Recapturing childhood one burrito at a time...
Oh yeah, that's the sweet, sweet stuff of heaven...
One of the world's greatest secrets has been kept from me, apparently. A friend/former co-worker stopped by the store today. He moved to Portland, Oregon months ago and is visiting the Detroit area for a couple weeks. I grew up in Salem, Oregon but moved to Michigan during the summer of 1987. Don't think any worse of me for getting excited about fast food, but I asked him if he ever visited a Taco Time or an Arctic Circle restaurant. He's never heard of Arctic Circle (there aren't any Portland locations), but he said that he loved Taco Time. He also said, "Um, dude, there's a Taco Time in Canton on Ford Rd." WTF?!?! The Taco Time? I went online and sure enough there's a Taco Time in Canton and also one in Ecorse (???). You'd have to be a local to realize that the whole Ecorse thing is a headscratcher. Anyhoo, I got really excited and checked the online menu to see if they still sell the Crisp Meat Burrito and sure enough they still do. I'm mega-excited at this point. I know that it sounds silly, but I LOVED Taco Time Crisp Meat Burritos when I was a kid and haven't had one in almost 20 years. It's actually one of the things I miss most about Oregon other than the coast, the forests, the mountains, the deserts, the rivers, the farmland, and everything else stunningly beautiful. I've had a hankerin' for a Taco Time Crisp Meat Burrito for a very long time and now I have a chance to satiate my desire for heavenly fried goodness.
I got out of work a little late and had to run an errand, but it was my definite intention to drive down Ford Rd. and go to Taco Time. I finally found it (it's in a strip mall, no drive-thru), parked my car, and hopped out giddily. I see a man sweeping up around the outside tables and I ask if they're still open (it's 9:30PM). He said they were closed. I asked if they closed at 9:00 and he said they indeed closed at 9:00. I said "thanks" and turned toward my car. I was at least happy to find the place and to verify its glorious existence. He then called back to me and asked "What do you want?" I said that all that I wanted were some Crisp Meat Burritos. He signaled to me to come inside...they could make them for me. YES!!! He was a small-statured Indian man and I think that he and his wife are the proprietors/managers. The fryers were still on and they very kindly dropped some burritos into the oil. About 5 minutes later I thanked them profusely and walked out with a hot bag of happiness. I had mentioned that I grew up in Oregon (Taco Time is based in Eugene, Oregon) and I haven't had any Taco Time in almost 20 years and the manager smiled.
They're bigger than I recall. They were also too hot directly out of the fryer to eat for several minutes, but I did manage to eat 3 of them on the drive home. They were frickin' great. Just like I remember them. I didn't even eat them with Taco Time hot sauce on the drive home. They're even better that way. I had to save that til' I got home. The expression may be "heaven on a bun", but it really should be "heaven in a crispy, flaky, fried tortilla".
It's really just a fast food fried burrito, but it's a slice of heaven to me. It's one of those very distinct tastes from my childhood that I've been longing for. It's simple, but damn good. It's insanely bad for you, but damn good. It's Taco Time! We always went to Taco Time instead of Taco Bell as it was a helluva lot better and I think it may have even been cheaper at the time. There are about 50 locations in Oregon, a bunch in Idaho, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, northern California and oodles in Canada. It's really amazing how many franchises there are. But there are two frickin' locations in Michigan (within reasonable driving distance) and I didn't even know about them! Why didn't I know about this??? I'll definitely be going back and trying some of my other old faves soon. It's unfortunate that I'll probably never be able to taste another Arctic Circle burger, shake, or their infamous French fry sauce again...
Aww, memories...
I miss the perks of childhood.
Yesterday at work one of the cashiers paged me. I answered the phone and she said, "Jason...there's the biggest, ugliest, grossest, scariest, nastiest bug I've ever seen by the front door...". I told her that I'd check it out. I thought that maybe it would be a cicada that didn't know how to tell time or something. I walk toward the front door and the cashier follows me. I step through the doors as she watches from inside. "HOLY SHIT!!!" It was indeed the biggest, nastiest, scariest looking thing I've ever seen. It was a giant mega-wasp or something. It was bigger than the biggest hornet I've ever seen, but it had the yellow and black markings on the thorax of a wasp. It was bigger than Blackie Lawless! It was honestly almost two inches in length. It looked like it was injured so I didn't feel as bad when I covered it with a piece of scrap cardboard and stomped it with my right Blundstone. That was the scariest looking insect I've ever seen. I hope that PETA won't get on my ass for stomping on something that could kill an elephant...
Below are a couple of picks taken at "The Shack" where I stayed for a few days on my vacation last week that I couldn't get to post earlier...
Random poll- What was your favorite childhood fast food treat?
Cheers,
Jason
One of the world's greatest secrets has been kept from me, apparently. A friend/former co-worker stopped by the store today. He moved to Portland, Oregon months ago and is visiting the Detroit area for a couple weeks. I grew up in Salem, Oregon but moved to Michigan during the summer of 1987. Don't think any worse of me for getting excited about fast food, but I asked him if he ever visited a Taco Time or an Arctic Circle restaurant. He's never heard of Arctic Circle (there aren't any Portland locations), but he said that he loved Taco Time. He also said, "Um, dude, there's a Taco Time in Canton on Ford Rd." WTF?!?! The Taco Time? I went online and sure enough there's a Taco Time in Canton and also one in Ecorse (???). You'd have to be a local to realize that the whole Ecorse thing is a headscratcher. Anyhoo, I got really excited and checked the online menu to see if they still sell the Crisp Meat Burrito and sure enough they still do. I'm mega-excited at this point. I know that it sounds silly, but I LOVED Taco Time Crisp Meat Burritos when I was a kid and haven't had one in almost 20 years. It's actually one of the things I miss most about Oregon other than the coast, the forests, the mountains, the deserts, the rivers, the farmland, and everything else stunningly beautiful. I've had a hankerin' for a Taco Time Crisp Meat Burrito for a very long time and now I have a chance to satiate my desire for heavenly fried goodness.
I got out of work a little late and had to run an errand, but it was my definite intention to drive down Ford Rd. and go to Taco Time. I finally found it (it's in a strip mall, no drive-thru), parked my car, and hopped out giddily. I see a man sweeping up around the outside tables and I ask if they're still open (it's 9:30PM). He said they were closed. I asked if they closed at 9:00 and he said they indeed closed at 9:00. I said "thanks" and turned toward my car. I was at least happy to find the place and to verify its glorious existence. He then called back to me and asked "What do you want?" I said that all that I wanted were some Crisp Meat Burritos. He signaled to me to come inside...they could make them for me. YES!!! He was a small-statured Indian man and I think that he and his wife are the proprietors/managers. The fryers were still on and they very kindly dropped some burritos into the oil. About 5 minutes later I thanked them profusely and walked out with a hot bag of happiness. I had mentioned that I grew up in Oregon (Taco Time is based in Eugene, Oregon) and I haven't had any Taco Time in almost 20 years and the manager smiled.
They're bigger than I recall. They were also too hot directly out of the fryer to eat for several minutes, but I did manage to eat 3 of them on the drive home. They were frickin' great. Just like I remember them. I didn't even eat them with Taco Time hot sauce on the drive home. They're even better that way. I had to save that til' I got home. The expression may be "heaven on a bun", but it really should be "heaven in a crispy, flaky, fried tortilla".
It's really just a fast food fried burrito, but it's a slice of heaven to me. It's one of those very distinct tastes from my childhood that I've been longing for. It's simple, but damn good. It's insanely bad for you, but damn good. It's Taco Time! We always went to Taco Time instead of Taco Bell as it was a helluva lot better and I think it may have even been cheaper at the time. There are about 50 locations in Oregon, a bunch in Idaho, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, northern California and oodles in Canada. It's really amazing how many franchises there are. But there are two frickin' locations in Michigan (within reasonable driving distance) and I didn't even know about them! Why didn't I know about this??? I'll definitely be going back and trying some of my other old faves soon. It's unfortunate that I'll probably never be able to taste another Arctic Circle burger, shake, or their infamous French fry sauce again...
Aww, memories...
I miss the perks of childhood.
Yesterday at work one of the cashiers paged me. I answered the phone and she said, "Jason...there's the biggest, ugliest, grossest, scariest, nastiest bug I've ever seen by the front door...". I told her that I'd check it out. I thought that maybe it would be a cicada that didn't know how to tell time or something. I walk toward the front door and the cashier follows me. I step through the doors as she watches from inside. "HOLY SHIT!!!" It was indeed the biggest, nastiest, scariest looking thing I've ever seen. It was a giant mega-wasp or something. It was bigger than the biggest hornet I've ever seen, but it had the yellow and black markings on the thorax of a wasp. It was bigger than Blackie Lawless! It was honestly almost two inches in length. It looked like it was injured so I didn't feel as bad when I covered it with a piece of scrap cardboard and stomped it with my right Blundstone. That was the scariest looking insect I've ever seen. I hope that PETA won't get on my ass for stomping on something that could kill an elephant...
Below are a couple of picks taken at "The Shack" where I stayed for a few days on my vacation last week that I couldn't get to post earlier...
Random poll- What was your favorite childhood fast food treat?
Cheers,
Jason
posted by Jason at 1:23 AM
2 Comments:
McDonald's shamrock shakes as that was the only time we went to McDonald's. Once a year and we had to share the shakes with our siblings. I think our family of 7 would get four tops and Dad definitely got his own.
I'll go with the Fish Boat from H. Salt Fish & Chips. They had Olde English style fish that you could get wrapped up in a newspaper if you wanted. They had really good steak fries as well.
I also remember getting my orange juice at McDonald's in a ceramic mug(they served coffee the same way) when we dined inside.
Second place for food goes to the long-departed BellBeefer from Taco Bell.
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