Street food favorites...

If it's a weekend in March, John and I are on the road promoting our upcoming square dance festival and searching for interesting food on the go. This weekend found us in beautiful if not-so-sunny Los Banos in California's central valley. A quick scan of the local yellow pages indicated the nearest sushi was 50-some miles away. "Best sushi! - chinese! - thai! - teriaki! - korean! food," screamed the ad in 72 point type. Hmmm. Fifty miles and they specialize in "Asian". Plan B? There seems to be a mom and pop taco stand every fifty feet. When in Rome...er... Mexico City... Saturday's lunch break found us driving up and down Pacheco Blvd in search of the dive-iest, most authentic north-of-the-border taco stand we could find. Dysentery on a plate is what John was looking for. And several blocks from our motel at Taqueria el Rodeo, we found it. I had a carne asada burito, sans beans. The meat was a little (okay a lot) overcooked for me, but the flavor was awesome. And the chips on the side were the real, fried-in-lard thing, no tex-mex chipotle lime baked chips here. John had chiorizo and eggs -- and found himself in pork-fat-and-heat heaven.

Dining alfresco was the only option other than schlepping our food back to Best Western and it was more than a little chilly there on a park bench on the side of the highway. But it was good, hearty stick-to-your ribs food at a phenomenal price. Sometimes cheap eats ARE good eats.