Taco Trevails

[ceagle]

Iz there sum kinda Taco Trend (at some restaurants) to diminish and diminutize the former size?

*boggles* ... Several times now I've taken chances on unknown diners, and them lil tacos have been a mere morsel compared to what I've known all my life.. 8|

Drove past a place a couple of days ago that said "best tacos" and so the next day I decided to give it a try.. just like my dad used to do, learning about new places by trying them out.
Well, the taste was okay, but as they saw the look on my face when they handed them to me, they said, "they're small, senor" ... and with shattered dreams I scarfed each one down in two bites. $1.35 each!!!

At least White Castle never hid the fact that their product wasn't a full-on hamburger, priced at about 25c apiece in our area... but 70c a bite is a bit steep for a taco, imho!

arf!

Comments

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

When I first learned of small tacos, I was rather surprised, too. As best I understand it, tacos come from the Spanish tapas tradition. They're a snack food, and should be small. The best tacos I've eaten, two for $1.50, are on 3" corn tortillas from this little tapas truck downtown. I think it's a US-American thing that tacos became big.

[tcreynolds]

I think it's a new thing to call them "street" or "cart" tacos, and yeah they are smaller than what I"m used to taco bell

[furahi.livejournal.com]

They're basically Mexico city tacos which have always came in smaller tortillas (though often two of them)

[whitetail.livejournal.com]

At our oldest established taqueria here, two normal sized tacos now go for $7. When the same plate cost $2.35, 20 years ago, I ate there every day. I maybe go there 3 times a year now. And I'm not the only one. Used to be at lunch time, you'd have to wait in line 15 minutes just to place your order. Today, you can walk right up to the counter at 1230PM and there's no one in front of you. Moral of the story: they'd make a shit-ton more money if they'd kept their food affordable. They're gonna price themselves right out of business if they keep this up. Not smart.

[yasha-taur.livejournal.com]

Yep, you beat me to it. Street tacos are kind of a fad thing right now, and yes, they usually come in tows or threes...

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

To be fair, aside from inflation (the inflation calculator only goes to 2010, but I found that $7 in 2010 was the same as about $4 in 1980), food costs have absolutely skyrocketed in the last ten years. Most restaurants and food vendors have had no choice but to drive their prices up. Most of the restauranteurs are extremely unhappy to do it, knowing that they'll be attacked by their customers for doing so, but they have no choice.

For example, I had to explain to several customers a day that my boss was actually losing money on his chicken breasts, which they complained were overpriced. Because so many people ordered white meat, Bob got extra chicken from Cost-Co for $3.00 a pound (the distributor could only sell us balanced packages of mixed meat; an equal count of thighs, breasts, wings and legs in each package). But a breast weighed slightly over a poind. Add in the cost of breading, oil, the gas and electricity required to run the fryer, wages for myself and the cashier, building rent, insurance, and his own salary, that chicken breast probably cost almost $6 to produce. But he daren't raise the prices again, or he'd lose customers.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Of course, White Castle burgers have doubled in price-- they're about four bits now.

But soft tacos (street tacos, whatever you prefer to call them) have always been small. But as noted, they usually have two tortillas, so you can split them into a pair. When I first tried this style at Baja Fresh, I was surprised but got used to it. They're smaller but tastier than the typical American taco.

[orv.livejournal.com]

They basically have two choices -- either raise the prices or make the portions smaller.

The latter isn't entirely a bad thing -- portions at a lot of American restaurants are completely out of control.

[tacet.livejournal.com]

Americans have much larger proportions of food than other countries. A normal adult meal should be the size of a McDonadls' kids/Happy meal. Some places are trying to downsize meals to more normal sizes to combat obesity.

Also, some places and some groceries staples are cutting down the size but keeping the price. They keep the same size left to right, but make the package thinner. 8 dollars for oz of cheddar cheese?!? That should be like 1lb at least!

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

The latter isn't entirely a bad thing -- portions at a lot of American restaurants are completely out of control.

Totally agreed.

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

My favorite are chorizo or cows tongue. <3 Again, not things you find in American-style tacos.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

59 cents each the last time I ate at a White Castle, ayep.

[telbert.livejournal.com]

With the drought wreaking havoc on staple crops like corn, the cost of food will increase, which will in turn put downward pressure on portion sizes.

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Interesting!
Well.. indeed they were tasty, but they will prolly be a rare luxury for me at these prices... :9

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Funny you should mention the "bell" ... A good friend of ours years ago ran a Mexican restaurant and I loved it!!.. but he said his kids would often beg him to take them to Taco Bell :D !

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

That's wild! ^v^ ... They were tasty... but expennnnsive!

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

There's another few places where I've seen this, yesh... so after seeing it yet again, I finally felt I had ta ask about it here :9

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Indeedy, sir buck!
When I can get a full Chinese meal for $6, or an all-u-can-eat buffet for $9, it's hard to justify a sniff of meat and 5 bites of tortilla for $5

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

It's super sad.... ;_; ... when fuel prices were going up fast a few years ago, I saw it happen, and I asked some restaurants n stores about it... and they confirmed it was the main reason...
They only one to lower prices when gasoline costs go down is Trader Joes (around here).. all the other places just keep the prices high once they rise...

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

True mostly, birdee :> ... Though on packaged foods I get a little miffed, since we can control those portions ourselves... and it's funny.. I saw it happen on a number of things, including one cereal I buy... went from 32 oz to 28 oz for the same price.... I guess people weren't buying, so they lowered the price while keeping the 28 oz size

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Oh yep! The taste was good :9 *wags tail*
I had to go over to McDonalds and get a full meal to satiate my tumtum though afterwards... heh! I was unprepared for the teeny portion

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

We used to have one here in the next county over... but I haven't checked in a while...

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Wow... steep price for cheeeeeze! I like some of the special ones at Whole Foods Market when I am in a rare luxury mood... like Gouda.. :9

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Oh yes... :/ forgot about the drought factor...... *wingfuzzles ya*...

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

That's because there's corn in just about everything except fresh vegetables these days (HFCS for sweetener in everything including bread, corn feed for all livestock-- it's even in dry goods like batteries!). So if there's a blight on corn, the price of all foods goes up.

[furahi.livejournal.com]

They are SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper in Mexico city (though it does depend on where you get them)
Where we go you can feed 6 adults and 2 kids for about $10-$15 bucks :P

[furahi.livejournal.com]

Lots of other interesting comments to this entry, BTW!

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Glad ya enjoyin'! (dig yer input also!) .. *and chuckles at the donut machine* ... I will keep that in mind about the good prices on them there in Mexico City if I visit sometime ^v^ *tailwags*

[telbert.livejournal.com]

Don't forget gasoline, either. 10% of every fillup is ethanol, derived largely from corn!