I walked past Taco Bell

Since I just moved to Minneapolis, I haven’t enjoyed much of the Mexican fare that the Midwest has to offer. Except for Chipotle.

You’re probably not going to like what I say next, especially if you are a taco purist, but I freaking love Chipotle. I’ve eaten Chipotle here in Minneapolis. A lot of it. One chain-restaurant taco at a time. There are two of them here, and they just happen to not ever be “out of the way” for me, wherever I am going. But hey, I used to live in Colorado, the birthplace of Chipotle, and home of some awesome, excellent, supreme, and authentic (I’ve never been to Mexico) Mexican food.

And although I could go on and on and on about Chipotle tacos, that’s not what I’m here to talk about today. You’ve probably had Chipotle, or Qdoba at least. So, what do you care about someone else tell you what you already know: that shit is delicious.

I’m here to talk about something really special: delicious Mexican food floating in a sea of lutefisk-eating/ cheese curd/ Jucy Lucy eating Scandinavians.

It was a rainy January day in Minneapolis, and Bob and I had the day off. A perfect day for tacos. I had done a little research about good places to get tacos, and although I found what looks like the Holy Grail of tacos in Minneapolis- Taco Taxi, it was actually kind of too far to walk (even though we ended up walking 4 miles anyway. Don’t ever tell me I don’t love tacos.) But at least we made it past Taco Bell, because Bob really really really wanted to just go there.

Instead, we ended up going to this indoor farmers market kind of thing called the Midtown Market (really very similar to the Reading Terminal in Philly). They had two taco places, one of which was called Ay Carumba! I don’t really know why we passed on that one. We’ll go back. Instead we went to Taqueria Los Ocampo.

And I am glad we did. There’s no way that Ay Carumba! would have totally patronized us by asking us if we knew about tacos. (Don’t they know who I am?)

I’ve got to tell you, these tacos were delicious. And they came with this green magic sauce. I’m certain it had tomatillos in it, maybe some avocado. Daaaaaaamn, Gina. They were good.

Here’s the final verdict, though.

The tacos were so good, but when I got full, I didn’t want to keep eating just to continue to taste the delicious flavors. And isn’t that what we look for in food? Especially tacos? They usually only come in a set of three, if I get full and don’t want to finish three measly tacos, they aren’t good enough.

So, well played Taqueria Los Ocampos, but it just wasn’t quite enough.