Let Not Meat Be Your Mindless Protein
Longtime readers of The Food Kingdom will know that we don't abstain from eating meat and, indeed, we will be reviewing the Fully Loaded Croissanwich next week, once Sunday rolls around and I can avail myself of the Sunday exception to my Lenten season removal of pork products from my diet. But meat should never be an automatic ingredient in a meal. Reasons for this range from environmental concerns, health considerations, cost considerations (for meat can be and probably ought to be relatively pricey) as well as considerations of animal welfare. Let me throw in yet another addition to the list here: meat doesn't always make a meal taste better. As I discovered at a recent visit to Taco Bell to further explore the taste possibilities of their new Quesalupa, this cheesy treat (and its cheeselesss cousin the Chalupa) taste best when meat beats a hasty retreat.
Why Meat Doesn't Work in a Quesalupa
Though these comments apply equally to ground beef, shredded chicken, and chicken strips, let's use steak as our consistent example in the discussion. Steak is at it's best in two distinct situations. The first is where it commands center stage as the star of the show. There's a reason so many steak dishes are relatively simple and unadorned: as delicious as it can be, it needs minimal interference for its many flavor notes to shine. I commend to your attention a recent dinner we had at home of skirt steak pounded 1/4 inch thick, coated with chopped rosemary, kosher salt and coarse ground peppercorns, seared for 2-3 minutes on high on each side and set aside. Then deglaze the pan with 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar, reduced to a syrup. Add steak juices to the balsamic drizzle, then slice the medium rare steak, lay it over a bed of arugula, and drizzle with the balsamic-beef juice reduction. Simple, bold, perfect with red wine - the tender beef, tangy sauce, and peppery arugula each make strong statements. The other way to use meat is as a flavoring ingredient, as in a stir fry. The meat adds one more flavor element to the mix and the diner gets an occasional bit of it, mixed with carrots, snow peas, mushrooms and the like. But when you do taste the meat, it's only in combination with a few other things on the fork, so again the beef's taste is unobscured
Now consider how differently steak is situated in a quesalupa. In our original quesalupa review, I compared the dish to a stuffed crust pizza. As with a pizza, each bite consists of a substantial starchy shell, copious amounts of goopy cheese, more shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, creamy sauce, etc etc. Now consider the texture of Taco Bell steak strips: they're a tender, chewy protein, tossed about with the chewy protein of the melted cheese, and the chewy protein of the stretchy chalupa shell. Therefore you can hardly taste it. What we want in our Quesalupa is contrasting flavors, not complementary ones.
Enter the Customizable Vegetarian Fillings
Though they don't really advertise this, you can ask Taco Bell to hold the meat and substitute in a bunch of customized toppings. And it doesn't necessarily cost extra. For every ingredient you ask them to remove, you can add an additional one at no costs. So if you ask them to hold the steak, shredded cheese and tomatoes, you can substitute in some other fillings. I'm not exactly sure when they start charging for additional fillings, but you can see from the receipt that the extra charges take a while to kick in. Ordering in this way isn't very much trouble if you're patient in explaining what you want and they aren't too too busy.
The Vegetarian (Not Vegan) Quesalupa
Because of the cheese inside the Quesalupa, we obviously can't include it as a vegan item, but all of the fillings listed here are vegan with the exception of the chipotle sauce and perhaps the potatoes. The latest information I've received is that they are vegan but there was some buzz that for some reason they weren't so if you're very strict, you might forgo those.
Anyhow, we chose to fill our cheesy shell with a real cornucopia of flavors: roasted potatoes and black beans for an earthy note, jalapeno slices and chipotle cream sauce for a double dose of heat, pico de gallo for a juicy and citric tanginess, and guacamole for extra creaminess. This dish absolutely explodes with flavor. Instead of focusing on chewy bits of steak that contribute little of their own bold flavor to the dish, we instead allowed these assertive flavors and varied textures to battle it out. The results were absolutely explosive, as juice from the salsa flowed over the brown meaty flavors of the potatoes and the smooth surface of the black beans intermingled with the luscious mouthfeel of the guacamole. The hot taco sauce added yet another exciting note of spice to the double layer of heat from the chipotles and jalapenos. I just couldn't believe how much flavor this thing had, and it will fill you up too.
A Surprisingly Substantial Vegan Option
I wasn't sure if going even further down the ladder of dietary restriction would hurt, but since it's important to give vegan diners an option, I decided to give it a whirl. A classic Chalupa is basically the same thing as a Quesalupa minus the cheese, and the fried dough shell is so rich that we're already starting with something rather decadent, vegan or not. Playing it safe, we subbed spanish rice for potatoes to make sure we didn't violate any vegan rules. Jalapenos and pico de gallo went in next, followed by black beans and that surprisingly good guacamole. While it didn't burst at the seams with taste in quite the same way, the fundamentals were once again solid and the flavors all rang out clear and distinct. The shell served up a toasty fried bass note, the guacamole added the creaminess and the tanginess, the pico de gallo gave us juicy herbaceousness with its onion and cilantro, and the black beans again lent an almost meaty earthiness. We really didn't feel like we were sacrificing anything here. It was simply delicious.
Conclusion:
The world of mass market fast food has got to be one of the most challenging environments for a committed vegetarian, especially a vegan, to navigate. It's especially heartening to find that options for them at Taco Bell are not only available: they happen to be arguably the best thing on the menu.
Longtime readers of The Food Kingdom will know that we don't abstain from eating meat and, indeed, we will be reviewing the Fully Loaded Croissanwich next week, once Sunday rolls around and I can avail myself of the Sunday exception to my Lenten season removal of pork products from my diet. But meat should never be an automatic ingredient in a meal. Reasons for this range from environmental concerns, health considerations, cost considerations (for meat can be and probably ought to be relatively pricey) as well as considerations of animal welfare. Let me throw in yet another addition to the list here: meat doesn't always make a meal taste better. As I discovered at a recent visit to Taco Bell to further explore the taste possibilities of their new Quesalupa, this cheesy treat (and its cheeselesss cousin the Chalupa) taste best when meat beats a hasty retreat.
Why Meat Doesn't Work in a Quesalupa
Though these comments apply equally to ground beef, shredded chicken, and chicken strips, let's use steak as our consistent example in the discussion. Steak is at it's best in two distinct situations. The first is where it commands center stage as the star of the show. There's a reason so many steak dishes are relatively simple and unadorned: as delicious as it can be, it needs minimal interference for its many flavor notes to shine. I commend to your attention a recent dinner we had at home of skirt steak pounded 1/4 inch thick, coated with chopped rosemary, kosher salt and coarse ground peppercorns, seared for 2-3 minutes on high on each side and set aside. Then deglaze the pan with 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar, reduced to a syrup. Add steak juices to the balsamic drizzle, then slice the medium rare steak, lay it over a bed of arugula, and drizzle with the balsamic-beef juice reduction. Simple, bold, perfect with red wine - the tender beef, tangy sauce, and peppery arugula each make strong statements. The other way to use meat is as a flavoring ingredient, as in a stir fry. The meat adds one more flavor element to the mix and the diner gets an occasional bit of it, mixed with carrots, snow peas, mushrooms and the like. But when you do taste the meat, it's only in combination with a few other things on the fork, so again the beef's taste is unobscured
Now consider how differently steak is situated in a quesalupa. In our original quesalupa review, I compared the dish to a stuffed crust pizza. As with a pizza, each bite consists of a substantial starchy shell, copious amounts of goopy cheese, more shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, creamy sauce, etc etc. Now consider the texture of Taco Bell steak strips: they're a tender, chewy protein, tossed about with the chewy protein of the melted cheese, and the chewy protein of the stretchy chalupa shell. Therefore you can hardly taste it. What we want in our Quesalupa is contrasting flavors, not complementary ones.
Amidst all the Dough, Cheese, Tomatoes, Lettuce, and Creamy Sauce, the Steak Doesn't Stand a Chance
Enter the Customizable Vegetarian Fillings
Though they don't really advertise this, you can ask Taco Bell to hold the meat and substitute in a bunch of customized toppings. And it doesn't necessarily cost extra. For every ingredient you ask them to remove, you can add an additional one at no costs. So if you ask them to hold the steak, shredded cheese and tomatoes, you can substitute in some other fillings. I'm not exactly sure when they start charging for additional fillings, but you can see from the receipt that the extra charges take a while to kick in. Ordering in this way isn't very much trouble if you're patient in explaining what you want and they aren't too too busy.
 |
| Here we see a Chalupa, Hold the Steak, with Black Beans, Pico de Gallo, Jalapenos, and Guacamole added at no extra charge. Only the Latin Rice was .49 extra. |
Because of the cheese inside the Quesalupa, we obviously can't include it as a vegan item, but all of the fillings listed here are vegan with the exception of the chipotle sauce and perhaps the potatoes. The latest information I've received is that they are vegan but there was some buzz that for some reason they weren't so if you're very strict, you might forgo those.
Anyhow, we chose to fill our cheesy shell with a real cornucopia of flavors: roasted potatoes and black beans for an earthy note, jalapeno slices and chipotle cream sauce for a double dose of heat, pico de gallo for a juicy and citric tanginess, and guacamole for extra creaminess. This dish absolutely explodes with flavor. Instead of focusing on chewy bits of steak that contribute little of their own bold flavor to the dish, we instead allowed these assertive flavors and varied textures to battle it out. The results were absolutely explosive, as juice from the salsa flowed over the brown meaty flavors of the potatoes and the smooth surface of the black beans intermingled with the luscious mouthfeel of the guacamole. The hot taco sauce added yet another exciting note of spice to the double layer of heat from the chipotles and jalapenos. I just couldn't believe how much flavor this thing had, and it will fill you up too.
 |
| Just Look at All that Good Stuff! This thing Literally Overflows With Taste. |
I wasn't sure if going even further down the ladder of dietary restriction would hurt, but since it's important to give vegan diners an option, I decided to give it a whirl. A classic Chalupa is basically the same thing as a Quesalupa minus the cheese, and the fried dough shell is so rich that we're already starting with something rather decadent, vegan or not. Playing it safe, we subbed spanish rice for potatoes to make sure we didn't violate any vegan rules. Jalapenos and pico de gallo went in next, followed by black beans and that surprisingly good guacamole. While it didn't burst at the seams with taste in quite the same way, the fundamentals were once again solid and the flavors all rang out clear and distinct. The shell served up a toasty fried bass note, the guacamole added the creaminess and the tanginess, the pico de gallo gave us juicy herbaceousness with its onion and cilantro, and the black beans again lent an almost meaty earthiness. We really didn't feel like we were sacrificing anything here. It was simply delicious.
 |
| The Vegan Chalupa: That's a lot of Green for Not a Lot of Green |
The world of mass market fast food has got to be one of the most challenging environments for a committed vegetarian, especially a vegan, to navigate. It's especially heartening to find that options for them at Taco Bell are not only available: they happen to be arguably the best thing on the menu.
Gronk?
ReplyDelete