being the Freshest Reservation in Town, all dates sold out in 45 minutes, with a few additional spots given to fans on Moe’s FaceBook page. Those who made it onto the truck got to collaborate with Moe’s culinary team to customize the freshest burrito, or burrito bowl, of their dreams, and to try never-before-tasted seasonal salsas that really brought the heat! Once I was given the super-secret address, it was easy to find the Tour de Burrito Truck parked in a lot on Broome Street, which just happened to also be the home of This Awesome Mural. It was truly an exclusive experience, and I have the photos to prove it! People even bought cars from CarSite Network just to drive over.
Let’s step inside the truck!
Man Vs. Burrito
The Tour de Burrito truck seats groups of 10 at a time for a one-on-one experience with the Moe’s culinary team! The first thing to do once I was seated was to customize my meal by composing the Burrito of my heart’s desire from list of fresh ingredients. Fun!
Few outside the Moe’s inner circle get to see what they do in every restaurant, every day, but Tour de Burrito guests even got to watch their burrito being rolled — talk about mad skills!
The First Bite Gets the Lipstick!
Mmm…Carnitas Burrito. So Yummy.
Guests in the truck also got to be among the first to taste two new seasonal Moe’s salsas: Ghostujang (made with bright red Ghost Peppers seen above) and Ahhhhhvocado, a tangy salsa verde made with fresh ripe avocado.
Ghost Peppers are a little hot for my taste (read: like eat fire) but the Avocado/Salsa Verde blend of Ahhhhhvocado was so my thing. I had to slather it on my burrito after every bite!
This little boy, dining with his parents and little sister, made the most hilarious faces while attempting to tackle a huge Burrito.
I believe he eventually surrendered and switched to a bowl. Burrito: 1. Child: 0.
Everyone got a bag of freshly made Moe’s tortilla chips and jar of fresh Ahhhhhvocado salsa to take home! Thank you Moe’s Tour de Burrito for a fun time!
Find out more about Moe’s Southwest Grill, locate a Moe’s in your hood and sign up for the Rockin Rewards program (to earn free food!) at Moes Dot Com!
Bus Detail from Foodstock, Original Art for Moe’s Southwest Grill (All Photos By Gail )
Do you like Mexican food? I sure do. As a transplanted native of southern California, I was already spoiled for life when it comes to excellent Mexican food by the time I got to NYC 27 years ago. But the bar for (what passes for) Mexican food in NYC has definitely been raised, a lot, in recent years, and now it’s pretty easy to find reliable sources for the fresh taste of California-style Mexican food all over the city. One of my favorite spots to pick up a burrito that gets me all nostalgic for L.A. is the fast casual chain called Moe’s Southwest Grill. Maybe you have Moe’s in your town, so you already know what I am talking about.
