What's Good

Can we get back to that campaign promise/threat? It sounds fantastic. It beats a "chicken in every pot," which leaves you to come up with side dishes. No, life with tacos always in honking distance sounds far better. 

El Pueblo Market (3600 Broadway, Eureka) has recently extended its empire of pan dulce and chicharones, rolling a slick, chili pepper-mustachioed taco truck into its parking lot. Taco truck romantics — those who wax poetic over weather-worn beaters parked in seedy alleys — may be disoriented by the gleam of stainless steel, the minimalist-chic menu and the shining hubcaps. Take a steadying breath. Smell the meat.

For $2.95 each, the tacos are generous mounds of meat topped with requisite onion and cilantro on thick corn tortillas. The lengua comes in soft cubes, but is outshone by the salty char of juicy asada chunks and the buttery curls of tripe. All are splashed with smoky, red salsa and further improved with a tip of the accompanying cup of green salsa. Burritos are available, but the companion who ordered one on the day we visited made quick work of it before photos or samples could be taken. The tight metallic cylinder remains, to the rest of us, a mystery. That, really, is the strongest of recommendations.