Food : Taco Dinner or Taco Disaster

Taco Disaster.

Well, not entirely. Just mostly.

Needless to say, taco night, requested by RM, ran into a few challenges.

Even though I could find Old El Paso online at Tesco's, I couldn't find what I would consider pretty basic things; like mild taco mix or taco shells. In the US, I would just get basics or a couple of taco kits that included either (or both) hard and soft taco shells, seasoning mix, and red salsa. Not being able to find what I was looking for individually, I went looking for kits and with some relief, I found one.  The "taco boat" kit, complete with taco boat shells, taco mix, and seasoning packet. Close enough. So I added two to our basket.

However, they didn't have two when our order was filled. They had one. And substituted the other with a nacho kit. Which would have been fine if the nacho kit had been for "meaty" nachos and included taco mix, but it wasn't and it didn't. So I had one taco mix packet for 2 pounds of meat and it takes two.  The extra seasoning packet that came in the kit was a ranch powder to put on top. We sometimes used a ranch salsa, so that didn't throw us off, but no one put the powder on their tacos.

The taco mix that came in the taco boat kit wasn't the dry mix we're use to. It was a gelatinous sauce. The nacho kit came with two salsa packets, so I attempted to mix some of the salsa (which was a rather odd orange-ish brown color, not red, gelatinous sauce) into the meat. I can't say that it worked. 

What amused H and I was the packaging. Looks similar to the US, but the directions were another thing.  Add cucumbers and carrots? Umm. Not usually.

On top of the struggle with seasoning, shredded cheese (aka grated cheese) over here is hard to come by unless it's British Cheddar. I guess I should say, hard to come by when shopping online. I couldn't find queso, Monterrey Jack, or even Colby. Not even in chunks that I could grate myself. Perhaps I will be able to find some later, but I got the cheddar just to have some cheese. Let's just say that British Cheddar is not the best cheese choice for poorly-flavored taco meat (and I'm just going to guess fully flavored taco meat too), but is exceptional otherwise.

The lettuce was exceptionally bitter. We gave the remainder to the hens.

B and I love guacamole and I found some "smashed avocado with a touch of lime". I think it was more lime with a touch of avocado, but I like both so it was a small bright spot. Still, I think for our next attempt at taco night (and yes, there will be one after I can get to the store in person), I will get avocados and make my own guacamole. It's always best homemade anyway.

The true gem of the evening, which was in dire need of something to shine, were the tomatoes. Given to us by Jilly, a friend who grew them in her garden, they were tomatoes on steroids. Absolutely BURSTING with flavor.

The good news is the men declared, "Not what we're use to, but not bad!" and ate it anyway.

The girls, including myself, were a bit harder and declared it, "Horrible!"

Needless to say, we will try, try again. When I can explore more than one store. In person.