The Q Taco and Saturday Morning Fieldtrips

In my past life as an after-school club sponsor, and before that as a soccer coach, I often had to get up early on Saturday mornings to shepherd a small flock of bleary-eyed high-schoolers aboard a yellow school bus and off to some meaningful event: tournament, museum tour, historical reenactment. When you've already worked a 50+ hour week, it's hard to get out of bed on Saturdays before noon. So often in the Valley, I would motivate myself to rise, if not shine, with promises of a Q Taco or two on my way to dutiful service.

In Texas, we're proud to have taquerias on every other street corner, but in the Valley this plentiful supply is taken to a whole new level: gas station tacos. All along the border, even north to some places like Kingsville, gas stations have a partnership with something called the Laredo Taco Company (there are a few other off-brands). This means that not only can you get a tank of gasoline, a case of beer, a ceramic bald eagle statue, a straw beach hat, a pack of Bic lighters, and an armful of brightly packaged, highly processed food-like items from your gas station's goodie bag. You can get tacos. Breakfast tacos. Fresh breakfast tacos in fresh tortillas made by hand right there! There is always a small army of women, occasionally a man, rolling out tortillas, grilling them, filling them with the array of offerings at the customer's request. I've been in such gas stations plenty of times when the line stretched around the store, past the fresh salsa bar, and the wait was over 20-minutes. You can be skeptical. I certainly was at first. They are undeniably delicious.

So, what kind of taco to get when it's finally your turn? Well, first up, you better speak Spanish if you've got any funky requests or are looking to make conversation. Here, the gringo is definitely the outsider and no one is going to pander to you by greeting you in English. Spanish speaking or not, it's best to order the Q Taco, named for a perhaps no-longer-existent radio station? Radio stations come and go, but there is no way this taco is becoming defunct any time soon: potatoes and egg, beans, cheese, in a fresh flour tortilla. Dress it with a little pico de gallo and salsa, a little salt and pepper, and enjoy. My limit is three (those flour tortillas pack a deceptively heavy punch) and I enjoy every bite. I'm sort of sad writing about them right now... Oh, Q Taco. We will meet again.

My love for the Q Taco was widely known in my friend group. So much so that my (then future) girlfriend dressed up as a taco for a border-themed Valentine's day party. I had no idea she was courting me at the time, but it was clearly pretty effective.


I'll disclaim here that our other friend in that picture is yes, dressed ironically as a minuteman militia member. I guess they do love the border... otherwise where would they direct all of that irrational hatred?

I thought of Q Tacos today as my co-worker Amanda and I arrived at school at 9:00AM to help lead a MLK service-day project helping in the nursery of a non-profit that does urban forestry. It was a pretty cool place, though our presence tipped the adult to student ratio to 5:3 which was a bummer. As was having no Q Taco with which to begin my Saturday morning. It did feel good to celebrate Dr. King though, which is something we never did on the border.