meryneatingtacos

[meryneatingtacos]

Three down. A taco-ton to go.

August 26, 2025

This system isn’t perfect, I’ll give you that.

I have gone to three restaurants so far. I’m going off memory. That, I believe, is my weak point so far, if I were forced to choose a weak point. Well, that and not ordering the same things at each restaurant, and also not noting down the exact orders I place because I assumed I would remember (spoiler: I did not, but I luckily took photos that I compared to the menus and figured it out, like the big, strong, smart, independent woman I am always aiming to be).

But it’s okay! Nothing is perfect and that’s a crazy goal to have for yourself or anyone else. And sure, even if you can find things that can be improved, it doesn’t mean you’ve failed, and doesn’t mean you don’t deserve to eat tacos. Nothing can take that away from you. Or, nothing should take that away from you.

So, let’s get to the tacos.

The first place I tried was a place called Lulu. I went in April. It’s August now. But, a more organized and perhaps more passionate friend that attended the opening taste test put together a spreadsheet (man after my own heart) and I did fill in the basics, so I am building on recorded facts! A first-hand account!

My succinct overview: it was a very fall-at-the-first-hurdle experience when you have a taco-centric menu and you have chips and salsa the guests have to purchase, and those chips are soggy and stuck together and the salsa is fine. Perhaps the chips are house-made, but man oh man, when they flop and come stuck in a stack, you are setting the scene, and the scene is not striking any confidence or excitement for the rest of the meal. And the rest of the meal? Well, let me tell you. Fine elote, on the cob. Required plenty of napkins (but that would be true no matter where I was, I promise). Then, three tacos: fish, carnitas, and suadero (spicy brisket). My notes to self were: tacos under-seasoned, tortillas were passable, biased because for what we got, the price was quite high. 5/10.

Pictures of what is described above:

That review and score does feel mean. I can hear it, I promise. I think after that first one, what I realized is that I want TACOS. Like, straight out of Mexico from someone that knows what they are doing, has been doing it for thirty or more years, spends hours prepping the meat, and that I know is something I wouldn’t be able to or have the patience or will to do at home. I want big flavor, big spice, and variety along traditional taco lines.

So, with that bar set, let’s move to place number two: Rustic Taco. At the top, I will saw we got chips and salsa at the table and that made me a happy camper. But beyond that, when I read the menu, I knew this place wasn’t for me. NOW LISTEN. That paragraph above? That explains why. Rustic Taco has a very creative, playful menu with kooky takes on tacos that mix and match food types (including a taco-take on our local garbage plate cuisine). The food itself was good, I will concede that point! But I don’t want a garbage plate taco. I want a taco taco. So my overall review for how I myself liked this place? A 6.5/10. But the food is good, the menu is cool, and it’s overall a good place to go. I just don’t want peanuts and spicy ginger sauce or thick-cut sweet potato fries on my taco.

Some visuals for Rustic:

Our latest taco adventure: Silver Iguana. To begin, I opted to have us sit outside. That was a massive mistake if you know me, and know what upstate NY in August is like. The wasps were out to play, and they were NOT playing around. My own personal nightmare! My dinner companions were patient and kind and protected me, but the number of times I had to flee was embarrassing, and the number of times I thought “maybe I should move us inside” and then didn’t made me regret not having the confidence and, ultimately, wisdom to do so. Oh Meryn.

So we persisted outside, and began with chips and salsa (for a cost). They were good – I think there was some tajin-based seasoning on the chips and I thought it was just the right amount of savory and kick so that everyone could eat them, but they fulfilled my brief of wanting big flavor.

The taco experience was a doozy, though. To start, the food took quite a while to come out. The staff (AMAZING STAFF!!) made it clear they were busy, and we could also see with our eyes, so expectations were set. We got beverages and we were content. But I note that now because when our food did come (for me, an ahi seared tuna taco, a baja fish taco, and a carnitas taco), one person’s was warm, and mine and the other person’s were between cold and room temperature. That wasn’t enough to deter or dampen things, though! The food looked good, and what I didn’t know was how big the tacos were. I always get three, but I definitely only needed two here. They were big boys. And all in flour tortillas. Now yes, reader, fish tacos often come in flour tortillas. That is on me, and I accept that. But the carnitas did as well, which surprised me, and I should have asked for corn tortillas. So, noting that for future me. The next factor that will help explain where I land in my rating is that at least two of my tacos (I can’t remember if all three are impacted by this) had avocado in them, and the avocado they decided to serve in these tacos, and in one of my dinner companions tacos, were so hard we couldn’t eat them. So hard it would have been better for them to just not put them in the tacos at all. It was a choice a person made, and I would be curious to know if they themselves would have eaten them. The final factor is that I’d like to once again emphasize how amazing the staff were again. Our waiter single-handedly caught a wasp OUT OF THE AIR and killed it to protect me, and then got another (this one had landed) to help me out. And the other two waitresses or staff that were often outside were nothing but kind as I walked around like a lunatic to get away from my table for a second and wait for a wasp to go away. HUGE vote of thanks and support and good vibes to all those folks. Keep up the excellent work, team, and don’t change.

This was the most recent and most easily remembered, and while the food experience was sub-par, the staff made up for it. I give it a 7/10.

Some surprisingly wasp-free shots:

At this rate, we’re going to take a while, gang, but if you’re in, then I’m in. I’m actually in even if you’re not. Come back soon and hopefully we’ll have some more taco news and updates for you.

[meryneatingtacos]

The Game Plan

May 7, 2025

Let's get this thing rolling, shall we?

Our taco bible, with credit to the Democrat and Chronicle, can be found here.

And for viewing pleasure, the bracket more clearly is here:

So, 32 restaurants is a lot of restaurants. I’ve been to one, prior to this adventure, and it was … fine. It’s in the first round, so here’s what I’m thinking: start with Round 2, to save time, sanity, and money. It’s a step towards separating the wheat from the chaff, and why not stand on the shoulders of the giants that came before me?

16 is still quite a lot, but a more reasonable amount, and we can also start validating Round 3 outcomes to see how crazy the people of Rochester actually are (at least, when it comes to taco preferences).

I’ve begun, but not yet completed, a map and personal bracket, as well as reviewing system, which will be my next step before finally writing my first review (yes, it has begun).

This was short and sweet but I wanted to start the documentation so we can move on to the meat of the exercise (loose pun sort of intended). I wanted a fun catch phrase, but kept getting stuck in a circle around what I write at the end of every journal entry I finish: tomorrow will be better / magic happens while you sleep. I’m not one for mantras, but for some reason, the fact that I wrote that to myself one night to cope with stress and then intuitively kept it going, it sort of feels like my future self soothing me, so it works. I don’t know how else to explain it. So lets build on that – we can stand on our own shoulders, and we’re not even in the Cirque du Soleil!

Tomorrow will be whatever it is, because someone somewhere is almost certainly eating a taco.

[meryneatingtacos]

The journey begins.

April 30, 2025

Let me paint you a picture with words: you’re mid-30s, quit your big-girl job, moved home, took four months to take a long and deep breath, got a part-time job to make a little money and have somewhere to go other than your house and the grocery store, and settled into this revolving routine of work, errands for the family, and reading library books when you should be focusing on finalizing a certification to help you get a new big-girl job.

But, while that list is creating a certain atmosphere, I can add to it with more words to make a slightly different picture: you left a job that was not good for you (that’s my best skipping-details summary), are getting time with your family that is rare and consistent and that you’ll know you’ll be glad for later, you are reintroduced to why you love the place you grew up, you found a third place in your part-time job where you meet some really cool people and start to form what feels like a small community of your own, and you slowly start to realize how good this is for your brain and your mental health.

So, tacos.

This is all going on in the background, and let me tell you, when you make a huge change that is half a plan and then do half the plan, you feel like your life is not real. It’s the gray space between what you were before, and whatever your next thing is. But then you remember: my sweet summer self, this is your life, still, right now. So I stopped doing the turn-inward-do-nothing-stay-home-wait-until-your-life-starts-again approach, and decided I’d find fun and things to enjoy right now. Which is a common goal, I’ve found, amongst many of my general age bracket. That, and finding new friends, which is a sub-goal of the overarching goals.

But yes, tacos.

One of my favorite things to think about is food. And one of my proudest food-related achievements to date is my friends who have told me that they associate me intuitively, immediately, or strongly with the grocery chain Wegmans, and tacos (we're getting a lot closer to the tacos, gang). It mostly started at my first long-term full time job at a techy-startup-thing and at the office I wondered out loud about the American phenomenon of hard shell tacos being common when you're young, but as you grow up and refine your palate, you eek towards tortillas. And my coworker challenged that assumption, and we started asking people around the office. I myself, even as an adult, heavily favor making hard shell tacos at home (I will stand by that crunch on my dying hill), but have also had the privilege of traveling throughout Latin and South America and bow to the superiority of the proper street taco (commonly doubled-up corn tortillas, the maker finishing it about a minute before you eat it, but obviously there are many variations, all of which I deeply appreciate). The asking turned into polling new staff members and I solidified my identity as the taco shell inquirer.

In this bid to find something that would bring me joy, I decided to look up the best taco joints near me. And turns out, our local paper has already put together a bracket, not even one month ago, to rank the tacos places around town. What absolutely serendipitous timing!

And so begins the journey where I go around and eat tacos, judge them, and identify the best ones. Local exploration, eating tacos, bringing new and old friends along (that’s a hope and assumption right there), and having a concrete idea to write about and post on a tumblr blog to live my best millennial life. What more could a mid-30s woman that is in a seeking and changing phase ask for? Except maybe for some sides of elote, chips and salsa, and, you know, I probably wouldn’t even say no to some fresh guac.

The post-it image header isn't just a dilly dally for this blog - it's literally a mantra I came up with while catching up with a friend and talking about the excitement of the taco adventure. It's a good theme for this chapter, I think.