Todd Stadler's blog

Little fat girls at Taco Bell

I ate at Taco Bell this weekend. Had my first cheesy gordita crunch, in which a regular taco is enveloped by the flatbread they use for their "gorditas", the two sealed together with, you guessed it, cheese. Well, not really cheese, but the orange liquid stuff that passes for cheese.

To some degree, I had predicted this food item, although I assumed the cementing agent would be beans, a la the double decker taco. Taco Bell is nothing if not efficient, and they try to use every item in their kitchen in as many ways as possible. I mean, they have tortillas, flatbread, chips, crunchy taco shells, lettuce, tomatoes, rice, beans, cheese (both regular and liquid), beef (both regular and liquid), and chicken. With those simple items, they make almost everything on their menu. I was surprised when they added the flatbread, as it must have incurred a large initial cost to add a new ingredient. But they have made up for that by reusing it in the cheesy gordiat crunch and the "chalupa", a deep fried version of the gordita.

I should note, as a former resident of Texas, that both the chalupa and gordita are horribly misnamed. Mind you, the tacos and burritos are a far cry from what you'd find in a taqueria. But the chalupa and gordita are completely unlike their namesakes. In fact, when I originally proposed my version of the cheesy gordita crunch, I assumed it would be called the huarache, a tasty masa patty with beans and toppings. But then, no one in their right mind thinks Taco Bell has anything to do with real taqueria fare.