The Five Best (and worst) Things About Tacos
Those who know me are familiar with my lifelong struggle to reach and maintain a healthy weight for my fighting class. Wait – that’s not entirely true – I am not a boxer.
Anyway, one of the challenges of eating healthy is being surrounded by a number of prime establishments which serve Tex-Mex, the Holy Grail of food in my family’s book.
As with many things in life, Tex-Mex is not all bad, however. Please allow me to present my take on the five best and worst things about the main staple of Tex-Mex, the taco.
The Five Best Things About Tacos:
(1) You can eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
(2) They give you an excuse to drink margaritas.
(3) They’re cheap and widely available.
(4) You can make them at home.
(5) Tacos are delicious with sliced avocados, which are good for your heart.
The Five Worst Things About Tacos
(1) You can eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
(2) They give you an excuse to drink margaritas.
(3) They’re cheap and widely available.
(4) You can make them at home.
(5) Tacos are delicious with sliced avocados, and avocados are good for your heart.
Let’s review:
1. You can eat tacos for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
One of my fondest memories of my time as a graduate student at Texas A&M University were made over queso, chips, guacamole, and various types of tacos at a little green shack by the tracks known as La Taqueria. (Sadly, it no longer exists.)
Although I was born in South Texas and have spent most of my life living in Texas, I was not introduced to breakfast tacos until a friend ordered them at La Taqueria. Pancakes, French toast, Belgian waffles, even country ham and homemade biscuits pale in comparison to a freshly prepared breakfast taco. My favorite combination is potato, egg, and cheese, but you can get just about anything you like on a breakfast taco in Houston, including brisket. Some places, like the current culinary darling of the moment, Torchy’s Tacos, serve breakfast tacos all day and into the night.
I was introduced to vegan tacos at La Taqueria, too: black beans, pico de gallo, guacamole, and shredded cheese wrapped up in a fresh, warm, soft whole wheat tortilla. Yes, please!
The old standby, of course, the one by which most Tex-Mex establishments are compared, is the ground beef taco: seasoned ground beef, lettuce, tomatoes, and shredded cheese encased in a fried corn tortilla.
Today, you’re just as likely to find fajita beef or chicken tacos, also called tacos al carbon, or fish tacos. Those are yummy, too.
Best of all, you can usually get your taco anyway you like it. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, late night snack – it’s all good.
Except it’s not. That taco in your hand most likely packs a whopping number of calories and other things that your doctor would tell you are bad fro your cholesterol.
The damage ultimately depends on the type of tortilla you choose (corn, flour, whole wheat; soft or fried) and the fillings you select.
2. Tacos give you an excuse to drink margaritas.
If you have never had a good margarita, then please skip to item #3.
If bananas are “Nature’s perfect fruit,” then margaritas are Nature’s perfect alcoholic beverage: the perfect blend of lime juice, Triple Sec, and tequila. Available on the rocks or frozen (thanks to the genius of Mariano Martinez, who decided it would be a fun idea to try making margaritas in a soft serve ice cream machine so people wouldn’t have to wait on the blender) and in a variety of flavors (often based on the season) like strawberry, watermelon, mango, etc., margaritas taste great with tacos, especially before, during, and after you’ve eaten them.
Again, a caveat. Drinking too many margaritas can result in a hefty hangover, and you should never drink and drive. This is probably why Taco Bell hasn’t figured out how to sell margaritas yet.
3. Tacos are cheap and widely available.
While it’s true that you get what you pay for, tacos are cheap and widely available. Here in Houston, you can get them at fine dining establishments, family eateries, fast food outlets, and food trucks. (One of the strangest and funniest things I’ve ever seen as a Houstonian was a man lying spread eagled under the watchful eyes of two police officers, guns drawn, in a convenience store parking lot while a customer at the taco truck three feet away picked up her order and started munching away completely unfazed by the scene unfolding in front of her.)
Taco Bell even has an app that allows you to order your taco(s) of choice on your phone for near instant gratification. According to Taco Bell’s web site, https://www.tacobell.com/food/tacos, prices range from $1.19 for a Crunchy Taco to $3.19 for a Doritos© Cheesy Gordita Crunch (although I’m not sure that actually qualifies as a “taco”).
And, boys and girls, some locations are open until the wee hours of the morning! The one closest to my house (according to the web site) is open from 7:00am to 4:00am.
Of course, cheap, readily available food is not always the best thing for you. You may truly regret eating that Doritos© Cheesy Gordita Crunch when you are fully awake and sober. Or maybe you won’t. I’m not sure which is worse.
4. You can make tacos at home
Tuesday is Taco Night in many people’s homes because . . . tacos. Seriously, tacos are one of the easiest meals you can prepare for yourself and anyone else in your household. If you so desire, you can even purchase Taco Bell branded products like taco shells and hot sauce so that you can have Taco Bell anytime.
All you really need is a microwave, a refrigerator, and a can opener. Stoves, especially gas cooktops, and ovens are great for cooking various meat fillings and for warming up both soft tortillas and fried tortilla shells, but you can cook most proteins, including beans, in the microwave. You need a refrigerator to store any grated cheese, sour cream, pre-made guacamole and/or pico de gallo you may have purchased. You only need a can opener if you’re using canned beans (I don’t know of anyone using canned tuna in a taco, but I’m sure someone out there has tried it.)
The best part is that children, teens, and adults like tacos. It’s fun to set up all the fixings on the table and let everyone create his or her own taco delight. And you get to eat them with your fingers!
Again, the only real disadvantage here is overindulging. In terms of food preparation, tacos are really just a step away from ramen noodles. In terms of sodium content and calories, they’re about the same. Just saying.
5. Tacos are delicious with sliced avocados, and avocados are good for your heart.
This is a scientifically proven fact: avocados have more potassium than bananas (remember, they’re “Nature’s perfect fruit”), they’re chock full of nutrients, they provide you with fiber in your diet, and are considered a healthy fat choice (yes, I realize that’s an oxymoron).
Now, lest you think I am throwing you a red herring, let me just say that many people like freshly sliced avocado or guacamole (of which avocados are a key ingredient) on their tacos.
So there.
I can’t really think of anything bad to say about avocados. Plus, it’s always good to end on a happy note!