I stole the title of the thread from elsewhere (I’m not going to tell you where). It was, and is, a thread with a lot of good information but I thought we should add to it here rather than there. I’m expecting to hit the road soon for a couple of these mini road trips - I desperately need to get out of the city - so I might have more to add soon.
I have two additions right now, the first one I’ve actually never been to, though. I saw this on the Texas Bucket List TV show and had to put it on my list - Fossati’s Delicatessen in Victoria. Founded in 1882 it claims to be the oldest deli in Texas. Nothing to make Ziggy Gruber nervous about the competition, perhaps, but looks like a fun stop (on the National Register of Historic Places and I’m a history buff) and, anyway, I don’t know of anything else at all in Victoria.
The second one I didn’t even have to leave the city limits for - Taco Palenque on Woodridge in the Gulfgate area. I saw a recent article about it and was intrigued enough, and needing some redemption from a mediocre Tex-Mex experience with my seniors group, that I headed over. I also searched for it on Chowhound and it’s been mentioned favorably several times over there on threads about South Texas but never caught my attention.
Okay, so it’s fast food and a chain, but as the article says, it’s a very good chain (and not all that fast). The article warns you might have trouble if you don’t speak Spanish and I was shocked to find out that applied to me. I typically don’t have much trouble ordering at a taqueria or taco truck but I did here. The problem turned out to be that the first item I ordered, the tostada, comes with choice of beef or chicken but that was not indicated on the menu board. So while I was moving on, trying to order a guisada taco, the counter girl was asking ‘beef or chicken’ and I didn’t know why and she turned to ask another worker if they could put guisado on a tostada. We finally got it straightened out.
The salsa bar has at least 10 choices, I don’t remember the name of the one I chose but it was good. You help youself to unlimited chips. There’s queso (I neglected to try it), and a very flowable guacamole, plus all the fixings for tacos (cibolla y cilantro or lettuce and tomato if you want to go gringo style).
The food is definitely better than any other Mexican fast food chain I’ve been to, including Taco Bell, Del Taco and Taco Cabana. The most memorable thing was the refritos on the tostada; I said to myself I wish I’d ordered something else with refritos. The least memorable thing was the guacamole which didn’t make much of an impression on me at all.
According to the website they’ve got lots of locations all over South Texas so if you’re on the road and needing sustenance and don’t have any info on the local taquerias, taco trucks, or Italian joints, etc., this is good alternative.
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