Hidalgo 2 near the Energy Solutions arena and The Depot

Hidalgo II
400 W between North Temple and South Temple (click for map)
801-654-8196
Catering : Yes

Review Score : 4 out of 5 stars

The wind was angry mis amigos.  Nearly as angry as members of our taco army who have written me angry emails due to the lack of taco reviews on slctacos.com over the last year.  This wind was so angry that it almost blew away the tacos we tried to eat in creating this review.  The fact that you are reading this now means that we did not die and the tacos ended up in our mouths.  As a strong group of 6 taco enthusiasts, we have just experienced the tacos from Hidalgo II located on 400 W between The Depot and Energy Solutions arena directly in front of the office building on the North end of the Gateway.

TACO ENTHUSIASTS ARE READY!!!

Having heard from several co-workers about the tacos at Hidalgo II and the long lines to acquire them, we arrived to find a sizable queue consisting of construction workers and office folk.  We were not disappointed and this is definitely a taco stand that I would recommend to one and all.  Since there are some new readers who may be reading this review at Ugly Magazine rather than on slctacos.com, let me say that this one of the first things I look for in suggesting taco stands to taco newbies is to watch how food is prepared and how money is handled.  On both accounts Hidalgo II scores high marks since they keep their grill and cooking area clean and they have a separate gentleman to handle the dollars.  So the place is clean and this keeps the line moving.  But enough about this, let’s get to the tacos.

This is a small fraction of the line to get tacos at Hidalgo II

Among our army of enthusiasts, we tried the tacos and a couple of the burritos.  Tacos are $1, Burritos are $4 and Quesadillas are $3.  I personally tried the 4 tacos offered so I will review them each individually :

Clockwise from the upper left we have : Carnitas, Asada, Pollo, Al Pastor

Al Pastor (Spicy Pork) : 4.5 stars
Carne Asada (Beef) : 4 stars
Carnitas (Shredded, roasted pork) : 3 stars
Pollo (you guessed right : chicken) : 2.5 stars

I always measure a taco cart by the quality of its al pastor which was exceptional with a fantastic marinade with just the right amount of spice, but I was surprised by the carne asada.  I’m usually not a fan of beef at most taco stands but I will definitely be returning to order a couple more of the carne asada tacos.  The meat is perfectly cooked since the cook at Hidalgo II is precise and lightning fast.  There is such a line there every day at lunch that he is forced to move at superhuman speeds.  During this flurry of taco duty, the chavo was still able to talk to me a bit about the stand and told me he was excited about the revista I am currently writing.  His recommendation was that everyone should try the carne asada at the stand since he is particularly proud of it and he says the local construction workers love it.

After snagging my tacos, a horrible viento rushed upon me out of nowhere which attempted to blow my tacos all over 4th West.  The review could have ended there.  Instead, this was the moment I met Nicolas who rushed up and helped me cover the precious tacos with tin foil as soon as I had my toppings.  Nicolas did not initially believe me that I work as a taco journalist but after a few questions he realized that I mean serious taco business and he was happy to answer questions about the stand he runs with fellow amigos from Hidalgo, Mexico.

Talking to Nicolas about the construction and his home of Hidalgo, Mexico

He told me that as in all parts of Mexico, methods and materials for building delicious tacos are different and he is excited to share his tacos in the style of his home state Hidalgo.  Hidalgo II has been open for 9 months now and Hidalgo I would be 3 years old but it recently closed due to the fact that 4th West is torn to shreds from construction.  When the construction is over, Nicolas says that both will be open since they have a large number of visitors every day.

We wished we could stay to talk to Nicolas a bit longer, but the wind did not allow it.  Even with tin foil guarding our delicious cargo, we were forced to retreat to our taco fortress (work) where we could eat.  Some of us could wait, but the anticipation was nearly overwhelming.  As you can see from the photos, some of us started eating along the walk.  When we finally were able to give the tacos a proper prueba we all agreed that Hidalgo II would enter regular rotation so we will be seeing you there when we show up for lunch.

Taco enthusiast Mike could not wait and started eating as we walked through the Gateway. The wind tried to steal his burrito but Mike would not let the wind steal it.

As a final note, I must mention that the anticipation and wind intensity were factored into the final review score for this taco stand.  This did make our taco adventure more exciting and it did enhance the flavor, so the review score was slightly reduced so that the true quality could be reflected without being influenced by the wind which nearly killed us and stole our tacos.

Stay tuned for the next taco review and I’ll see you at the taco stands!

Speaking of new projects, you will soon be seeing some of these reviews and possibly others in Salt Lake’s new Ugly Magazine.  It launches tomorrow on Friday, April 13th and tickets for the opening are still available so get them here.

Watch this space and watch Ugly Magazine’s site for new reviews showing up in the next 72 hours.

Meanwhile, I’ll see you at the taco stands!

Well, he is back in force trying different tacos each day during the month of May.  Go check out his adventures, photos and taco findings at http://tacoaday.com/!

• Devilicious : 4 out of 5
• Cafe con Leche 3.5 out of 5 (delicious, but overpriced)
• Roxy’s Gourmet Grilled Choose : 4 out of 5
• The Lime Truck : 4.5 out of 5 (I didn’t try this, but my party raved over it…)

To find the trucks today, just follow @YelpUtah right here :
http://twitter.com/#!/search/%40YelpUtah

As a side note, I met Jeffrey from Yelp Utah yesterday while in line for Roxy’s Grilled Cheese.  He was a stand up dude and he knows a million times more about local food than I do.  I was in awe…

I hear that this is some sort of “competition” and that there’s a possibility of “being on television”, but I really don’t understand what that means so let’s go find out, eh?

As for Saturday, I know of the following times, locations and trucks :

———————————————————————————————————

Saturday – 11am until 7pm
(this is all according to the Twitter account for the SLC Chow Truck)
Address : Canyon Rim Center 3150 East 3300 South
The food trucks at this location are:

• Korilla BBQ (from New York)
• Hodge Podge  (from Ohio)
• Roxy’s Gourmet Grilled Cheese (from Boston)
• Chow Truck (from Salt Lake City)

———————————————————————————————————

Saturday – 11am until 2pm (according to the Torta Truck)
Address : RC Willey at 2301 S. 300 W.

• Devilicious (from San Diego)
• So Cupcake (from Salt Lake City)
• Torta Truck (from Salt Lake City)

———————————————————————————————————

Saturday (according to local legend Matt Crane)
10:30am to 8pm at Coffee Garden at 9th South and 9th East
Truck:

1. Seabirds (from San Diego)

———————————————————————————————————

Saturday (according to this flyer handed out at Frida’s Bistro today)
11am to 2:30 at Rico’s Market (779 South 500 East)
3pm to 5pm at Frida’s Bistro (545 West 700 South)
Truck:

• Cafe con Leche (from Los Angeles)

———————————————————————————————————

Saturday (According to the Salt Lake Tribune)
noon until 7pm
389 W. 1830 South (PetSmart)
Truck:

• The Lime Truck (from Orange County)

Attention!  Attention!

It’s time to call the taco army into active duty.  Polish your boots and bring your appetites because the Food Network’s Food Truck Race is arriving as we speak in our very own Salt Lake City.  What is the Food Truck Race?  It’s a great competition based around mobile food vendors traveling across the trying to serve up the best food on wheels possible.

Why should we participate in Salt Lake?  We would be promoting our food culture here which is worth celebrating.  Since this is a national broadcast, this also draws attention for how much people in this area care about good mobile food like street tacos, burgers, and such.

When does this happen?  I have some sources telling me this will start happening as early as Friday but more likely it will be Saturday or Sunday.

Where will this be?  We don’t know yet.  That is why we need the taco army to watch this page, Twitter and Facebook over the next 24- 48 hours.  As soon as we know locations, we will post them to all 3 places.  Once they post them, tell your fellow soldiers in the taco army to get out and try some of the food.

What kind of food will there be?  We already know that there will be many different kinds of food.  Some are of Mexican flavors and there will be other inventions as well.  We need to try them all.

Questions?  Let’s start the discussion!!!

Sometimes a taco journalist asks himself if all the long nights at the office are worth it.  He may wonder if he is reaching his audience and whether his hard hitting journalism might be hitting too hard or not hard enough.

If he is lucky, then on days like today a taco journalist is proud to learn that he is named the “Best Street Taco Connoisseur” in print.  City Weekly has published their annual “Best of Utah” issue and your truly has received this award.  There are hundreds if not thousands of people who deserve this award so I am humbled to have received this honor, which is only slightly lesser in grandeur compared to the coveted Congressional Medal of Tacos.

With this honor comes responsibility and I know I have work to do.  I want to extend thanks to everyone who reads this site and to everyone in the world who loves tacos.

Here is what City Weekly said here in the presenting of the award :

Best Street-Taco Connoisseur
Kelly Peterson, SLCTacos.com
We all have our food passions, but not many turn those passions into an invaluable resource for others. From a simple mission statement that he summarizes as, “I love tacos!” Kelly Peterson has set out to chronicle the restaurants and street vendors who serve up Salt Lake City’s finest collections of meat, cheese and condiments wrapped in a tortilla. Reviews and taco-related ephemera are part of the regular blog postings that have given fellow tacoficionados an invaluable way of guiding their gastronomic wanderings.

http://tacoaday.com

How did I never hear about this blog before?  Moments ago I stumbled upon this incredible treasure written by a modern day hero whose site simply reads :

this is an account of when I ate a lot of tacos.

Last year (in the face of some adversity chronicled in his “Dear Haters” post) he set off on a quest  :

in May I travelled around Salt Lake and Utah County and I ate tacos every day. now I just eat tacos most days.

These posts are hilarious.  Not only is there a 7 gnome rating scale employed, but also a percentage likelihood in returning.  So much data.  We could generate so many box and whisker plots from this.  I better go start analyzing all of these “tacometrics” as this gentleman puts it and generate some reports in R.

Gnome holding a taco from tacoaday.com

I’ve already started chewing through these posts.  Some are expected (Chunga’s) but some I have not heard of.  Such discoveries are possible when a man sets off on a vision quest.  He finds wonders that the rest have never dreamed of.

I will be posting more gems from here, but make no mistake — we want this person to write with us here on slctacos.com!

Tacos at Chevron! A true Christmas miracle. Que vista de milagros!

Taqueria Lupitas
500 S West Temple (southwest corner, at the Chevron gas station)
4 out of 5 stars
Tacos are $1 each

My Christmas gift came early this year.  One week before Christmas I got a voicemail from taco enthusiast Tyler.  He told me of a miracle I could not believe.  There are prophecies and tales of future events, but when it comes to tacos I take them very seriously.  They are sacred.  But Tyler knows that tacos are sacred so this could be no prank.  This was serious business.

He told me that there was a brand new taco stand right across the street from where he and I work.  What?  Really?  A taco stand visible from our office?  Seconds away?  If this were true, then a true Christmas miracle was about to unfold.

I hadn’t been in the office much due to Finals week so I decided to try the stand (if this miracle truly existed) the next time I was in the office.  This week as I walked into work I saw the glorious vista featured above.  A taco stand at the Chevron station.  You bet I heard angels singing.

Taqueria Lupitas has been open for two weeks now. It is named after the cuñada of the two owners.

I arrived at the taco stand the same time as two other women who work at the hotel near my work.  I knew I had to get an al pastor like I do at each taco stand.  And I can’t say no to barbacoa either.  Still, I wanted some expert opinions.  Were these women veterans of the 2-week-old Taqueria Lupitas stand? I slapped on my taco journalist hat… BECAUSE I WAS ABOUT TO FIND OUT!

I haven’t spoken Spanish in months, so my words tumbled out in a mess, but I was still able to find out that the women had been coming t0 the taco stand since its opening.  If I had one more taco to be allotted, they suggested I try the asada.  Not to be missed, they said.  They also laughed at my Spanish because I sound super gringo these days.

I walked up, ordered and set in on some intense taco journalism to find out how this Christmas miracle came to be.

As you can see, I was hungy and already took a bite of the asada. Also featured : al pastor and barbacoa.

I spoke to Antonio and his brother who are from Michoacán, Mexico.  They told me while cooking that the stand has been open for 2 weeks now.  When asked if they had any difficulty opening up a taco stand on the property of the gas station, they laughed and said that was the easy part.  In fact, the gas station is very glad to have them but getting the license from the city was not a fun process.  They told me that it went on for such a long time that they were losing hope that it was going to happen, but finally they got it and they are fully licensed by the city.  I should add that their stand is one of the cleanest I have seen in SLC.

I asked about the clientele they have since they are on a busy road (500 S) which is a main route to leave downtown SLC and jump onto I-15.  They told me that much of the business comes on foot, especially from my office building and from nearby hotels.  Still, they told me that they’ve laughed because there are other taco fanáticos who come rushing over.  In fact, they have many customers who have slammed on their brakes upon noticing the stand and screeched into the parking lot to snag a load of tacos for their commute home.  Business, they tell me, is going very well so far.

Antonio said he had to laugh when I ordered the barbacoa.  He said that their gringo customers can’t get enough of the barbacoa which is a sentiment not shared by their latino clientele.  Antonio mentions that he loves that the stand is well frequented by gringos and latinos alike.

A listing of the items offered at Taqueria Lupitas

As my tacos arrived, I was  nervous.  What if they weren’t good?  What good would a taco stand be across from my work building if they were not super bien rico?  Luckily, they were very delicious as were the salsas and fixins.  My new amigas were right to recommend the asada.  It was savory, juicy and my favorite of the bunch.  The barbacoa was good as well.  Not as good as other taco stands, but very tasty.  The al pastor was honestly nothing to write home about.  Not nearly enough flavor.  Not as spicy as what I was expecting. Maybe I caught them on a bad day and of course since I am so close I will definitely be trying it again.  I will keep you posted.

As I left, I told them how happy I was to have a taco stand so close to work.  In fact, I had to tell them, “En verdad, este carrito es mi regalito de Navidad.” (Truly, this taco stand is my Christmas present).  My new amigas burst into laughter as did Antonio and his brother working the grill.  They laughed, but they also new my sincerity.

As I left after we had a good laugh, Antonio asked me “Pues, nos vemos pronto?”

Yes, Antonio, I will be back very soon.

Sorry things have been so quiet here at SLCTacos lately, but it was all in the name of science.  Unfortunately it was not taco science but rather towards my Master’s degree in my first full-time quarter of graduate school.  I’ve got a few weeks off now so expect at least one review.

In the meantime, we have received news of a very cool documentary about taco stands in Austin, Texas by a Mr. Robert Lemon working towards his Ph.D.  Dr. Lemon (as I will start referring to him) is also a food geographer and he brings us this very cool documentary about what the taco scene is like in Austin.

What do you think?