Gas Station Tacos: El Infiernito at Webb Chapel Road

Taqueria El Infiernito is a bright red building with an awning over several outside stools and an eating counter that provides a good place to eat if you’re not in a hurry after fueling up. The tacos are excellent if you’re a fan of a greasier taco shell wrapping around a beef fajita, pastor, chorizo, carnitas, chicken, lengua, or barbacoa topping.

I went with the beef fajita, pastor, chorizo and carnitas tacos all on corn tortillas with chopped cilantro and onions.  My order included a charred jalapeño, grilled onions, a couple lemon wedges, and three different salsas.

The tortillas are a dark corn that taste like they’ve been soaked in oil all morning, a good thing in this case. They remind me of another personal favorite, La Paisanita Taqueria Deli. The carnitas tasted amazing when combined with the double-ply corn tortillas and a few drops of the salsa roja. The pork is lean and moist – the exact way you’d want pulled pork to taste like – as if it fell cleanly off the bone with no effort by human hands. Continue reading "Gas Station Tacos: El Infiernito at Webb Chapel Road"

Gas Station Tacos: Leo & Churro Taqueria at Lombardy and Webb Chapel

There it was on the menu tempting me to order it: 25 tacos de trompo por $19.99. I could eat for a week for $20 bucks and eat very, very well.

Leo & Churro Taqueria has ousted my favorite al pastor gas station taco from Abierto.  The roasted pork spit behind the cash register deserves respect, and respect it I did by ordering a couple al pastor tacos. I added a couple additional options too, including a beef fajita and my first gas station lengua (tongue) taco.

The al pastor tacos are amazing. The meat is a long, thin cut of pork with caramelized fat giving it a rich almost bacon-like flavor that is incredibly flavorful with some squeezed lime juice, onions, and cilantro. The homemade salsa roja adds some additional flavor making it one of the best gas station tacos in Dallas.

This was only my second time trying lengua.  My first experience was at El Guero (renamed now to Tacos La Banqueta) where a couple lengua experts directed me. For lengua, El Guero is amazing. The tongue tastes like a slow roasted meat that is tender and flavorful.  The lengua at Leo & Churro Taqueria is sliced into chunks and doesn’t have the tenderness of El Guero’s. The lengua is flavorful and not overcooked. It’s definitely worth trying, and if you’re a lengua fan, please let me know what you think as I only have one reference point.

Finally the beef fajita taco was tender and flavorful, rounding out one of my best gas station taco experiences.  I look forward to trying the other choices: chicken, carnitas, barbacoa, chicharron (fried pork), tripitas (tripe) and desebrada (shredded beef).

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Taqueria at Southlake Texaco Station

There are a lot of choices around downtown Dallas when it comes to gas station tacos. Drive 20 minutes north and you’ll have a difficult time finding anything other than a McDonald’s, Whataburger or Subway serving food at the pump. Fortunately, coming back from a Saturday morning drive to Keller, Texas I waited at a traffic light near a Texaco that advertised tacos and burritos.

After a quick u-turn, I entered a rather busy gas station that had a small line waiting to order Mexican food.
At first, the $1.49 taco price looked like a bit of suburban price gouging compared to the inner city where most street tacos are $1 – $1.25, but after I received my order I could see why they were priced a bit higher than normal. The tacos are fairly large, similar to what you get at El Si Hay in Oak Cliff. Each taco is served with two tortillas. The corn is flavorful and durable. You’ll have no ripped tortillas with ingredients spilling out.  Best part is that they taste great and were a high point of this taqueria.

Jump if you like tacos.

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Gas Station Tacos: Taqueria at Phillips 66 on Harry Hines Road

It’s fascinating seeing the state of each gas station taqueria. Some are highly evolved like Fuel City; they have a full staff and even a freeway billboard advertising tacos over gasoline. Some are less evolved, and this particular taqueria feels like it is either in its infancy or is in a state of life support.

The gas station market is small and narrow, leaving barely enough room for one dine-in table with a few chairs.  There is a full kitchen in back where a line of crockpots are filled with various meat choices each day.

There is no menu or pricing stated, but tacos are $1 each and you simply ask the cook what’s in each crockpot.  The day I was there, the options were chicken, beef fajita, chicharones (fried pork rinds), stewed beef, and beef tongue.  I went with a couple beef fajita, chicharones, and stewed beef tacos.

I asked the cook for corn tortillas, though; she had just made a small batch of flour tortillas. She then proceeds to open a plastic bowl with a corn meal paste and presses several corn tortillas. She heads to the cooking surface to cook the newly made tortillas and adds the meats per my order.  I ask for some onions and cilantro, but am told there is none.  A small stack of red and green salsas in plastic to-go containers are at the counter and I take a few with my Styrofoam container.

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Gas Station Tacos: Chupacabra’s on Ross Avenue

A wet Thursday afternoon made for the perfect day to find the much sought after chupacabra (not the mythical goat sucker). Instead, Chupacabra’s the taqueria found at the corner of Ross and Fitzhugh in Dallas.

It was a quiet afternoon with only the cashier and cook in the market.  There are several tables inside and a full menu of the typical taqueria options: tacos, tostadas, burritos, and tortas. Plus, there are several ice cream creations one can order too.

It would be shameful not ordering some cabrito (baby goat) at a place called Chupacabra, so I went with a couple goat tacos, some beef fajita, pastor (pork), and finally a chicken taco.

The homemade corn tortillas here are large and dipped in a decent amount of oil to refresh them before serving.  Perhaps they were out of containers the day I went as the salsa roja was served in a ziplock sandwich baggie along with a baggie of lime wedges.

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Gas Station Tacos: Andy’s Food Mart on Fitzhugh

It is always a great sign when there is a significant amount of fresh cilantro resting on the order counter-top and a handmade tortilla lays on the griddle.

There is no name for the taqueria inside Andy’s Food Mart at the Phillips station on Fitzhugh Avenue.  There is no menu and hence no prices and there is very, very little English spoken here.

No one was in the kitchen, so I asked the mini mart cashier what’s available and was told beef and chicken fajita. A moment later a nice woman took my order and told me “no chicken.”  Okay, how about four beef tacos then or do you have pastor?  She shook her head yes and I ordered 2 beef and 2 pastor tacos on corn tortillas.

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