On the Taco Tuesdays of my youth, the menu was always the same: fat flour tortillas, stuffed with black olives, mild cheddar, lettuce, tomato and ground beef, sometimes seasoned with spiced tomato sauce to add a weird Italian-American flourish. As an adult, I’ve mostly abandoned this style in favor of less Americanized preparations, partially a consequence of living with a vegetarian with a highly specific cheese allergy (hint: it’s not lactose). It’s hard, however, not to look back fondly on the old yellow cheese standby, especially as a member of a generation in which the casual gringo taco was perhaps at its prime, dished out at community socials and high school proms (yes, I attended a prom with a “Make Your Own Taco” station). And so I found myself inspired by a recent SeriousEats post, which appeared on the site with magical timing, just before I was about to head off on a Memorial Day Weekend trip, with the opportunity to cook for a large group of fellow meat aficionados. Scouring the supermarkets of the Hudson valley, I was ultimately unable to find the necessary pork belly (although Cairo’s Alpine Pork Store offered an impressive array of sausages). I ended up subbing in pork ribs, marinating them overnight in a lime and orange mixture intended to approximate the original recipe’s Seville orange, then stripping off the meat and baking it. Despite my shortcuts, the results were a revelation, perhaps the best tacos I’ve ever made. My companion whipped up a salad of her own, which was essential as both a flavor and color contrast, again illustrating the importance of balance. I would also be remiss to end this post without a mention of the massive paella that was prepared for dinner that night, even if doing so might leave me open to allegations of burying the lede. Massive paella pan purchased from the aptly named PaellaPans.com
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