Food Truck Friday - Taco Time Traveler

For this week, I'm showcasing a truck that some might disparage as a corporate attempt to hone in on a grassroots movement, but being a Seattle-area native, I consider to be NW comfort food: Taco Time Traveler.

Two of the victims of the Capitol Hill condo-fication were the Taco Time on 15th Madison and the Taco Bell on Broadway. When I lived on 'the hill', I was a regular at both. Usually Taco Time during daylight hours (or a quick bite before going out on the town), while Taco Bell was my 2am, drunken indulgence. When Dan & I moved to South Seattle, one of the perks is that we have a Taco Time and not one but two Taco Bells in our area. I even brought Taco Bell to our friend Craig on his last birthday, as we were often together on those drunken visits to the Broadway TB. And both bring up childhood memories of getting the treat of having fast-food for dinner, and high school years spent at Taco Bell.

Given my love of both, I was super excited to see the Taco Time Traveler parking regularly in the SLU neighborhood. They have a very limited menu of crisp & soft tacos, crisp burritos, and tostada salads, plus Mexi-fries (Regular and Sweet Potato). My real weakness on the menu is the crisp burritos, but couldn't justify the calories, so I went for the classic Chicken Soft Taco ($5.50 with tax). I could tell you how it was, but if you've ever had one, you already know. Just like their brick & mortar restaurants, the food was consistently produced using fresh ingredients, and was just what I expected. The service was also really friendly - coming out of the truck to greet me and take my order, and with a table set up with hot sauce, napkins, etc.

On my second visit, I went for the Bean Tostada Salad ($7 with tax). I'm not sure I've ever ordered one at their restaurants, so wasn't sure what to expect. It apparently normally comes with Ranch Dressing, but I was given the option of hot sauce instead. It was a little sad for the price - a flour tortilla bowl with beans, shredded lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, black olives and hot sauce. I didn't intend to eat the fried bowl, but couldn't resist a few bites... which turned into half the bowl. Oh well. It's a salad, so it's healthy, right?

Say what you want about Taco Bell, but don't you dare disparage my Taco Time.  They're a local, Seattle-born company celebrating 52 years since they opened their first store in White Center back in 1962. I'm happy to see they continue to evolve to match what customers want, and that I can get my fix here in SLU. It's worth noting that they give you enormous bags to carry your food away in, and as I carried the walking billboard into my building, it caught a lot of attention from folks excited about the prospect of Taco Time for lunch, too.

Zest Fast Food

I took the end of this week off in order to build our chicken coop, and today decided to take advantage of being home midday to try out a local drive-in known as Zest Fast Foods or simply Zesty's.

Since it's just a couple blocks from our house, I didn't exactly drive-In, but they anticipated foot traffic and have a second window for ordering on foot.



The menu is loaded with fast-food classics - from milkshakes to fish & chips, burgers to corn dogs, chicken sandwiches to Green River soda. I was craving a burger, so went for a single bacon cheeseburger and fries.



The burger was delicious and I was extra excited that the fries were the crinkly kind. That texture creates extra surface area and more crispy crunch, which is my favorite part of fries. Only thing better is a waffle fry.

BURGERMASTER!

I met up with Dan after work today at the University to see his new office, meet some of his coworkers, and run errands at U Village. Afterwards, we headed over to the original Burgermaster for a little fast-food nostalgia.



I have memories of being taken to Burgermaster as a special treat by my grandparents - I think riding in their truck. (My mom can probably affirm or correct this memory for me.) Back then, I believe it was still a true drive-in, with carhops that took our order and brought it out to clip on your window.



The carhops are gone, but little else seems to have changed.



The longhorn steer logo is still emblazoned on the bright yellow trays, the mustard still only comes in little plastic packets, and you have to pump your ketchup into little plastic cups. I certainly wouldn't call it a 'green' establishment, but the food is much better than the national chains.



Dan and I weren't disappointed with our Baconmaster burgers and crispy fries, and I indulged in a Tom & Jerry shake. When I was a kid, I surely thought that was a reference to the Hanna/Barbera cartoon of that name - not realizing it's a milkshake version of the holiday cocktail. Either way, it tastes like eggnog but is available year-round - big pluses in my book.

Tradición

As is our tradition, when we returned to Seattle we grabbed some Corona and Taco Bell for dinner. Both Dan & I went for grilled stuffed burritos with chicken. He also had nachos, while I tried out one of their new 'Drive-thru Diet' menu options: a Fresco Bean Burrito (which replaces the cheese with 'Fiesta Salsa' to cut down on fat and calories). And all my food was slathered in their Fire sauce, of course.

Bacon Deluxe, Fries and a Frosty = Bad Idea

On the way home from picking Dan up from The Ram, where he was having a drink with some faculty he works, we stopped for some fast food. We wanted to go to Taco Bell or Taco Time, but they were both closed, so Dan suggested Wendy's.

I made the stupid mistake of getting fries and a Frosty with my burger, and the combo of grease and dairy left me with a killer tummy ache in the middle of the night.

Taco Bell Tradition

Our tradition when we fly home from a trip is to hit Taco Bell and get some Coronas to enjoy before bed.



Since we flew in so early, and had stuff to do, we had to postpone the tradition until dinner time, but still indulged (though I passed on the Corona, continuing my booze-fasting).

Hawai'i Day Twenty-Two: The Journey Home

This morning, we got up, packed the last of our stuff up, cleaned the house as much as we could, and headed for the airport.

I snacked on one of the last of the muffins while at the Hilo airport, awaiting our flight to Honolulu, while Dan had satiated himself for the time being with one last iced coffee from Sirius.



After a short flight, we roamed the Honolulu airport a bit, then settled in at the Kona Brewing Company - a restaurant and bar that took over the space in the Mainland terminal in which the big Stinger Ray's used to be. Stinger Ray's became a tradition for us when on layovers in the Honolulu airport, and last year we were saddened to see it gone (or at least the big one - the smaller one is still alive and well in the interisland terminal). But we were happy to see that Kona Brewing Co. (which is a favorite spot in Kailua-Kona and a favorite beer of Dan's) was taking over the space.



The interior was a little toned down from before, but the floorplan was unchanged - and they kept the many tanks of tropical fish, which made me happy. We chose a table and were quickly greeted by our friendly and efficient waitress. I decided I wanted my last drink while still in the islands to be the same as my first - a mai tai - while Dan went for a beer. And we were upsold on the larger versions, given that neither of us would be driving for at least another 6 or 7 hours.

To eat, we decided on the nachos - which are piled high with cheese and a variety of toppings, including the now ubiquitous kalua pig. We thought we'd be ordering a pizza later, but the nachos were so big and fulfilling that we weren't left hungry at all. I thought I'd get sick of kalua pig/pork during the trip, but I could still eat it now. Maybe it's the saltiness, or the smokinesss, or the combination, but I can't get enough of it.



On our flight back to the mainland, we got another relatively sad meal - clearly aimed more at getting you to pay $10 for the non-complimentary meal than to actually tantalize the taste buds. Dan had a spinach lasagna that came with a piece of chocolate cake, while I had a smooshed turkey sandwich with nothing on it, paired with a bag of Lay's potato chips and a single chocolate macadamia nut candy. It disappoints me that for the price of a ticket, you get so much less these days (they now charge $15 for every bag you check, plus more if it's over 50 lbs), but hopefully innovative business models (like Ryanair practically giving away the seats on their flights and just charging for everything else) will change the face of air travel in the coming years. To their credit, we did have a great flight attendant named Lehua who let Dan & I share a can of iced tea, rather than just pouring us a 1/4 of the can each.



After getting our bags, we had a great cab ride in a hybrid driven by a friendly guy back to our house, brought everything inside, gave Caesar a bunch of hugs and pets, and then hopped into the car to fulfill our tradition of eating Taco Bell after returning from a trip. It took two tries - the one on 4th Ave S was closed - but the one on Rainier Ave S turned out to be open (even though some hooligans told us it wasn't and we almost drove on by). We got a quesadilla and a couple chicken burritos, went home, and enjoyed them while watching TV, cuddling with Caesar, and washing it down with some Coronas (also a tradition).



(Dan's writing all about our trip over at our other blog, The Dans In Hawai`i, so I'll just stick to writing what I know: food.)

Last Supper

As a super quick last dinner before we head out tomorrow morning for Hawai'i, Dan swung down to Rainier Ave and picked us up some Taco Time. I went for their Mahi Mahi Burrito, since it seemed the most appropriate. That, and a crispy chicken burrito.

Museum of Flight

Tonight was my company's annual post-holiday party, and it was held down at the Museum of Flight. Neither of us had been to the museum since we were kids, so this was a fun chance to get to see the exhibits and enjoy free food and drinks.



We missed the party last year, but vividly remember that the food was gone by the time we arrived two years back, so we didn't plan on being filled up (or even getting any food) at the party. However, McCormick & Schmick's did the catering this year, and you couldn't walk 50 feet without bumping into a bar or a huge buffet table stocked with food. They did a great job with the food, which ranged from chicken & beef skewers, to cheese & crackers, to spanikopita.





We didn't pig out, though - sharing a small plate. So when we left, we hit Jack in the Box on the drive home for a couple Sourdough Jack burgers and some fries.