Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Homemade Fresh, All Day Long!

On our way back from the concert last Thursday, we stopped at Taco Cabana.

Taco Cabana has the unique designation of having both the best and worst fast food I've ever eaten. There is apparently a line in the company manual that states, quite clearly: Every third meal must be inedible. Failure to follow this vital company regulation will result in termination.

A few years ago, I ate lunch there and had the single best tortilla I've ever tasted in my life. The next day, I picked up half a dozen tortillas at the drive-through window, and when I got home and opened the foil package, the tortillas were so greasy that it was actually dripping off them. So in the space of twenty-four hours I was served both the best and worst tortilla of my life, and it came from the same place. That's Taco Cabana. When you see people walking into the restaurant, you never know whether they're diners or the American Red Cross.

They introduced a new product called chicken flamiente. Don't go scrambling for a Spanish-English dictionary--it's just rotisserie chicken. I liked it--I really liked it--so in typical Taco Cabana fashion, they never had it.

"I'd like the chicken flamiente plate, please" I'd say.
"We're out. It takes an hour and a half to make."
"That's why you should start making it before I get here." Okay, I never said that, but I really wanted to.

Gloria loves Taco Cabana, so I still go there occasionally, and that's where we decided to stop after seeing Norah Jones. While standing in line, we were fortunate enough to have a visit from the F-Bomb Guy. You've all met him, so let me just list the subjects he was able to drop an f-bomb with:
--beer
--house paint
--enchiladas
--his truck

I waited for Professor Henry Higgins and Colonel Pickering, but they never came.

Clearly mpressed by his passion, Gloria ordered the enchiladas as well. Along with my dinner, I ordered an extra two tortillas, because I wanted one tortilla and figured that ordering a second greatly improved the chances that one of them would be edible. And it was.

Gloria, however, discovered a new food service trend with the Taco Cabana franchise. They've managed to combine edible and inedible in the same meal. Her enchiladas were delicious, until she got to the last two inches of the second one. No utensil or implement could penetrate its surface. Perhaps they were test-marketing their new Enchiladas de la Piedra--enchiladas of stone.

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