Tio Juan's Margaritas Mexican Restaurant

This is the first time I've been to a restaurant without being able to actually see the food I'm eating. I lost my glasses at the beach today, literally 8 minutes after entering the water. So, when we went to dinner some 8 hours later, I gazed longingly at my past, when I had neat vision (with glasses). Anyway. My dad thought it was a good idea to go to the new Mexican-themed restaurant nearby. I didn't really want to go, actually, because the reviews seemed pretty negative and the menu looked overpriced (compared to Chipotle). We went anyway, because I think it gave my dad some satisfaction. I'm not really sure why, and I can't tell, but I guess it might just have to do with how "going out to eat" frequently is an integral part of the "American Dream". I don't know. It just doesn't make sense that my dad eats any non-Chinese food-at-home with reluctance and much complaint, but tries Mexican-themed (and other) restaurant food with zeal.

So, we got free tortilla chips. They were warm.

My sister got a plain flour tortilla filled with melted cheddar with fries. She also got chocolate milk and vanilla ice cream. Oh, sure, this is so "Mexican". So, problems I have with this Mexican-style place:

1. Fries? Really?

2. American cheese...?

3. Where are the soft corn tortillas?

4. Chain restaurant... is quite distinctly American.

5. American portion size. American restaurant prices.

6. American operating hours.

7. Looks and feels like TGIF/Applebee's/Outback Steakhouse.

My brother got a steak make-your-own-taco kit.

Appetisers filled with chicken. The sauce with cilantro-y and tasted pretty nice.

Spicy fish tacos. The dip was... smokey. It tasted like smoke from the bustling, polluted streets of Wuhan. I'm not sure how it could taste like something that I used to smell, but it definitely tasted like that.

Ice cream.

The place was nicely decorated, but as people who read this blog know, I don't care about plating, the customer service, or the restaurant atmosphere. There were a lot of lights but the place was dark. There was a lot of music, including a loudspeaker playing a hearty tune to the car park, devoid of people but full of cars. The food arrived quickly but at twice the price and half the speed of that at Chipotle. I don't know why I'm comparing food here to Chipotle burritos, but I'm guessing Chipotle burritos taste better than the vegetarian ones here. I don't know since I didn't order anything (AND WE STILL WENT HOME WITH LEFTOVER FOOD. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THIS.)

Tio Juan's Margaritas Mexican Restaurant

372 West Mt. Pleasant Ave.

Livingston, NJ 07039

Today! - Fall Fest

I'm finally updating about something that happened today. I still have heaps to write about concerning the past two weeks, but for today, I will blabber on about the blubber today. And yes, that is the line for Coup de Taco about an hour and a half into Fall fest.

Fall fest is overrated. I'm not kidding. Sure, you get free stuff, but the cool stuff actually costs money. The first 750-1000 people get a taco and cupcake for free, but that's if you stand in line.

For at least half an hour.

With a wristband, that you had to stand in line to obtain, as well.

Luckily, I had gone to the library from 12-2, so I was basically right inside the door [outside the door? I wasn't "outside" the door, though, since Fall fest was OUTSIDE the library. Anyway. I was right next to Fall fest], so I went, stood in line for a few minutes, realised I needed a wrist band, then went allllllll the way to the LOVE statue to get a wrist band, and jumped back in line. By this time, the line for Coup de Taco had doubled, although it wasn't as bad as it was 10 minutes later, where it had quadrupled. Oh exponential equations...

[Indoor photography pales - I mean, yellows - in comparison to sunlight photography]

I'm not actually sure why I bothered to stand in line for half an hour [ish?]. I do have a meal plan that guarantees that I get food and don't starve. I also have many kilos of adipose tissue that can sustain me for a while. However, I suppose it was just the fact that I didn't want to outline more for Comparative Med. Anyway, halfway through, two guys who were behind me in line were contemplating getting out of line, and then I told them that they didn't have wristbands... and I asked if they wanted mine. They said no, and went to get wristbands, and came back. Later, two girls [their friends?] dropped by, and they decided to beat the system by just cutting to the front. This meant they cut off ... at least thirty of us. Okay, maybe twenty. Which is still plenty [that wasn't meant to rhyme]. Pretty douche-bag thing to do, in my opinion, especially as there were another zillion people standing behind us [quadrupled, remember?] waiting patiently. The guys behind me, however, said "oh, we got honour... we're not going to cut", which is nice to know.

Anyway. I finally got a vegetarian taco.

Then I went to get a cupcake from Call Me Cupcakes, which was extremely fast since all the dude had to do was hand out a cupcake. No toasting or cooking needed.

I'll review the cupcake first because it sucked.

It's just a generic, bland, un-moist, unflavourful, NONchocolately, dry, small-air-holes, cupcake-shaped cupcake. It did not taste chocolatey, which is always an issue for me, especially when something is labelled CHOCOLATE. I tried to be unbiased about the icing. It was too fatty and oily for my liking. It was also quite tasteless [no chocolatey flavour, at all. It was just chocolate coloured]. Oh, it's pretty alright, but most cupcakes these days ARE pretty.

The taco, however, was quite amazing. It was crunchy, due to sliced tortilla chips INSIDE the taco!! The outer shell was a soft flour tortilla. I'm actually confused as to the difference between a burrito and a taco. Apart from the fact that the taco is open, I can't really see a difference. I guess it's like asking what's the difference between a sandwich and an open-top sandwich. Anyway, about the tortilla strips - I was amazed at this piece of ingenuity. It actually reminds me of the time I had a tortilla chip sandwich. It was amazing, too, although this surely beats it. The Cuban rice and beans were full of chunky flavour; the salsa companion was spicy, but not overwhelming. The cheesy-sour-creamy-cilantro thingy was actually pretty good, because I couldn't really taste the cilantro [I don't particularly like cilantro, so it's a plus for me, but maybe a minus for other people].

I also got an apple from the Penn Environmental Group, although it was just a generic fat GMO apple. The International Students Association [I think that was the group name?] gave out some candy and stuff too, so that was cool. Apart from that, I ended up falling asleep at the library again.

[Note the boxes of cupcakes at the back of the truck. I could've totally taken a box of them.]

I did, however, have a delicious Greek salad with a lot of creamy feta cheese this evening, which reminded me of AK. I miss her.

MIT Burritos!

I love MIT, even though I'm not going there for college. I might go for grad school, but that's another story... but the burrito really was nice. Except for the fact that my mum held up the line of 20+ people because she was trying to order a chicken burrito but they didn't have chicken, and she kept pointing to the trays of fillings without comprehending anything the cook was saying. In short, my mum's bad English cut a few minutes off everyone else's life...

The burritos were worth it, though, and even though I forgot the name of the store, it's the one across the road from the admissions office on 77 Massachusetts Ave. I got the beans and cheese and rice one, with guacamole and salsa. And lettuce. Fresh burritos are always so much more satisfying than reheated ones from the frozen food aisle...