Re: You know that old saying...

This was quite a visual. I'm sitting here literally laughing out loud at the sight in my head. There used to be a Mexican fast-food chain in the midwest called Taco Tico. At one time they were all over Kansas and Oklahoma. Nothing fancy. Nothing earth-shattering. But I LOVED the way the meat was seasoned and I LOVED their taco sauce. I ate there for the first time when I was a freshman in college and I was hooked. I ate there regularly for the next 30 years until I moved to St Louis and, of course, there are no Taco Ticos here. The closest thing to Taco Tico would be Taco Bell but their food tastes nothing like Taco Tico. The chain was franchised and bought and sold a few times over the years. Quality suffered and I think recipes may have changed, too. Stores were mismanaged and there were financial problems until eventually most of them closed. I think there are still a few open, but none of them are near St Louis so I'm SOL either way.. The last time I ate at one was in 2013 when I had to drive back to Wichita for a funeral. I about killed myself eating at Taco Tico as much as I could while I was there. I think I ate there 4-5 times over a period of 3 days and I even stopped and got some "to go" on my way out of town. I love me some Taco Tico!

I've looked all over the internet for a clone of their meat recipe or their taco sauce to no avail. However, I did stumble across a guy's website and he has a taco Tico meat recipe and a Taco Tico refried bean recipe. He absolutely LOVED Taco Tico and he took the time to analyze the meat and come up with a pretty close recipe. I haven't tried to make it myself yet because it calls for a couple of ingredients that I don't normally have on hand. One of these days, though... I'm gonna try to make it.

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