Arturo\u2019s timeless American taco stand is to architecture what junk food is to real food \u2013 bringing short-term pleasure and lacking nutritional value. The tiled mansard is interrupted, asymmetrically of course, by a glowing lightbox sign. Arturo\u2019s supergraphics reinforce the theme of general Puffiness that characterizes the food. One orders while standing outside \u2013 the defining attribute of a taco stand \u2013 but a cozy dining room with vintage built-in tables and booths is there for you too.<\/p>\n
I ordered three puffy tacos, one each of the picadillo (ground beef), carne asada, and carne guisada (beef stew). The tacos were $2.00 to $2.50 each.<\/p>\n
I started with the picadillo, the default choice and my favorite of the three. The picadillo is a sludge-format of very finely ground beef and seasoning, similar in concept to Taco Bell\u2019s ground beef, but tastier. If you had a large-diameter straw, you could probably drink it like a thick and wonderful milkshake. This type of filling is the ideal complement to the yellow cheddar, lettuce, and red tomato-based salsa that rounds out the puffy taco. The flavorful cheese reminded us both of the cheese that is an essential add-on to the tacos at Tito\u2019s.<\/p>\n
I am pleased to report that the puffy taco shell was fantastic. If you accept the tenet that deep-fried dough is delicious, then you must therefore love the puffy taco shell. \u201cMasa\u201d cornmeal flour dough in a thick slab is deep fried; the result is light and airy, oily, crispy and chewy in various parts. Only one of my three tacos suffered a catastrophic failure, but I can\u2019t hold that against the puffy taco because it seems inevitable that a beef stew taco should suffer a failure. The puffy taco shell is delicious with our without contents, which cannot be said for many tortillas or crunchy taco shells.<\/p>\n
The beef stew guisada was tasty. It consisted of big cuboid chunks of cheap stew meat slow-cooked to bring out the maximum beefiness. It is not really the right thing to put in a taco, though \u2013 my puffy failed and pooped out multiple chunks which I later ate with the help of a fork.<\/p>\n
The carne asada is good too. Sparely seasoned, it\u2019s tough in a rewarding way, smoky and charry to the taste, and surprisingly gamy. It works quite well as a puffy taco.<\/p>\n
Carmen ate a chile relleno, thickly blanketed with a light and airy eggy batter. We both considered it delicious. We wish that Arturo\u2019s weren\u2019t so far away. It\u2019s 2010 \u2013 why hasn\u2019t Google or Apple come out with a desktop 3-D printer\/teleporter that can output tacos? The pace of technological development in these times leaves me frustratingly hungry. My computer brings me information about tacos \u2013 for example, I first read about puffy tacos at the taco-datascape\u2019s ground floor, Wikipedia\u2019s \u201cTaco\u201d entry<\/a>. That only makes me hungry! To actually eat puffy tacos, like a sucker you need to put on pants and go do an infinitely long drive.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/tacos.architectureburger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/60tacoA.jpg\" "\\"60")
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