The Year of the Taco

So it's 2009, the year of the taco. And for you taco lovers out there, your ship has finally come in. There used to be a dessert that I was fond of, it might still be at my local grocer but I haven't spent any time thinking about it until JUST NOW. . . does anyone else remember the ChacoTaco? Is it ChocoTaco? Anyhow - those were a delicious rip off of the taco, and now we seem to be folding anything smaller than a fist into a tortilla and calling it a taco.

Because there is no money available, my sweet girlfriend and I were gourmet window shopping for dinner on the internet, checking menus and prices from the safety of our own home so that the embarrassment and sticker shock of a delicious meal wouldn't leave us hungry for days ahead. We're finding places that allow a person to bring your own booze, BYOB for those who drank their frontal lobes away in college and have forgotten.

And bang, there it was - for you local people in Scottsdale, check out Coup des Tartes. The menu is reasonable, the ambiance is perfect unless you are seating next to an awkward meathead and his bra-less blond first date who didn't stop crying from the point that the entrees arrived until we left quickly out the front door. No amount of grocery store reisling was going to fix that date.

"Good evening, welcome to Coup des Tartes," said the waitress. "Feel free to open your wine whenever you'd like. I apologize, but we don't have the filet mignon tacos available this evening. Everything else on the menu is pretty straight-forward, I'll be back in a moment to answer any questions."

We opened the wine, a selection from Alpha Omega that was purchased by someone else and has been a member of the auspicious wine collection which has seen less and less inductees over the last months.

"What is it with all these f'ing tacos?" says delightful girlfriend to me. She says f'ing because its quieter and less offensive. Also, the meathead and his sad date hadn't arrived yet and we didn't want to bring any unwarranted attention to ourselves. After meathead and Mrs. sat down, we could have re-enacted the central scenes from Donnie Brasco with our hair on fire and no one in that tiny room would have noticed.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"I'm so sick of seeing tacos everywhere. Italian restaurants have meatball tacos, french bistros with mignon-tacos, Asian restuarants with dim-sum tacos, stir-fry tacos prepared tableside with mexican wok. . . Geez. Leave the tacos alone!"

You'll notice it now, the tacos have taken over. Fish, chicken, steak, pork, shredded pork, marinated and shredded pork, pork that was raised on chicken and fish. . . whatever you want. Have it taco-style. I'm surprised that Ford and GM haven't introduced a new economy car called the Taco to inspire people to buy new cars and to help their executives afford to dine at restaurants where the restaurant brings the wine for you. Schmucks.

Just a thought - enjoy your January.