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The Search for Tacos Dorados (Part 4)
Posted on Monday, June 22 @ 12:56:55 PDT
Topic: Mexican
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In Part 4, we take a look at Veracruz Café, Las Ranitas, El Ranchito, La Palapa Veracruzana, and Masaryk. On to the food...
Veracruz Café. 408 N. Bishop Avenue.
Veracruz Café was another dud. I asked the waiter if the shells for "Montezuma's Fish Tacos" were fried to order and he said they were. They weren't. But just look at the stunning artificially-colored tortillas, the contrast between black beans and white cheese, the mounds of greenery that all but conceal the tacos! Who cares whether the shells were fried to order, when the plate is so colorful?
I care. Though I kind of admire the marketing genius underlying this style of presentation, it's just that. Surfaces. The fundamentals were more hit and miss. The "open" style shells had been fried earlier in the day, lacking the warmth and texture of freshly fried tortillas. The mysterious "white fish" in the filling was reasonably tender, but rather dry and flavorless, apart from the generous dusting of salt and black pepper. The wide angle of the shells made it easy to pile on the greenery for presentation purposes, but impractical to eat. Rice was decent and beans were quite good, though both were prepared with a Tex-Mex palate in mind (e.g., heavily seasoned rice and rich, meaty, refried beans).
Though the fish tacos at Veracruz Café make for prettier pictures than those at, say, La Jaivita, I have no desire to repeat the former, while the latter will be an attractive option whenever I'm in the neighborhood (e.g., after a visit with my cardiologist at UT Southwestern). Two tacos to the order. $8.95. (The dinner portion has three tacos for $12.95.)
Las Ranitas. 325 East Jefferson Boulevard.
Las Ranitas offers tacos dorados on the lunch menu. However, confusingly, they also offer "crispy tacos." And a recent menu also offers taquitos dorados (which are likely to be rolled-style tacos, aka flautas). The tacos dorados were disappointing. A weak, yellow corn tortilla was used for the "open" style shells, which were rather greasy and soft. Decent fajitas as filling. Garnishes of lettuce and pico. Sides of rice and beans. Two tacos per order. Though cheap, at $4, they're not tacos I'd order again. (There's only so much you can do with a tortilla like that.)
If you're not careful when ordering at Las Ranitas, you can end up with the other crispy tacos--seasoned ground beef in pre-formed shells. This is what we're trying to avoid.
El Ranchito. 610 West Jefferson Boulevard.
El Ranchito proved to be another dud. When asked about the crispy taco shells in the "crispy combo tacos" platter, the waiter said that they were fried to order. Though they were fried in-house, they weren't made to order. Disqualification.
The taco platter came with three tacos--two crispy (one chicken, one beef) and one soft (with "cheese"). The "soft taco" consisted of a rolled tortilla beneath a pool of pasteurized process cheese product. (In the unlikely event I order this combo again, I'll offer to pay a supplement to have that omitted from the plate.)
The shells, cool to the touch, alternated between grease-absorbed crunchiness and sogginess--the latter due to the ill-advised heaping of romaine and tomatoes on top of the shells and the wateriness of the fillings. The chicken, stewed and moist, was tender and flavorful, though was so runny that it turned the shell into something like wet cardboard.
The beef filling tasted more of cumin than beef and had an unpleasantly mealy, pasty texture. Two tacos to the (not fried-to-) order. Three, if you count a tortilla drowned in off-brand Velveeta. $7.50. Disqualified.
La Palapa Veracruzana. 118 West Jefferson Boulevard.
I felt a little awkward when I asked a new waitress at La Palapa Veracruzana whether the fish tacos on the lunch menu were standard or dorados, since I figured I already knew the answer. She surprised me when she said, "Either way. Whichever you like." I ordered them as tacos dorados.
A few minutes later, she came back at the kitchen's request, looking for clarification about what I was talking about. I described the typical taco dorado, with the tortilla folded over and closed with a toothpick.
Though the order took longer than usual, eventually the plate came out with some very nice "open" style tacos. The shells, made with handmade tortillas, were light and crisp. They used tilapia for the filling, seasoning it with salt and pepper, grilling it, dicing it, and finishing it with a squeeze of lime. Garnish of iceberg, tomato, and lime. Sides of excellent rice and average refried beans (which I should have asked to be substituted with their great black beans). Some of the best fish tacos I've had in Dallas. Three tacos to the order. $7.50.
As I was polishing off the last taco, the owner came over and told me that he and his wife don't know how to do crispy tacos or any other kind of Tex-Mex. He said that, in making my order, they went through a dozen tortillas trying to get three unbroken shells. He considered folded tacos dorados to be inferior to the empanadas of Veracruz. (Having had La Palapa's empanadas, I can see why he might think that.) He said he was going to revise the menu over the weekend and remove fish tacos, which--even apart from the frying complication I introduced--he doesn't consider authentic to Alvarado and doesn't like to make.
So, La Palapa Veracruzana shouldn't be considered a source of tacos dorados. (Though the empanadas are excellent.)
Masaryk. 5004 Addison Circle.
Based on the restaurant's positive review in the DMN, I had hoped Masaryk would do right by crispy tacos. No such luck. When asked, the waiter assured me the crispy tacos were fried to order, even volunteering that they were made with house-made tortillas. None of that was true.
What I got were lame-as-hell pre-formed yellow corn shells (beginning to stale) with mealy ground beef, iceberg lettuce, a few bits of tomato and some industrial cheddar shreds. However, the generic tacos were plated on a strip of banana leaf for a touch of flair. (Weeee!) Disappointing that a restaurant with Masaryk's pretensions would put something so feeble on the menu. Two tacos, plus rice and beans. $7.75. Disqualified.
The Search for Tacos Dorados: Introduction, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5....
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