Welcome Josh Wodarz to All the Tacos I Have Loved. He has made a point to check out Rusty Taco’s breakfast selection, and brought his awesome reviewing talents to our doorstep. Thank you Josh, from all of us here at All the Tacos.
“Having already tried the normal fare at Rusty Taco and having liked it (while sharing some of the same criticism’s as Courtney) I still had a desire to try their breakfast tacos. I had been seeing their sides on the side of Randolph Avenue ever day on my way to work. Always running late, I was never able to start off my day with a taco. Finally, one day, I made it a point to leave the house early enough to have a breakfast taco.
The breakfast tacos come in four varieties, all determined by meat: chorizo, jalapeno sausage, bacon, and plain sausage. I went for the horizon and jalapeno. The tacos arrived quickly, which was good, because someone, somewhere in that place had some terrible b.o. that seemed to linger in the air directly above the tables despite the twenty foot ceilings.
The tacos were loaded with eggs, the meat, and cheese -possibly too much cheese and too much egg. There was a generous helping of chorizo, but it seemed like too little jalapeno sausage. In some ways, these tacos were in contrast to the normal tacos they serve up, as I distinctly remember the portion size of the regular taco as just a little smaller than I wanted, where as these seemed too big. I was disappointed that they differed from the other tacos in another key way: no onion and no cilantro. You know that picture Courtney put up where the tacos were loaded with cilantro and onion? I wanted that. But, this was new, maybe it didn’t need to live up to my expectations.
Jalapeno sausage was up first. The first bite of actual jalapeno sausage was surprising. Because it was so breakfast sausage-esque. In a very good “your grandma is frying up Jimmy Dean sausages while you stay at her lake home” sort of way. Then I noticed two things: compared to the mountain of cheese and egg, the bites of sausage were too few and far between and there wasn’t even a hint jalapeno. Maybe I’d received a normal sausage taco by mistake. No matter what, the scrambled eggs were nice and fluffy and that this in no way tasted like any sort of fast-food, crappy breakfast burrito. It was way better than that, but not at all I what I wanted from it.
That sort of thought continued through the chorizo taco – the greasy, greasy delicious chorizo. It was good. A little strong on cumin in the seasoning (at least I think that’s what it was where that normal slight burnt taste in chorizo had gone too far), but given the lowered expectations after the jalapeno sausage, it fit the bill and was exactly what I wanted.
Still, I’m left with the idea that cilantro and onion would’ve helped both of them and made them stand out so much more. Maybe it’s available as an option, I’ll have to check, as I will try them again. No matter what, when you order the tacos, they should ask “Would you like cilantro and onions on that?” Maybe I’m wrong and they will add nothing, but I want to try.
Overall, very filling for a good price and certainly a great go-to option for a quick breakfast taco. And I recommend the chorizo.
Like Courtney, I love a good huevos rancheros, and Sunny Side Up in Minneapolis has my favorite (I order cactus paddles and chorizo on the side, dump them on top and mix up the whole damn thing, eating it out of the tortilla’s like a taco – I do turn it into a hand held breakfast). Pizza Luce’s breakfast burrito is also a favorite, as is the new pulled pork breakfast burrito at The Highland Grill in St. Paul (I just realized they have a trio of breakfast tacos on their new menu and I haven’t tried them yet). And if you’ve never had the chilaquiles on the side when it’s offered on the Muddy Pig’s brunch menu, I highly suggest you try it. So good that it caused me to learn how to make them on my own. They’re another in a long line of Mexican food made to utilize the left over stale tortillas from the previous night’s meal.
And maybe that’s where a good breakfast taco should be taking it’s inspiration from: the idea of a Sunday morning breakfast where the family has to put together a meal with last night’s leftovers. Someone please try that and put it on a menu somewhere? Please?”
Boo and Ya!
