Tacos Via the 80's

Walking into Taco Via (95th and Metcalf) the other night was like going back in time, literally. I'd read on Yelp that the place hasn't changed at all in twenty years. They even had a sign hanging by the register advertising a mexi-pizza as new that I would guess was introduced to the menu in 1998. The menu board had a picture of each item. You could tell the chronology of when the items were added by how faded the pictures were. The tacos picture looked almost like a negative. The decor looked like it was lifted from a Hardee's remodel site in the 80's. I was immediately impressed.

I was quite hungry from a day of working in my yard building a raised garden. For some reason hard manual labor always puts me in the mood for either barbecue or tacos. On this day it was tacos as I had run across a couple of 5 star reviews for Taco Via earlier in the day. When I see something like that and find that most people have rated it very highly, I feel I must check it out.

Taco Via is so retro they had white kids working behind the counter. No immigrants at Taco Via (not that that's a bad thing), no Taco Via goes old school, from the times before the minimum wage got so high that an unskilled 16 year old could actually work in fast food. The kids even looked like they were from the 80's or at the very least from the movie "Adventureland". Next time I go in I'm going to wear my pinch rolled jeans with a Z. Cavaricci t-shirt and puka shell necklace* because Taco Via reminded me so much of the time when we hung out at the Taco Tico (Wichita fast food taco place) in high school.

*Sure it's easy to think I was a douche in high school because I wore a puka shell necklace and it would be true if I went to Shawnee Mission East or Blue Valley North. But, it's not true. I went to an inner city high school in Wichita, things were tough. You could only wear a puka shell necklace at my school if you had stabbed someone or killed a drifter (you could only wear beads if you stabbed a teacher or security guard). The 80's were a different time in Wichita, stabbings were seen as kids being kids and only slightly discouraged. Robert from Lunch Blog will back me up on this since we went to high school together.

I got 3 tacos and an order of nachos (total around $7). They have a special of 1 taco, 1 nacho, 1 sancho and a drink for around $6.25, but I have a fairly strict no sancho policy. The tacos are standard issue American style fast food tacos, only bigger. For $1.49 each, a meal could be made of 2 or 3 of these. They have a healthy amount of meat and plenty of lettuce and cheese to round it out. The nachos are unlike any nachos I've ever seen. I called them nacho cookies when I showed them to Stella. They were uncurved (flat) taco shells covered in melted orange cheese, jalapenos and salsa (you can get them without the jalapenos). Needless to say, they were delicious. When you get an order of nachos, you get 2 nacho cookies. The tacos taste like a good version of a Taco Bell taco. Think of the first taco you ever ate and thought "I'm going to be eating tacos for the rest of my life", that's what the Taco Via taco tasted like. The sauce was a little tangy with no heat. It wasn't that great and didn't bring much to the table. I'm not going to say you're going to be blown away by a Taco Via taco, but it WILL taste like happiness, your youth and maybe even remind you of that first taco you had.

I think every town has a kind of homegrown taco place that has held on through the Taco Bellization of America. In Wichita it's Taco Tico, in Lincoln and Omaha it's Amigo's. I'd like to think that in KC it's Taco Via. It's a shame it took me 10 years of living here and craving Taco Tico to find Taco Via. Now that I have, I've wanted to go back and eat again. I just have to find my Z. Cavaricci shirt first.

Real Big Problem

If you have never been to El Camino Real, you are doing yourself a favor. Not only am I out $6.50 for lunch, but I have lost all sorts of productivity throughout the afternoon because I can't stop smelling my hands.

Fat City lists El Camino as the best cheap taco in the city. Meesha did some incredible reporting on their operation, featuring the first pictures of food I ever contemplated pleasuring myself to.

Sour creaming myself on the side

But getting back to the issue at hand...it has been 4 hours since I went to El Camino for lunch, and my hands still smell of fresh-made, corn tortillas. The grease must just sink into your skin and never let go. Co-workers have washed their hands multiple times with little success. I'm scared to touch myself when using the restroom for fear that my wife will think I've been humping on a ball of masa again.

About the only good things to come out of this experience is a belly full of al pastor and being able to legitimately ask co-workers why they keep smelling their fingers.

Yummo Tacos

I noticed as I was walking about the Power & Light district today that the Yummo soup sign said that they were no longer serving Souperman soups at the Yummo store (both places owned and operated by Rob Dalzell). It also advertised $2 FroYo ($3.50 with toppings) apparently abandoning the pricing by the pound which usually resulted in me having $3.75 FroYo. They also had a sandwich board out front that advertised Korean bbq tacos 2/$2. I was shocked I didn't see the modern day Tom Joad, Meesha, inside eating Korean bbq tacos (if there's something free, Meesha will be there, if there's something severely discounted, Meesha will be there).

I had various lunch thoughts in my head before I saw that sign. They were all abandoned immediately and I headed into Yummo. Rob was manning the counter. I ordered the tacos and chose the short rib meat option (pork and chicken? were the other 2 options). Rob turned around and started to prepare my tacos. Since Rob and I are old buddies I made some small talk asking why they abandoned the soup. Rob said it was too hot for soup and then he confirmed my suspiscions when he said "I have to find a way to pay Cordish rent". He was hoping to be able to sell the tacos to the drunk late night set.

As any restaurant watcher knows, when a restaurant starts abandoning concepts and trying new specials and menu items, the restaurant is probably in trouble. I've been to Yummo maybe 20 times and walked by it over a hundred times and I would guess that I've seen a customer in there 1% of the time. They may get quite a bit of business with the later night crowd, but if they're open during the day, I would think they would have customers every once in a while.

As for the tacos, they were pretty good. $2 for a somewhat filling lunch is unheard of in this day and age. The sausage carts around the Sprint Center cost $3 for a hot dog. The tacos are definitely the better option. They come with some kind of tortilla, not the same as tortillas you usually see, but tasty nonetheless. I got a generous spoonful of short rib meat and it was topped with some form of asian slaw with onions, carrots, radishes and purple cabbage. Each taco was topped with a white sauce that I can't name but it was tasty. The whole dish was quite good and had a fair amount of spice. If I had had 5 beers, I might say this was a perfect taco, but since I didn't I would point out that it was a little salty. The tacos were full of flavor though and for $2 I would recommend them. I find it hard to pick nits on a food that cost me pocket change.

You should give Yummo a try for both the yogurt and the Korean barbecue tacos. If you don't do it soon, though, they may be gone.

UPDATE: Apparently this taco deal is developing. They are only offered on Tuesday through Friday and may be 3 for $2 when you go. Blog pal Meesha has pictures and his own korean taco story here. Mention the KC Hot Blog or KC With a Russian Accent when you get your tacos and you'll get.. well you'll get nothing, but it would be nice to mention us.

Un Taco Volcan

In an effort to better understand other cultures, I decided to give this place by my house a try. It's called Taco Bell and I've been seeing commercials for Volcano Tacos. It is good that they take the time to translate the name of their food for ignorant gringos. To show that I was in the know, I ordered tres Taco Volcan. I'm sure that I got some special treatment by the native Mexico counter help because of my mastery of the Espanol.

I brought them home and unwrapped them and noticed that the shells were rojo (red). That is a nice touch, it lets gringos know that they are hot. Inside the taco was a layer of meat, some kind of melted nacho cheese (I'm guessing that it was authentic Mexican nacho cheese sauce), some lettuce and then some shredded cheese. I topped each taco volcan with something the Taco Bell folks call Fire sauce (once again, thanks to Taco Bell for translating these native ingredients).

I really enjoyed my tacos volcan. The service at the restaurant was phenomenal, they really went that extra mile by not only speaking English, but also translating their menu to English as well. The tacos volcan weren't overly hot, even with the fuego sauce. But for those that don't regularly eat spicy food, these tacos might be a little spicy. You may be better served with regular tacos (Taco Bell has these too). I think Taco Bell has a varied enough menu that even those less adventurous than I can find something to eat. Go give it a try.