Eat the Menu: The Shirt!

This is part of a series about my quest to try all of the yumminess at local restaurant Tacodeli. See my eat the menu tag for the other parts of the series. Scores are summarized here.Thursday night, this crazy journey reached its end. We had a "Jon the Geek Week Wrap Party" at Tacodeli (open after its usual hours to give us some more of those delicious Jon the Geek Week Specials). The tacos were great, but the best part was the official introduction of the award for the first 24 people to complete an Eat the Menu Card: the "I Ate the Menu at Tacodeli" t-shirt! I got the first copy of this limited run. My favorite part is on the middle of line...

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Posted in: eat the menu,Tacodeli

Food Revolution: Chicken Korma to Chicken KorMex

This is part of a series of posts in which I cook something from Jamie's Food Revolution and then make it again with a twist. Find the other posts here.I have definitely learned something from Jamie's Food Revolution: I really love Indian food, especially when it's homemade. This time I made Chicken Korma, and the rule definitely still holds true. This stuff is amazingly delicious. I technically tweaked Jamie's recipe a little, but that was just because some of his amounts were stupid:2 chicken breasts (translated to human measures from "1 3/4 pounds chicken breasts")2 medium onionsoptional: 1 fresh jalapeño (translated from optional: 1 fresh...

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Posted in: almonds,chicken,chilis,cilantro,coconut,coconut milk,corn,curry,food revolution,garbanzo beans,ginger,milk,onions,pecans,sour cream,yogurt

Eat the Menu: New Additions! (now with DeliBelly description)

This is part of a series about my quest to try all of the yumminess at local restaurant Tacodeli. See my eat the menu tag for the other parts of the series. Scores are summarized here.Today was the independently organized Taco Tweetup that Tacodeli thought would make a good preview event for my week. Tacodeli was offering a special on three-item breakfast tacos, so I headed to the site to see what might make a good mix (I always get named stuff off the menu, so this mix-and-match thing was new to me). To my surprise and delight, I was greeted on the site by... me! Well, ok, not me, but the cartoon me created for Jon the Geek Week by Victory Dog...

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Posted in: awesome,eat the menu,Tacodeli

Eat the Menu Aftermath: How I Got a Week

This is part of a series about my quest to try all of the yumminess at local restaurant Tacodeli. See my eat the menu tag for the other parts of the series. Scores are summarized here.Life is crazy. When I was Eating the Menu at Tacodeli a couple months ago, I was hoping the people who worked there would get to know me well enough that I wouldn't have to give them my name when they took my order. I never expected more than that.But then, at the end of June, I got a direct message on Twitter from Tacodeli. "Hey Jon!" it started. "I was wondering if you could give Roberto (owner of Tacodeli) a call? He'd like to talk to you." The message ended with cell phone number of the owner. I called immediately.The Tacodeli twitter crew had been keeping Roberto up-to-date about my quest, and he thought...

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Posted in: eat the menu,Tacodeli

Why I Ate the Menu

This is part of a series about my quest to try all of the yumminess at local restaurant Tacodeli. See my eat the menu tag for the other parts of the series. Scores are summarized here.It's said that variety is the spice of life, and Tacodeli knows a thing or two about spicing things up. Tacodeli has twenty-four lunch tacos and six named breakfast tacos on their menu, plus an additional seven tacos available as daily specials. However, thirty-seven tacos is a lot to keep track of.Taking on the challenge of eating the menu gave me a reason to keep track of which tacos I'd tried and which I hadn't, ensuring that I'd experience all of that delicious life-spicing.If only there were a way for others to keep track of their own quests to eat that menu...

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Posted in: eat the menu,Tacodeli

Food Revolution: Vindaloo to Incaloo

I finally got back to Jamie's Food Revolution this week. These recipes were more involved than the ones I'd made so far, but I think they both came out really good... once I fixed my remix. More on that in a bit.Strangely, I can't find Jamie's vindaloo recipe online. Here it is:2 medium onions4 cloves of garlic2 fresh chilis (I use serranos)thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger root"small bunch" of fresh cilantro (I take that to mean about a quarter of what HEB thinks a bunch is supposed to be)4 ripe tomatoespeanut oilpat of butter1 3/4 pounds diced pork shoulder (but he said chicken's also fine, so I used chicken)1/2 cup Patak's vindaloo paste...

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Posted in: chicken,chilis,cilantro,curry,food revolution,garlic,Inca,oca,onions,potatoes

Food Revolution: Chicken Chow Mein to Basil Fennel Chicken Pasta

I remixed another recipe from Jamie's Food Revolution last night and tonight, and I think I won again. To be fair, the thing I made using Jamie's Chicken Chow Mein recipe hardly looked like the thing in the book. His looks soupier (I assume the "if necessary" step seemed necessary to him), and I don't think that would have been a good thing. Then again, maybe I had a lot of yumminess stuck to my pan that he released. If I make it again, I'll probably try the wet version, and I'll use sliced water chestnuts instead of whole. Otherwise, this was pretty darned tasty. It was good, but I don't think it was as good as the alternate...

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Posted in: basil,black olives,bok choy,chicken,cilantro,food,food revolution,ginger,tomatoes,water chestnuts

Food Revolution: Salmon Fish Cakes Accidentally Remixed

Last weekend I had my first accidental remix. According to the recipe I was reading, I was making Salmon Fish Cakes from Jamie's Food Revolution, but that's not how they ended up.The main thing I'm using Jamie's book for is to learn new techniques. The whole point of it is to get people to cook, so surely he'll be really teaching people, right? I'm starting to think, well, not so much. His goal is noble, but I've had a couple experiences now where he seemed to assume I knew a little more than I knew. This time the results were nearly disastrous.Specifically, I was steaming the salmon for the fish cakes in a colander above the boiling potatoes....

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Posted in: food,food revolution,parsley,potatoes,salmon

Eat the Menu: Tacodeli, Day 31

This is part of an ongoing series about my quest to try all of the yumminess at local restaurant Tacodeli. See my eat the menu tag for the other parts of the series. Scores are summarized here.I started Eat the Menu when Tacodeli's central location opened on May 11. Since then, I've gone through 61 separate menu items (plus a hat), virtually all of which were delicious.Friday morning I finished my quest to eat everything on the Tacodeli menu. The photo might not be great, but I wanted to get a shot of that tasty tasty tortilla they use on their breakfast tacos. Yum! This time the tortilla was filled with a Migas Taco, "Eggs scrambled with our...

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Posted in: eat the menu,food,Tacodeli

Food Revolution: Chicken and Leek Stroganoff to Vegan Mushroom Leek Heaven

On Tuesday, I made my second recipe from Jamie's Food Revolution: Chicken and Leek Stroganoff (sorry for the blurriness of the photo, I didn't notice that my lens was a bit dirty). The recipe is available on this blog. All I can say about this one is, well, they can't all be awesome. The parsley dominated the flavor way too much for my taste, and not in a pleasant way. I tasted a bit of it as I packed up the leftovers, and it was a little better after it sat for a bit... but last night I ate some of those leftovers, and it had gotten far worse. Anything with such a small window of deliciousness is a loser in my book. Sorry, Jamie, but I won't...

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Posted in: chicken,cilantro,food revolution,leeks,mushrooms,parsley,white wine

Eat the Menu: Tacodeli, Days 29 and 30

This is part of an ongoing series about my quest to try all of the yumminess at local restaurant Tacodeli. See my eat the menu tag for the other parts of the series. Scores are summarized here. I haven't been to Tacodeli for two whole days, and yet I haven't caught up on my blog. I apologize. I think I'm going through withdrawal. All I have left is a breakfast taco, but I've eaten breakfast twice now without remembering that. Tomorrow morning I should finish it off.Monday, June 14 I started off on Monday by knocking two things off the menu, the Avocado Salad and Chips and Queso. The Avocado Salad is described as "For avocado aficionados! Fresh...

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Posted in: eat the menu,food,Tacodeli

Food Revolution: Salmon Tikka to Chipotle Chicken

Last week, my sister, Libby, invited me over for amazingly yummy Chicken Tikka Masala. She purchased Jamie Oliver's Jamie's Food Revolution, and wanted to try out one of the curries while her less-adventurous-foodwise hubby is out of town. It's hard to say for certain, but I think that chicken might be among the five best things I've ever eaten. I'm sure it was at least in part my sister's touch, but that recipe was amazing, so I bought my own copy of the book.Part of the goal of the book is to get the people reading it to get their friends and family to cook, thus the "Revolution" part of the title. I'm stealing Libby's idea of using my blog...

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Posted in: chicken,cilantro,cucumber,food,food revolution,jamie oliver,salmon,yogurt

Eat the Menu: Tacodeli, Days 27 and 28

This is part of an ongoing series about my quest to try all of the yumminess at local restaurant Tacodeli. See my eat the menu tag for the other parts of the series. Scores are summarized here. Friday, June 11Friday I had my first item from the Ensaladas y Sopas (salads and soups) menu. The Ensalada Tacodeli (with chicken) is "A bed of romaine lettuce topped with guacamole, sour cream, pico de gallo, shredded cheese, onion, tomato and your choice of chicken or sirloin." I got it with the Jalapeño Ranch dressing. I'm glad I didn't get a side to go with it, because the salad was just about exactly the right size on its own. The chicken...

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Posted in: eat the menu,food,Tacodeli

Eat the Menu: Tacodeli, Days 23, 24, 25, 26

This is part of an ongoing series about my quest to try all of the yumminess at local restaurant Tacodeli. See my eat the menu tag for the other parts of the series. Scores are summarized here.I've been busy watching the Texas Stars try to lose the Calder Cup this week, but I've kept up my trek through the Tacodeli menu. I just haven't been so good at blogging about it. Here's what I tried the last four days, which gets me a heck of a lot closer to finished with the menu. Monday, June 7I started off the week with the second-to-last item on the Tortilla Creations menu: the Grilled Steak Wrap ("Grilled steak with lettuce, tomato, onion and cheese...

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Posted in: eat the menu,food,Tacodeli

Eat the Menu: Tacodeli, Day 22

This is part of an ongoing series about my quest to try all of the yumminess at local restaurant Tacodeli. See my eat the menu tag for the other parts of the series. Scores are summarized here. I headed into the office again today to knock some stuff off my plate, so of course that meant knocking something off the Tacodeli menu onto my plate for lunch.Today's selection was the Adobo Chicken Torta. The Tortas don't have much in the way of description on the menu, except for an over-arching description: "Panini toasted Mexican sandwiches served on authentic telera buns with black bean and jalapeño spread, lettuce, tomato, onion and cheese."...

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Posted in: eat the menu,food,Tacodeli

Eat the Menu: Tacodeli, Days 19, 20, and 21

This is part of an ongoing series about my quest to try all of the yumminess at local restaurant Tacodeli. See my eat the menu tag for the other parts of the series. Scores are summarized here.Yesterday, I passed a turning point. I could have "finished" this Eat the Menu challenge by ordering the last taco on my list, but instead I ordered a "Tortilla Creation" and a side. In other words, I officially decided to fully Eat the Menu. I'll describe what that entails below, but first I should probably update you onThursday, June 3Thursday I finally tried the two Mexico Cities: Mexico City Chicken and Mexico City Sirloin. They're described on...

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Posted in: eat the menu,food,Tacodeli

Eat the Menu: Tacodeli, Days 17 and 18

This is part of an ongoing series about my quest to try all of the yumminess at local restaurant Tacodeli. See my eat the menu tag for the other parts of the series. Scores are summarized here. It has been a busy, busy two days. Fortunately, both of those days featured tasty tacos, so overall they were good days.Tuesday, June 1Yesterday I decided to knock two pork tacos off my list: Cochinita Pibil and a "safe" Mole Pork. Surely mole is mole is mole, right?The Cochinita Pibil is described as "Yucatecan style roasted pork marinated and cooked in citrus and achiote. A unique tropical flavor garnished with pickled purple onions and serranos." First...

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Posted in: eat the menu,food,Tacodeli

Eat the Menu: Tacodeli, Days 15 and 16

This is part of an ongoing series about my quest to try all of the yumminess at local restaurant Tacodeli. See my eat the menu tag for the other parts of the series. Scores are summarized here. This weekend I not only made my first weekend trip to Tacodeli since starting this, I did so on all three days of the weekend. After Saturday's rendezvous with Tacodeli North, I returned to my usual Central on Sunday for breakfast. I may need to give other breakfast taco joints a chance at a head-to-head with Tacodeli. I'm honestly not sure I like their breakfast tacos all that much. The doña sauce makes up for it, but doña on someone else's breakfast...

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Posted in: eat the menu,food,Tacodeli

Eat the Menu: Tacodeli, Day 14

This is part of an ongoing series about my quest to try all of the yumminess at local restaurant Tacodeli. See my eat the menu tag for the other parts of the series. Scores are summarized here. I feel like I was cheating on my usual location with this stop. I was on the north side of town, so I went to the north location for lunch. A friend was randomly at the central location at very close to the same time, though, so I think that makes it ok.The first taco I tried was the weekend special, Lomo Especial, "Diced roasted pork loin served Fundido style with a Monterry Jack cheese glaze and garnished with cilantro and onion." I think this was the...

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Posted in: eat the menu,food,Tacodeli