Tag Archives: tamales

by | July 26, 2012 · 4:08 PM

Taco Time

taco trucks east side columbus

3477 E. Main Street (Intersection of Barnett Road)
On the side of the R&M carryout.
Hours: 11am-10pm (may closed earlier if not busy)

Taco Time has bounced around town for a few months; we’d previously heard sightings of them at Polaris and on Shrock road. This is the first time we’ve caught up with them and we’re glad we did. The truck is run by a friendly family (from Durango and Mexico City) and the food is solid. Their daughter was taking orders during our visit and there was no need for any Spanish to communicate.

As usual at a new truck we started off with some tacos. We tried buche (pork stomach), lengua (cow tongue) and asada. The meats were all well cooked, tender juicy lengua and crispy (and relatively mild seeming) buche. The tacos came with a pile of grilled onions and a grilled jalapeno. The house green salsa, tomatillo based, was spicier than most.
columbus taco trucks

The menu also featured gringas (small and large). We tried a small al pastor version. The al pastor was cooked on the plancha and topped with a slice of grilled pineapple. It was no match for the spit roasted al pastor we’ve gotten used to from Los Guachos, but it was very pretty and enjoyable nonetheless.

gringa with grilled pineapple

Taco Time also had tamales. We sampled a red tamale which was good. Tamales are harder to find, especially in the summer so it was a nice surprise.

taco trucks that serve tamales.

The menu is rounded out by tortas and burritos. At the weekend Taco Time offers carnitas and menudo and we heard good reviews of the carnitas.

The highlight of our visit was their homemade pina (pineapple) agua fresca. Not overly sweet, very cold and really refreshing, it definitely hit the spot on a hot summer day.

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by | September 13, 2011 · 9:57 PM

Taqueria La Fonda

east side taco trucks columbus

3330 E. Broad Street
614.625.6287
open everyday except Sunday from 10.30am to 8pm.

Click here to map it!

Taqueria La Fonda is a good addition to the East Side taco truck scene. It’s located on the North side of East Broad Street just east of the intersection with James.

Offerings include the standard tacos, tortas and burritos as well as tamales and crispy corn tortillas (think taquito or flauta) – either chicken or beef served with lettuce, cheese and crema. The tamales (we had red) were good – plump, light and moist.

columbus mexican food

They also have sincronizadas which are similar to a quesadilla but contains ham and cheese. Usually, in our experience, a sincronizada is made with two tortillas stacked like a sandwich but as you can see this one was one large tortilla folded.

taco trucks columbus

Meat options include chicken, al pastor, chorizo, steak, barbacoa, lengua and chicharron stewed in green sauce (pictured below with a taco de lengua). Chicharron guisado is in our opinion one of the more challenging taco truck dishes.

taqueria la fonda columbus

There is a good selection of tortas with some additional meat options.

taqueria la fonda ohio

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by | September 8, 2011 · 4:54 PM

Taqueria Los Primos

taco trucks near ohio state

233 W 5th Avenue
Corner of 5th and Forsythe, Victorian Village
Monday-Saturday 11am-9.30pm (or later)

Click here to map it!

We were sad when the owners of Taqueria Davanne returned to Mexico but it wasn’t long before their truck was reincarnated to become Los Primos. The truck is still parked outside Las Maravillas Mexican Market and you can go into the store to buy drinks or do some shopping while you wait for your food.

The truck offers most of the taco truck staples – tacos, burritos, quesadillas and tortas but no sopes or gorditas. Taco meat options are steak, chicken al pastor, chorizo and cecina (marinated beef). In addition to the standard fare they also offer enchiladas and restaurant style plates with either steak, milanesa (breaded steak) or cecina.

taco trucks in victorian village, short north taco trucks

We ordered tacos with cecina, chorizo and al pastor and all were solid but the pale green salsa (we weren’t offered a choice) was a little disappointing.

taco trucks near downtown columbus

When we visited they were also offering tostadas de ceviche and tamales as specials. The ceviche had nice chunks of fish and some heat. You may want to add some extra lime and hot sauce. It was thoughtfully packed to go with the tostada separate so it didn’t get soggy. The tamale (green with chicken) was small and suffered from having been overly nuked.

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by | July 10, 2009 · 1:33 AM

Otro Rollo Taqueria

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3866 Sullivant Avenue
614.278.2339

Open 7 days a week. 7am-11pm

Click here to to map it!

We have been fans of Otro Rollo bakery since we first discovered it on one of our taco  trucking missions. Their tres leche cake and caramel filled churros had us coming back for more. We were excited last month when we saw that they had purchased a taco truck and watched over subsequent visits as it was kitted out. This is not the maiden venture into taco trucking for the hard working owner of Otro Rollo bakery. He previously had a taco truck, but when the bakery business took off, he decided he needed to focus his attention on that. Otro Rollo bakery now delivers freshly baked breads and cakes every day to 35-40 retail customers and with the business doing well, it is time for more tacos.

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Temporary menu

Otro Rollo means different from the surroundings, and the owner explained why he thinks his tacos are superior. The motto of Otro Rollo is ‘In flavor, in quality, in service’. The tortillas used are made without preservatives, the agua frescas are made fresh and not from mixes and the meat for the hamburgesas is ground on site. The owner is originally from Monterrey in the North of Mexico and so far he is the first taqueria owner we have met from that area.

Otro Rollo has the usual menu items but also features the Mexican hamburger which comprises a thin beef patty with bacon, ham, cheese, avocado, onion, lettuce and tomato. It was a tasty burger, the main difference from an American hamburger being the thinner beef patty and the ham and avocado.

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Otro Rollo has a few meat choices that are not commonly found at other trucks:
Tinga – a slow cooked chicken dish with 3 peppers, seasonings and onions. The peppers are used mainly for color and the flavor is a little spicy, a little sweet and more than a hint of chipotle smokiness.
Birria – a beef stew made with 5 peppers but not hot. The owner told us that he uses his grandmother’s recipe. Think barbacoa with more flavor.
Puerco – a pork dish that we didn’t get to try. Will update when we do.

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The tacos were distinguished by having slices of avocado on top, something we have not seen at other trucks.We tried a variety of tacos including lengua, al pastor, barbacoa, birria and tinga. The lengua was above average, the birria flavorful and tender but the biggest hit was the tinga. This is the first truck I have seen it at and it is much better (in my opinion) than the usual chicken offerings. In fact the tinga was so good that we had to order more and tried it on a sope.

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Sope with tinga

There were the standard red and green salsas (both good) and we were also given a taste of a different (and hotter) hot sauce made with peanuts.

Otro Rollo starts serving breakfast at 7am. We did not see their full breakfast menu, but were told that they will be serving tamales, omelettes, huevos, ham, bacon and other breakfast food. They also have the benefit of being right next to the bakery! We will be heading back out there soon to check out the tamales.

Otro_Rollo

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