I believe my first experience with Mexican cuisine was during my college years at a Chi-Chi’s. Before then my mouth instinctively watered for seafood and soul food: fried trout, fried apples and sweet potato biscuits. These were the tastes indigenous to my hometown.
Whenever I travel back home from Washington, DC, where ethnic flavors prevail, I patronize the fried chicken joint for a “wing boat,” or three wings served in a checkered cardboard container alongside fries.
This particular Saturday would’ve been no different as my cousin and I cruised down the highway, with my stomach rumbling and my brain contemplating those three wings plus a thick chocolate shake – until we saw the taco truck I had spotted on several prior occasions.
My food truck obsession emerged during my DC years, and I’m not talking about the hot dog and pretzel variety, either. So I was fascinated with this truck in this rural location overrun with back roads, trees and livestock.
“There’s the food truck!” I exclaimed as my cousin and I zoomed by. It took nearly a minute for her to reply.
“Did you want to stop there?”
“Well, we’ve gone another mile past it now.” I silently prayed she’d offer those three obligatory words.
“Are you sure?”
We pulled up to the truck, parked in the upper left corner of a gas station parking lot adjacent to a carwash, not the busy streets that I’m accustomed.
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| Azada taco with cilantro and onion |
I immediately asked for a steak taco before glancing at the menu board and all its offerings.
“Oh wait. What’s ‘azada?’” I had an idea, but I usually see it as ‘carne asada.’
“That’s steak,” he replied.
Then I noticed the two dollars next to it. “Can I get two?”
Amid the first bite, I wished I bought three or four.
Thinly sliced and tender, the steak wasn’t complete without the sweetness of cilantro, bite of onion, acidity of lime and spiciness of the accompanying sauce. Famished with a fiery mouth, I ate as a consumer and not as a critic or writer. My only other regret was not ordering a beverage!
I wonder if the owner can get a license for margaritas. Or I can just take a tamarind Jarritos instead.
