Driving home after a nice swim, it's 8:30p and I'm famished. I call a friend who tells me she just…read morehad some awesome lamb tacos w/ avocado at La Hacienda for lunch today, and it cost her a buck fifty each. OMG - a buck fifty for a lamb taco w/ a slice of avocado? Detour executed and I'm there.
As soon as I get out of the car I am immediately approached by a lady who wants to sell me her tamales. She speaks no English, I speak no Spanish, so we're lost in translation. "I'm here for lamb tacos" I say, yet taking the Energizer Bunny route she keeps trying to push me to buy her tamales. "I'm GOING THERE TO BUY LAMB TACOS!!" as I pointed in the opposite direction. I finally tell her I'll be back, and she obliges. Whew!
I walk in and the process looks familiar - go around to register first and put in your order and pay, then head to the food area and they'll make your order. The layout and flow is convoluted, the food bar is there when you walk in but you have to walk all the way around because it's blocked off. That's the 2nd barrier I've had to deal with so far and I don't need another barrier to get to lamb, the Tamale Parking Lot Lady was enough already.
I ask if they have lamb and here's barrier #3, we are again lost in translation. At this point I proceed to slap myself in the face and think "WTF did you take 2 yrs of French in HS and end up in TX where it's 50% Spanish speaking??". Qué idiota! Luckily a nice bilingual Security Guard is present and helps facilitate w/ the communication. I pay $3.25 and my journey continues.
$3.25 for 2 lamb tacos w/ cliantro + onion on corn tortillas. She gave me plenty of lamb, then handed me the plate w/o any avocado. No more speaking or lost in translation, I'm resorting to hand signals now, so I point to the avocado. She cuts it open and slices a generous portion for each taco. Wow - - so now I'm thinking if this store was in a different neighborhood w/ people who spoke perfect English, I would have likely been up-charged at least $0.50 for each avocado slice. But in this case, it's all good in the La Hacienda hood, I thank her and take a seat.
But alas, as I get ready to take a bite I hear "excuse me, sir?". Oh geez, now what, is this Tamale Parking Lot Lady's husband??. No - it's barrier #4, the handyman. He's on a ladder close by and up in the ceiling. He says I should probably move because he doesn't want ceiling insulation to fall into my food. Um, yeah, insulation sprinkled on my tacos is not a good combination - muchas gracias!
I get up and walk all the way around to the other seating area and I find 3 sauces there: dark red is pungent but very tasty; light red is hot, and a lovely green salsa that's so damn good. I finally take a bite and they were awesome, the lamb was on the salty side but still flavorful. My appetite is satisfied for $3.25. WTF is this, 1995?
I call my Spanish speaking friend and ask her for some translation assistance, I hang up and tell the cook: "Sus tacos son deliciosos!!". She responds w/ half a smile and gives me this "crazy-stupid-white-man-we-close-in-20-min-I'm-damn-busy-look". Oh well, I think she got the point, I was happy. I walk out to my car ready to do another bilingual battle but to no avail, the Tamale Parking Lot Lady had disappeared. Cool beans!
Oh what a night.