I ate Tacoria for five days straight and didn’t die

Brought to you by the girl who tried to eat fat sandwiches every day for a week

Despite only opening at the end of February, Tacoria has become a hugely popular Rutgers eatery. In fact it has become so popular that we even write love letters to their golden avocados. Last year, I put myself through a challenge where I ate fat sandwiches for dinner every day for five days, and it messed me up pretty good. So like any sane person, I decided to do the challenge again, except this time it was with the San Francisco style Mexican food that’s good enough to cause people to wait in line for 10 minutes during the lunch rush.

I went with the same ground rules as last time: 1.) only eat it for dinner to spare my paycheck – which honestly for college students can be at 2pm or 8pm, and 2.) get a new order every day.

Day 1

When you’re almost done with your first taco but remember you have to take a picture for your story

For the first day I decided to go with the namesake of Tacoria: tacos with pollo asado and Jarritos. I was excited to start the challenge so I grabbed a friend who was visiting from Seton Hall and dragged him to Easton Ave. for dinner at the greatest Mexican restaurant in the world (sorry Chipotle). We were going to eat outside at the garden until we realized that it was way too windy and cold to eat there for the sake of aesthetic and moved back inside.

Biting into that citrus kissed goodness has got to be one of the most amazing feelings in the world and I feel kind of bad for people who have never tried it before. That perfect mix of cilantro and lime made for a beautiful, tangy distraction from all the school work I had due that week.

Day 2

*Chance the Rapper’s “How Great” starts playing in the background*

I was craving a burrito so badly that Tuesday. It didn’t help that I had just started my period, making my cravings seem insatiable. Add that to the fact that I didn’t have time to eat breakfast before heading to campus and that makes for a scary sight. As soon as my lecture ended, I marched through the cold to Tacoria and this time I ordered a burrito, again with pollo asado and no beans. I was lowkey a little nervous since I was there the day before and it was the same staff. Were they judging me? I could have sworn the girl at the cash register recognized me from the night before. It was so cold that day that biting into that warm, cheesy burrito made me forget all the anxiety I got from walking in and seeing the same people.

Day 3

I didn’t have enough time to take a picture of the actual burrito so have this instead

I broke one of the rules on Day 3. I ordered the same thing I did on Day 2; so much for switching it up. Despite that, I still kept up with the challenge. Instead of eating in, I got my burrito to go since I was already running a little late for work so I didn’t get to take a bite of it when it was fresh. By the time my shift ended at 9, the burrito still wasn’t finished so as soon as I clocked out, I enjoyed that burrito like it was my last, even though it was already kind of cold. What a beautiful reward for a long day at work.

Day 4

Today’s pick was something I hadn’t ever tried from Tacoria before – a quesadilla with golden avocados. I was still a little scared that someone was judging me for being there four days in a row, but I got over it pretty quickly after I realized that I was giving them my hard earned money. At that point in the week alone I’d spent $22 at Tacoria and I was about to spend another $8 on that quesadilla.

I didn’t bother to look in the brown takeout bag before I got on the LX so I didn’t know what I was getting into. What I was expecting was one of those flat, folded, cheesy things they give you at Taco Bell, or Surf Taco, sometimes Qdoba and Chipotle. What I was not expecting was this:

This is a quesadilla at Tacoria. I freaked out at first because for a moment I thought they got my order wrong. I ordered a quesadilla, not a burrito, damn it! While I was busy being confused, my friend Jess had to reassure me that yeah, Tacoria’s quesadillas are basically really flat and wrapped around itself multiple times so it looks like a burrito.

After my mini crisis, I ate that cheesy habanero beauty while Jess studied and I did nothing while I waited for my next class. Pro tip: don’t get a quesadilla unless you’re extremely hungry. I couldn’t finish it in one go so I wrapped it up for later, but even by the time I got home, I was struggling to finish it. I’m ashamed to admit this, but I ended up throwing the last of it out. Honestly, I don’t know if I was feeling the heat of the challenge or if I just genuinely wasn’t hungry, but either way I couldn’t wait for the challenge to end.

Day 5

I was on the home stretch of the challenge and determined not to quit halfway through like I did with the fat sandwich one. Besides, I was going to meet up with friends for lunch (I guess that’s rule number 2 broken), and if there’s anything I’ve learned from doing these challenges, it’s that going to nice places for food when you’re alone kind of sucks.

But truthfully, Day 5 couldn’t come fast enough. I was tired and paying $7.40-$8 every single day was starting to add up on my poor debit card. When I finally bit into my pollo asado tacos (rule number 2 broken again), I couldn’t taste anything anymore. The magic was gone. It still tasted good, but I didn’t obliterate that tray the way I did on Monday. I did end up finishing the tacos after work that night, but I accidentally left the takeout box in my car so they were super cold and the only reason I ate it all was because I didn’t eat during my whole shift.

Compared to the fat sandwiches, I don’t know what is more sad: only getting through half the week of a food challenge or getting through the whole week but not feeling like you can love the restaurant the way you used to. If I did this challenge in the winter instead of the fall, I probably wouldn’t have even wanted to make the effort to walk to Easton Ave. for a burrito.

But I guess for now I’ll take a break from Tacoria, and maybe from Mexican food in general. I need to get the variety back in my life.

More
Rutgers University