Seattle Eastside Mini-Crawl
So, I did a mini-crawl today (help, I’m eating tacos and I can’t stop!), hitting the two taco trucks in the Bel-Red zone. The first was Tacos San Clemente, on the northeast corner of Bel-Red and 140th in a service station lot, across the street from the Safeway gas station. Tacos are $1 plus tax, as are sodas. Excellent (tied with Asador) carnitas, pretty good pollo, lightly toasted toritillas, nice selection of squirt-bottle salsas, no garnish except 1 lime and 1 radish. The cashier was nice enough. Two tables with plastic chairs, in the shade of the wagon’s awning… probably seating for 10 or 12, all together.
I didn’t see Rancho Bravo Tacos — the PI says it’s on the northwest corner of 140th and Bel-Red Road at Bel-Red 76 Auto Service, but unless I am totally mistaken, that’s where the Safeway is, and the Union 76 is (a) where I was and (b) on the northeast corner of said intersection.
From there, I proceeded to Taqueria Guadalajara — aka the Microsoft Taco Truck — at the northwest corner of 148th Ave and 24th Street (another Union 76). Tacos here came in 2 sizes: $1.25 and $1.50, and all they had was Asada, Pastor (like all the others this weekend, this was pork adobada, not mexican-style pastor), Pollo, and Lengua. I had a pastor and a pollo, both were merely OK. The pork was tiny bits, nicely spiced but needing salt; the pollo also lacked salt, but was nice and juicy. They did toast the tortillas, but they still fell apart. The people weren’t very pleasant here. Only garnish was a lime and a radish, again, plus a not-good red salsa and a passable green one. Seating was at a bar built into the side of the truck itself, maybe 5 or 6 seats.
On the way back to the office, I had to satisfy my curiosity to see if the Bellevue El Rinconsito’s carnitas were really bad, or if it was just a fluke when Jan and I went. Nope, still really bad — the worst of all of ’em over the past 3 days: simmered pulled pork, no spice at all, lots of chunks of fat. Ick. I actually threw out the taco, having eaten enough. The cashier here, like all the previous times I visited, was curt and unsmiling.
Both of the trucks were crawl-worthy, but I’d skip El Rinconsito when we do this for real.
