Taco Bell goes south of the border?

I made a startling discovery the other day during a stop at Taco Bell during lunch (and you thought this blog was all about expensive seafood and getting drunk on sailboats). They're actually serving something that resembles a real taco these days. Now, I'm not saying Taco Bell doesn't make excellent cheap food that tastes even better after a night punishing your liver, but by now I'm sure most of us are well aware that the Tex-Mex style tacos from Taco Bell are quite different from the tacos one would find in Mexico or taqueria in the States.

And yet there I was staring at the "cantina" style taco I had just unwrapped from Taco Bell. It was a carnitas taco topped with onions and cilantro....on a corn tortilla.....and even served with a little wedge of lime! I swear it looked like someone who worked at Taco Bell had actually been to Mexico! I couldn't believe it, they were actually trying to make real Mexican food. But while they get points for effort, the grade for execution remained disappointingly low. Someone apparently forgot to tell the Taco Bell employees that you have to cook corn tortillas, not just serve them straight out of the package. This meant my taco was served on a rubbery corn tortilla that promptly broke in half as soon as I tried to curl it up for consumption. While the meat was flavored decently, the onions, cilantro and lime were far from the freshest.

I'm not quite sure what is driving this product offering from Taco Bell. My guess would be an appeal to the growing Mexican and more importantly Mexican-American demographic in the US? Then again it could be a clever attempt to cut cheese out of the cost equation (always a pricey ingredient). Either way I was fairly shocked to see a major US restaurant chain move towards something more authentic.

They don't look like this at the restaurant