Recently, my husband Wayne and I decided to try to cure the Monday blues by going to a local restaurant that advertises "Taco Monday."
Tacos are an integral part of Southwest culture. Almost any ingredient can be put into a taco shell (a corn tortilla, crispy or soft) to qualify as a taco. And tacos are the ultimate hand-held food. No one would ever consider eating a taco with a knife and fork.
The Riviera Restaurant in El Paso, Texas has been around a long time, as you can see from the sign on the outside of this restaurant.
The interior of the restaurant is fairly typical of many El Paso restaurants, except for the original art on the walls.
A large sign at the entrance assured us we had come to the right place on the right evening for tacos.
My eyes went to the vegetarian choices - bean, potato, guacamole and avocado, while Wayne, the carnivore, focused on beef, chicken or al pastor (pork).
Our server brought the requisite tostada chips and salsa to the table and took our orders. You can see by the picture below that Wayne and I were in a race to see if the salsa was authentic. (It was.) One can usually judge the quality of a Mexican food restaurant by the flavors in the salsa.
El Pasoans are so spoiled with free chips and salsa that any local restaurant that actually dares to charge for this dining staple is suspect of not being quite authentic enough.
The taco plates arrived, served with lettuce, tomato, and grated white cheese on the side.
The meal had been so inexpensive that we decided to top it off with our favorite dessert - flan. Flan is a baked custard with caramel sauce, and it is truly delicious. It was so tasty, in fact, that I forget to take a picture until we were halfway through the dessert.
Many local restaurants advertise "Taco Tuesday", but I am glad the Riviera gave us a chance to go out on the town on what would have been otherwise a pretty boring Monday night!
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