Hot Stuff: Taqueria Round Up
SFist Mary gives us the tasty carne asada filling to the Chron's grand tour of burrito joints in town!
News flash: Chronicle's Bill Addison eats lots of tacos and burritos as "research." Today's San Francisco Chronicle Food section has updated takes on the Bay Area's taqueria scene. As usual, we're interested in what they have to say, and no, it's not just because we used to be a slave in their test kitchen when we were in cooking school!
Taquerias can be fun to discuss and debate but watch out! Everyone has their own opinion. Our wallets especially love them, and we live in the Mission, where we are able to do our own "trial by taqueria" tasting and experimenting. However, we feel it's best to take Burritoeater's approach of alternating days (up to three, if possible) between taqueria visits.
Burritoeater's method keeps our palates and stomachs balanced and fresh. That seems to be a better way to analyze food, and echoes training we had as a food judge.
So, we feel it's flat out crazy to think Chron scribe Bill Addison ate at 85 taquerias in 10 weeks, otherwise calculated at 70 days. That means little or no breaks between visit days and MORE THAN ONE TAQUERIA VISIT PER DAY. Our former food judge bosses might just faint from exasperation and anger over that one. We have to wonder if Michael Bauer is ever forced to eat the same type of potentially spicy or otherwise overpowering food more than once in the same day without any palate breaks.
With a potentially polluted palate, we aren't sure we can fully trust Addison's methodology and reporting. But since we have been to almost all of Addison's Top 20 Taquerias, and he has other judging criteria such as the all-important meat factor: "sittin' on the steam table or freshly made?"
We'll dig in without further ado. We are indeed suckers for taquerias.
SFist Mary's review of Addison's methodology after the jump!
We fully agree with some of the things Addison writes, such as:
-A taqueria usually shines in either the taco or burrito category, but rarely both. He is correct that Taqueria Vallarta is one of the rare exceptions. They put on a nice show with their outdoor taco station.
-Eyes and nose are great guides. If the meaty and delicious smells drive you crazy as you walk past, it may just taste great.
-Empty taquerias are scary. Hint: there's a reason no one's there!
-A Mexican taco is simple and likely will not need add ons like beans, cheese, and guac.
-Drippy burritos and tacos that fall apart in one's hands suck and are messy.
-Having an owner or manager dedicated to tasting and watching over things every day can yield consistency, as with Sancho's in Redwood City.
-Consistency is key and lettuce makes things soggy. It's no fun to have alternating bites of hot followed by cold gobs of sour cream and/or guac.
-Chorizo in a burrito can be a wonderful thing. Taqueria San Francisco has a wonderful show stopper in the form of their chorizo burrito. We've had the small grease stains on our napkins to prove their superiority many times.
-Chipotle is controversial but it's better to not think of it as a "real" taqueria. Even though McChipotle (the McDonald's partial ownership will end soon) uses Niman Ranch meats, we still don't see a reason to go there. But we still talk to and cherish friends and relatives that do.
-Even a mediocre taqueria outing is far better than those found in most other places in the nation. Our taqueria culture continues to thrive.