Taco Tuesday!

So, my impromptu/unofficial participation in Vegan Mofo! has gotten off to a somewhat rocky start.

I can attribute this to not having an adequately stocked kitchen at the moment, and a SINKFULL of dishes that I have been putting off washing since Sunday, for no good reason (other than the fact that my dishwasher is broken and I am damn sick of doing dished by hand.)

Anywhoo, these two things together have put my usual cooking routine on hiatus, which is pretty annoying timing considering I'm attempting to blog about food every day (or so) for the rest of the month.

Now, I could show you a picture of the Clif bars I have eaten for breakfast today and yesterday due to my lack of smoothie fixings. OR upload a quick shot of my leftover Sunday soup (the last meal I cooked) which has lasted us through several meals Monday, Tuesday into Wednesday as well.
But for some reason, that just seems boring.

So, instead, I will tell you about an impromptu taste-test I encountered last night, after unintentionally going to two local bars which both happened to serve $2 tacos as part of Tacoma's sweeping Taco Tuesday movement.

For the record, I do not usually go out on Tuesdays, especially to two bars. But when a friend who you haven't seen in over a year calls and wants to meet for drinks at the last minute, you do it.
And  then, when another friend invites you out for tacos, and you are already three beers and a taco deep, you do that as well.

Unfortunately, I did not have the foresight to realize that a "Tacoma veggie taco-off" would make a great topic for a MOFO post, so I did not take pictures.

I did, however, whip up a couple "artistic renditions" of each taco plate, in order to give readers a true visual understanding of what I ate last night.

O'Malley's:

So first of all, I had the O'Malley's Taco. I was having beers with the aforementioned old friend, and all of a sudden realized it was "Taco Tuesday."

Once I got over my regret of not ordering the $2 Dos Equis on special instead of my boring old PBR, I realized the special board also listed "veggie" tacos as an option.

My stomach immediately started growling, and I ordered the veggie taco - hold the cheese and sour cream. (Bonus kudos to O'Malley's cook for coming out to the bar and personally asking if I wanted Ranch on my taco, since I guess that's what usually comes on it. I said "no dairy whatsoever please" and thanked him for being thoughtful/considerate enough to ask.)

The O'Malley's veggie taco was actually more like a burrito. Large, flour tortilla wrapped in foil, and stuffed with deliciously spiced grilled peppers and onions, along with the staple shredded iceberg and diced tomatoes. 

It included a surprisingly spicy, fruity (mango perhaps?) salsa, and a side of salty tortilla chips and more salsa for dipping. 

It really hit the spot, was a great amount of food for the low price, and definitely didn't feel like a "random veggie taco" afterthought.

Hell's Kitchen:

Once we decided to venture down to Hell's Kitchen to meet some more friends for tacos, I was excited to make the comparison.
First of all, I was glad to find out that the Kitchen also had veg-tacos on the menu, and were happy to serve them up without any animal products.
Again, the price was $2 for an order of tacos, which actually includes two tacos, with an option for soft or hard shells.
 I ordered soft and was most surprised by the amount of food that came out to my table.  Two large soft taco shells filled with sauteed onions, olives and mushrooms, again topped with iceberg and diced tomatoes.
Considering I was a little full from O'Malley's already, I only ate one of the tacos. And they were pretty good. They lacked a little on the seasoning side, but HK has a wide variety of salsas/sauces to add yourself. Another complaint was that the mushies were on the thick chewy/side, borderline rubbery, which was odd and makes the HK taco loose a few points.
But defintely a good value, and not a bad meal overall.

....anndd the winner for the night goes to O'Malley's for their sweet and spicy sauce, side of chips and close attention to detail for the Ranch follow up!

Maybe next Tuesday I'll round out my taco tour with the rest of Tacoma's taco-Tuesday offerings.
AND maybe I'll actually take pictures...

until then... just suck it up and enjoy my drawrings.