Pineda Tacos, 7 August 2018

Something magical happens when you unfollow and mute a shit ton of people on Twitter. First, your ratio looks a lot more impressive but, more importantly, you get to see your friends’ tweets without sifting through all the flotsam and jetsam that of over prolific tweeters and you get updates from local businesses. Like yesterday, when I saw that the Trylon had announced the released its Fall calendar, available for pickup in the lobby. So I swung down there after work to pick one up.
By the way, if you’re in Minneapolis, September and October are going to be off the chain: Deep Red, Tenebre, The Innocents, Hausu (on Halloween), and Spider Baby, which I am seeing whether anybody comes with me or not.
Anyway, on the way back, I decide it’s time to finally try Pineda Tacos because why not? I’ve been meaning to, I just never make the stop.
I get in there, huge place, short line, I ordered a pair of small tinga tacos - small because I’m working on tacos at home. Again, I live alone, a little cooking goes a long way - and paid the guy at the register. I got tinga because I’m just on a tinga kick lately and also because I didn’t see lengua until after I placed my order. A few minutes later, the guy was asking my what I wanted on it. I said just onion and cilantro. He gave me an expectant look, so I look over the pictures of toppings and said - in the whitest mistake possible, “Corn pico.”
Corn pico is not a thing. So I got corn salsa and pico de gallo. Not complaining, I like both. Maybe I regret it a little because the addition of both obscured the tinga.
The tinga was fine had that complex and smokey flavor that I like about tinga, nice chewy texture. The corn and pico together were sweet with a little heat, the raw onion gave some sharp notes up top. The cilantro was just lost in the mix. That’s my bad. The tortillas were soft and pliable.
Two bucks a taco, not bad. I’ll tell you to go to them and give them your money.
Oh, and by contrast, here are the tacos I made:

Tempeh seasoned twice (tempeh is super absorptive) with chili powder, cumin, oregano, and paprika, on corn tortillas topped with homemade spicy dill pickle wedges and a simple coleslaw of green cabbage and carrot in a Provençal aioli. So, yeah, I can cook. That’s actually how I eat ninety percent of the time.
And no, it has not been lost on me that this pretty much made yesterday Taco Tuesday.