Eat the Menu: Tacodeli, Day 7

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.

My company had an outing today out on Lake Travis, but, on my way out, I stopped at Tacodeli for breakfast tacos. Before diving into the ratings, I guess I should explain what breakfast tacos are, since apparently they're a confusing concept even though I swear Taco Bell had them when I was in high school. The idea is to put breakfasty stuff (eggs, bacon, sausage, veggies, hash browns or other potatoes) in a soft taco shell. They're similar to an omelet as far as ingredients, but put together in a different way. They are very tasty. If you haven't had one, seriously, just make one; what you think goes in one is close enough to what goes in one. In Austin, many taco restaurants and more than a few not-so-taco-y restaurants offer their take on what exactly one should put in a breakfast taco, and of course Tacodeli is no exception. I think it's possible they started with breakfast tacos, actually, but I'm not sure about that.

For my first Tacodeli breakfast, I went with The Otto ("Refried black beans, bacon, avocado and cheese") and a more "traditional" Vaquero ("Eggs scrambled with our Cowboy mix of grilled corn, roasted poblano and red peppers, and monterrey jack cheese"). Both were good, but I liked the Vaquero a little more. The best part was the lightly toasted tortillas that they were wrapped in. Very strong work there, Tacodeli. Capital idea. That bodes well for the other breakfast tacos. Still, breakfast tacos aren't really that awesome in my eyes (on the scale of deliciousness-of-a-Mole-Taco-Chicken), so I'll give them 0.8 and 0.75 moles.

Something I found much more interesting was when I drank the I-assume-it-must-be-fresh-squeezed orange juice. The orange juice was just orange juice, but, since I was actively thinking about "how delicious is this?", I really noticed just how awesome orange juice is. If I put it in terms of "how much would I miss orange juice if I never had it again vs. how much would I miss Mole Tacos Chicken?", I have to give it somewhere around 4 moles. It blows my mind that they bother trying to convince us this stuff is good with the whole vitamin C campaign (as long as you aren't at sea for months and/or eating everything out of copper pots, chances are you're getting plenty of vitamin C, and oranges aren't anywhere near the best source of vitamin C, but for some reason we all associate oranges with vitamin C). It's like they're just trying to point out that sometimes we find out things about food that we want to hear. It's like if they had a campaign to convince us icecream was worth eating. Do yourself a favor and really taste the OJ the next time you drink some. Wow that stuff is good.

I also bought a hat while I was there this morning, since I was on my way to the lake and hadn't thought to grab one (and because, come on, obviously I need a Tacodeli hat). The hat wasn't particularly tasty.

Summary:

• The Otto: 0.75 moles
• The Vaquero: 0.8 moles
• Orange Juice: 4 moles
• Hat: 0 moles

I'm going to totally cheat tomorrow and "recalibrate" my rating system by getting one new taco plus a Scallop Taco, because those things are awesome. Suggestions for the non-Scallops Taco will be greatly appreciated, but keep in mind you'll be putting it up against the taco that made me sad last week when I finished it. Give me a real contender.