Taco trucks are one of my all-time favorite food-related phenomena–mostly because there is something magical about eating out of a truck, but also because I’ve also had some of the best tacos of my life out of them.  So I was pretty excited to hear that there was a taco truck parking outside the construction site of the new courthouse downtown (Court Street, between Congress and West).  It was my first eating-from-a-truck experience in Jackson–and I have lived here for almost 8 months now, so it had been way too long.

The tacos were $1.50 each, and we got at least one of each available type: pollo (chicken), asada (beef), pastor (spicy pork), cabeza (head), and lengua (tongue)–the menu also listed chorizo (sausage) and buche (translated as “neck” on this menu, but I think more specifically esophagus) but they were out of those two.  For variety, we got a gordita (asada) as well.

I have to admit that even with the eating-out-of-a-truck magic, these tacos were not as good as the ones I’ve had elsewhere in town (at La Morena, Omonia, and La Guadalupe).  The meat was not cooked to order, probably because they had to deal with the lunch rush of hungry workers.  The tortillas weren’t handmade, and were a little sad and wrinkled looking, with a taste to match.

But there were definitely upsides.  Of the tacos, the one that stood out was the pastor — it wasn’t my favorite pastor in town, but it was flavorful and moist and hit the spot.  And although the salsa roja was unexciting, the salsa verde gave a great kick to even the subpar tacos.  The cabbage (lightly pickled) added a great crunch with a tasty tang.

The asada filling in the gordita was also a little bland (salsa helped) but the gordita bread (thick and corn-based) was much, much better than the tortillas, and may have been homemade.  This gave me some hope for the pupusas, which were listed on the truck (but not on the menu).  I plan to ask about those next time.

The truck seems to hang out at the construction site at lunchtime on weekdays and Saturday–I am not sure of the exact times, but a friend saw it pulling away at 12:30 last Saturday.  I would love to know if the truck serves elsewhere in the evenings, but for some reason I failed to ask when I got lunch.  Perhaps this is a new truck (or a truck with new owners), because according to the side of the truck, its name is simply “FOODS.”  Unless they are going for some sort of stark, modernistic take on the taco truck, maybe a new name and some brightly painted pictures of tacos are forthcoming?  Either way, the more food trucks in Jackson, the better, and this is a start!

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