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BlogTuesday Field Trip: El Tocayo
Tuesday’s Field Trip is to El Tocayo, the Mexican restaurant and grocery on Alcoa Highway. We actually did the field trip late Saturday afternoon. We walked in and they were making fresh tortillas on an electric tortilla machine. The space is bright and airy and really nice. You walk in through the market. The restaurant is to the right and has booths and tables.
Our server brought us a menu in English and on the table was a list of Botanas, or appetizers.
We picked a random appetizer, Cueritos Preparados, a tongue taco, a pork belly taco, and and al pastor huarache.
So the Cueritos. We knew it was a pork rind of some sort but were not sure about the Preparado part. The plate was 4 little pork rind boats filled with a salad of tomato, cilantro, lettuce and this white substance we weren’t sure about. It looked like squid, but wasn’t the right texture. Then we thought it might be a pickle of some sort but it wasn’t pickled.
So we finally asked and it seems as though it is pork skin. Boiled or something. I wish my brother had been there to speak proper Spanish and get to the bottom of it all!
The tacos and huarache were awesome. Not too greasy and flavorful. The huarache was served more quesadilla style rather than open face which is how Senor Taco serves there’s. But the tortilla was definitely thicker than a regular tortilla and was delicious. And the place felt clean and open and fresh. I really want to get back there during the week when they have their barbecue!
Then walking around the store, they have salt cod, desserts, produce, meat, every kind of dried pepper you can imagine, toilet paper, and more. Oh and for summer drives to the mountains, they have Mexican popsicles of all flavors, rice, chile, pineapple, strawberry, vanilla and many more, made in Nashville. It’s a pretty cool place.
