Sir T-Hawk, myself and 4 others went for Mexican after class today. My fault, I had a craving. :-) Taqueria El Azteca is our favorite local Mexican Restaurant. Little place, not a lot of seating, across from Elizabeth's in Quaker Village Shopping Center. Every time we have been there service has been great and the food excellent. Sir T-Hawk especially raves about their Chili Relleno - says it is the best in the state. And they are the only place I have ever seen offer a "cactus salad" as an optional side - diced cactus, onion, tomatos with cilantro and lime juice. It's tangier than you might expect, but very tasty. Impossible to find a calorie count for online, I tried. While their menu offers MANY interesting and unusual options which I have explored in the past (I recommend the ChoriPollo - chicken breast, chorizo and the white melty cheese), today Sir T-Hawk and I both stuck with simple dishes.
Today, we both got the 2 piece combo. Sir T ordered a Chili Relleno with cheese and chimichanga with sides of black beans and cactus salad. I ordered a taco and a tostada with black beans and spanish rice. We also ordered a fascinating dish they have called a Molenjeta for the table to snack on.
Unusually, today the service was less than expected. Our lunch arrived very quickly, before the appetizer, so I cancelled the appetizer. Sir T's Chili Relleno came with chicken instead of cheese and my black beans came as refried beans. The food however was still excellent. Sir T said that he had never had a Chili Relleno with chicken before, always with cheese but that despite not being what he ordered, it was very good. He commented that the chicken was cooked perfectly and got a chorus of agreement from the other people at the table who ordered chicken dishes. One of the students added that the steak taco he got was also cooked perfectly which surprised him as the steak was cut very small and usually ends up as charcol at that size. However, he said it was great and his plate was completly empty when he was done. He had ordered the "Authentic Mexican Tacos" which came with a slice of avacado on each taco and what looked like pico de gallo rather than just lettuce and cheese.
My food was very good, however their beef is very moist ... not greasy, almost a light gravy ... but it tends to make hard shells soggy very quickly. I ate the taco first and it was still crunchy and VERY good. The beef is not over seasoned, but very tasty and light (I did mention not greasy). Several other people also seconded the approval of the beef in the regular tacos. However, by the time I got to the tostada it was soaked through ... still tasty, but it lost its crunch appeal and was buried under such a load of iceberg lettuce it was overpowered with the loss of the crunch. Usually, I just remove some of the lettuce when there is so much and mix it with the rice, but I wasn't thinking today. Several people also agreed that the shells were delicious - crunchy, but still light (increasing the quickly soggy factor). These were hard corn shells, not the flaky fried flour ones, but were nearly as light as flour shells.
Overall - not the best we have had there, not quite living up to our usual expectations this time, but still excellent food.
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