I’ll take a taco with a side of pinata, please||Portland
Word on the street is that the new hot taco joint in Portland is no longer PorQueNo, but a little shop up on the Saint John’s Strip called Panaderia-Santa-Cruz Taqueria-Tienda-Mexicana. Sure, at PorQueNo, one can wash down a five-dollar taco with a pint of margarita, but really, who needs alcohol when you can sip on some thick and pulpy mango nectar? At Bread-Store-Santa-Cruz-Taco-Shop-Mexican-Grocery-Store (for those of you who do not have a way with Spanish), there is certainly more than meets the eye. As you travel through the doors of what seems to be just another corner mart, you might surprisingly have the immediate desire to purchase candy that may or may not contain lead and/or an international calling card. Towards the back of the store, you might suddenly feel the inclination to buy a Sponge BobSquarePants Pinata just for fun. But then you walk through an archway, and the market magically transforms into a sparse, yet quietly festive mexican diner, where tacos are only a dollar and the rice and beans taste good because they contain lard. And lots of it. Here, the Horchata is served in a huge styrofoam cup and sometimes the only other meat option besides chicken is tounge. If you step into Panaderia-Santa-Cruz-Taqueria-Tienda-Mexicana, I promise that you will go back for more tacos, and probably some candy too, cause everything just tastes better with lead.
I am headed home so take me there pleeeeze!!!!! I hunger for lard and a bit of sugar-lead.
if you ever come home, that is the first place we will go.
please order me two to go (and have them throw in a calling card). great pix, bill
two tacos coming up. i’ll stick them in the mail and stamp the envelope with a “perishable” warning. should be to you by sometime next week…
I do love that place, I mean, yo totally amo ese lugar. Their tortas are legit if memory serves.
We are HUGE fans of Santa Cruz, despite the fact that there’s usually a line and a wait, and that it tends to look a wee bit dirty. But the tacos are fab, I love it there during soccer season and the store next door is full of kitschy fun. Plus, Gabriella stares hypnotically at all the pinatas and picks a different one for future birthday parties everytime we go. Your pics are gorgeous!
mrs.c: maybe some night we rendezvous at tienda/restaurant and share a liter of coca-cola over a plate of bistec? as long as G promises not to pour colored rice on my head, I will sit by her and give her sips off my vaso large de horchata.
That would be awesome…I will be your rice bodyguard.