Taco Bell: Classic or Dud?

Also, quesadillas must include chorizo to maximize grease quotient.

I should probably note that I wasn't as complicit or accepting of 10) as I should've been - there was a bit of the goody goody "Oh my god there are drugs in the restaurant!" urge I had to sublimate in order to make it through 12 hours of Taco Hell. Don't drink, don't smoke - must be something inside. The woofer was nice, though. Did you know it's super hard to make stoned high school kids wash dishes?

What is even better about that Spring Weekend thing was walking 2+ miles home from the Bell @ 5 AM to an apartment w/ 3 friends playing foosball, smoking joints, and blasting _Live Dead_ when I had to go back for a mid-afternoon shift in less than 8 hours. You'd think I'd be more accepting of a mid-morning toke, but not when I'm TRYING TO GET SOME FUCKING SLEEP. Also, UConn kids listen to the worst shit when high - turn OFF the Roger Waters, dood, I'm one with the goddamn universe, stop pissing on my chakras, ass.

TB ad campaign sucks. Bring back the dog!

You never know when those packets might come in handy. A few months ago there was a story in the news about a guy whose car fell into a ravine. He broke his hip and was unable to get out of the car. For a week, he survived on packets of Taco Bell hot sauce from under his seat.

Their Burrito Supreme was pretty good for about a buck (mid 70s), generally dud if there's any alternative, and in So Cal there always is.

Plus, you can't say Taco Bell is completely inauthentic. Soft tacos are hard to mess up.

I'm not so sure about that. First off you have the Taco Bell flour tortilla, which at the moment of contact with your saliva instantly transforms into an intensely adhesive paste that you end up having to scrape off the roof of your mouth. Then you have the "cheese", which wouldn't melt in a blast furnace. I could go on.

this was years ago, do they still have this?

TACO BELL IS NOT MEXICAN FOOD. PERIOD.

Eating it does not mean you don't know Mex. It's just fast food. Period. Basically I eat beans, tortillas, and hot sauce at every meal. I was raised this way. Therefore this food, to me, is not "mexican" food. Just food.

1. It ain't Mexican and 2. It ain't food.

You forgot to talk about the quality ingredients in actual Tex-Mex food, i.e., Taco Bell actually does a pretty good job matching the lard and grade-C meat criteria.

WOW THIS IS AMAZING

Now, the quality of TB may have sharply declined since I left the States but I REALLY LOVE IT. Fast food tends to be shittier in the cities on the coasts generally, seen as fit only for junkies, but in the middle it's better and seems hella fresher. TB and Wendy's do the best junk food, America-wise, and I say this having chef skillz in Mexican food and and a first job at a PROPER DRUGSTORE SODA FOUNTAIN where I would make killer burgers. The one time in my life where I was rendered psychologically unable to eat (bereavement) ended in front of two orders of TB chicken fajitas (we were on our way to the State Fair, where it was hoped fried things on sticks would cure my refusal to eat). Obviously, things like PARENTALLY-PURCHASED pot(!), steak, Vietnamese food etc. had failed and it was time to call in the big guns.

Top notch!

I want one.

I'm partial to the massive Grilled Stuft Burrito - that mofo weighs like ONE POUND. Also, I miss the awful Taco Bell commercials, especially the one with the enthusiastic man playing a piano on a flatbed trailer, hurtling down the highway, singing the praises of "59 / 79 / 99." The "let's rearrange ingredients to make a ostensibly new menu item" strategy is getting ridiculous. Well, actually, I like the double-decker taco, but the cheesy gordita crunch just has a weird, unpleasant texture. I can imagine their next monstrosity, possibly involving a chalupa shell, a gordita shell, a soft taco tortilla, a hard taco shell, an insane amount of cheese, and the option to get sour cream, guacamole, or an angioplasty.

How about Del Taco? I fondly remember their "$.39 Taco Sunday" (and this was only like three years ago). Or Mighty Taco (is this just an upstate NY establishment?)?

Perhaps I should stop via the supermarket and get guacamole. Actually I must get washing powder anyway so HOORAY for my skills of thinking.

Sigh I wonder if I will brave THE TUNNEL tonight.

I've tried to eat Taco Bell food. Every time I do, however, I end up throwing it up. It is vile and disgusting and I do not think it's in any way good. In fact, even the thought of it makes me turn my stomach.

Around where I live, there's a great Tex-Mex restaurant (that's part of a local chain) called Las Palapas. The best chicken fajitas within a five-mile radius of my home, plus the potato & egg [breakfast] tacos are really delish. It's really amazing. Also, if I'm feeling up to it, I take the fifteen-mile drive over to the other side of town to this one Tex-Mex place called Eddie's that makes these amazing soft rolled chicken tacos that have this yummy tomato-based sauce on top and, in a pleasant surprise, no grease whatsoever. I think they use only minute amounts of oil in everything they make, because they know how to use their spices.

Real Mexican food, however, is supposed to be much lighter and not involve nearly as much grease as Tex-Mex. I've been to several real Mexican food restaurants, one of which was a seafood place, and all of them are really nice and refreshing. Chicken mole [moh-leh, not mol] and grilled fish with lime and cilantro are two of my personal favorites. And forget about the refried beans -- borracho ("drunk") beans are waaaaaay better, and done absolutely wonderfully at proper Mexican restaurants.

Hmmm. Now I'm hungry. I want soft rolled chicken tacos now.

I don't see how you can separate the two. The reason something tastes better is because of the quality of the ingredients and how they were prepared, isn't it? I've eaten plenty of Taco Bell (and Del Taco) in my day, so I know that of which I speak - and to be perfectly frank, there are still even rare occasions today when I will crave one of their tacos (and usually end up regretting it later) - but I really can't get on board the "Taco Bell = good Tex Mex" train.

I'm a bit of a food snob. I've had some really good, high-quality Mex/Tex-Mex meals, and I can tell you all about them. But I enjoy a burrito from Taco Bell every now and again. Does that make me a philistine?

Apparently you don't live in the south. It seems like most of the best stuff here, from Tex Mex, to gumbo to fried chicken, is just food people made from whatever was around. I think equating the quality of the ingredients to good taste is like equating the quality of a guitar to a good song -- I figure it's mostly a matter of who's doing the preparing, and who's on the receiving end.

friday night nerd night for john fail involved going to taco bell and getting a chili cheese burrito (originally called the chilito, but renamed due to an unfortunately slang term for 'small penis'), big beef meximelt, or tostada.

when i turned vegetarian at age 16 i continued to go to taco bell, getting soft tacos with beans, baja gorditas with beans, and tostadas. i quit eating at taco bell about the time the chalupa came out. it disgusted me so much, and made me open my eyes to how disgusting the food was. the chalupa tasted like a burrito inside a donut, and what also pissed me off was how the gordita shells changed after the chalupa was introduced. fuck you pepsico.

sometime last year i had a 7 layer burrito because a friend was going through drive through and i thought 'what the hell'. it was my first taco bell in at least two years, and it was fucking nasty.

there's a weird taco bell knockoff called Taco Maker Express. there's one in breezewood, PA (town of motels) and i always stop there on road trips. it's actually worse than taco bell, but it's this weird novelty to me. the burritos have some special "salsa" or sauce that tastes basically like ketchup. their mascot is named Taco the Cat. they have a thing called a Taco Burger. and tater-tots!

omg I remember this and this makes my morning.

when Carey lived in town we used to watch her Buffy DVDs and during the episode where Angel turns into good Angel right before Buffy impales him and sends him in a portal to hell she yelled "TACO BELL???" in time with Angel's horrified, confused expression.
― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 22:20 (fourteen years ago)

they opened a Taco Bell up the road from where I work in central London recently, people will actually queue out of the door to buy their offerings

The subtle yet persistent and instinctually undeniable scent of seasoned beef is diverted into the common areas of the residences from the cookhouse out back

I'm picturing a tower in the hotel containing a literal bell made of taco with a taco clapper that just like crunches and falls apart as soon as it tolls, and I'm laughing as I picture this.

i really hate to bang on about Mountain Dew Baja Blast, but I have noticed that it gives an odor more suited to a body wash or shampoo than a beverage, i think I might be into a Baja Blast skincare/beauty line

I thought this would be in Vegas or something for the tourist who wants to gamble 24 hours a day but only spend $10 on food.

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