Adam & Eats: Taco Veloz

Editor’s note: Adam Brandt is a graduate from the Cobra Kai School of Culinary Callousness, where he received their highest award, the Red Apron of Merciless Eating. Aside from eating and talking about eating, he makes pots, paintings, prints, books, photographs, and generally, a big mess. He has been the studio assistant at Mudpuppy Pottery for almost nine years and is attending a local university in a desperate attempt to earn a biology degree.

The one thing about the River Valley’s food scene that stays constant is that for every restaurant that closes, another quickly takes its place. That is why there will always be a job for an area restaurant critic.

Do you remember El Celaya on Rogers Avenue? Well, they closed. In their place is now Taco Veloz. Overall, the food is good, but the customer service needs a little polishing.

Located next to the old Vietnamese video store, between south 19th and 20th streets, is the ever-changing location of the new Taco Veloz. The place has not changed much since it was El Celaya, but the food and staff are quite different. Whereas, El Celaya offered a more TexMex approach to food, Taco Veloz offers more Mex than Tex fare.

There is something strange about the service there, though. Perhaps our waiter is new to the food service industry. Perhaps, we Gringos are a rare sight and he did not know what to do with us. Whatever the case, the service needs work. It would probably have helped if I spoke Spanish. When asked to explain dishes to me, my waiter looked like at me as if I were a Klingon asking a kindergartener to explain the principles of Astral Physics. Perhaps the look was one of  “You don’t know what picadillo is? Where are you from, Mars?”, but whatever the look was, I had to look up picadillo on the internet.

Picadillo is in fact a traditional Latin preparation of beef, tomatoes, and a variety of other ingredients based on traditional regional customs. It is normally served on rice or beans or used as a stuffing for empanadas. At Taco Veloz, they make gorditas using picadillo. Gorditas, despite what Taco Bell might think, are stuffed corn cakes. The picadillo gorditas that TV (clever, isn’t it?) offers are very scrumptious. Just the right amount of savory and spicy meat combines with the sweetness of the cornmeal and tomatoes and the twang of the lime juice to form a wonderful event in your mouth.

The Asada tortas are also a must for you sandwich lovers out there. Chopped steak, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, jalapenos, avocado, and mayonesa on fresh baked bread, wrapped in a paper towel, and served on a Styrofoam plate. Just like mi Madre used to make.

You cannot eat at Taco Veloz without trying their namesake, tacos. They serve up real tacos here, a lightly pan-fried corn tortilla topped with meat (I recommend the pastor and the chorizo) and a pinch of onions and cilantro with a fresh-cut wedge of lime for squeezing on top. They are a thing of beauty, both to look at and to eat. As an added bonus, both the Salsa Roja and the Salsa Verde are spectacular. Everything there is made fresh, and it shows.

I recommend checking Taco Veloz out. So, brush up on your Spanish and head on over. There is no telling how long they will be there. Hopefully, quite a while.

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Adam also has this thing called Sandwich Control.