Gaby’s Bakery & Deli, North Brunswick, NJ

So this is Cathy.  Cathy is trying to learn how to Tacoteer here.  Don't worry, Phil and I were with her and we were able to properly teach her.  She learned well.  This place came pretty highly acclaimed in the area.  Lets get the disappointing part out of the way, for a bakery, they don't make their own chips or tortillas.  This made me a bit taco sad.  They have all the equipment, theoretically the know how, sad, very sad.

The menu is huge and looking at it now I know that you cannot read it.  I have attached a link to their website, sorry about that.  Point being, with all of this stuff on there they should be able to make their own tortillas.

Three brave NJ Tacoteers.  We have to remain skeptical because there has not been a tremendous amount of Tacoteering luck in NJ.  Phil (Yellow Chocolate) and I have taken this challenge on before.  I don't like to keep you in big suspense, this was just OK.  It didn't rock anyone's world by any means, but was a bit better than many of the other places that we have been disappointed at.

Cathy wanted to get into some nachos.  Not bad, but not great.  Ingredients were fresh, the chips were, well, we've discussed.  Presentation was solid, I'm glad we got them, but they sure don't hold a candle to the tastiness of the Korean Taco place Fo, Moraski and I went to in Georgia.  Who would have thought, Georgia is crushing New Jersey in tacos.
RATINGS:
LENGUA: 3, this was about as textbook as you are going to find it folks.  Nothing impressive, nothing sad about it.  Fairly tender, slightly lacking in salt and seasoning.
CARNE ENCHILADA: 2, this really was a waste of my time and taste buds.  It was thoroughly unimpressive.  It lacked flavor, depth, texture.  It tasted like left over they were hoping they could marinate and sell.  Guess they did...
BARBACOA: 2, again, it just hurt to eat this.  Really not much different from the carne enchilada.  Over marinated meat that they stewed into oblivion.  It made me sad on the inside.
PASTOR: 3, it was almost too sweet.  I think pastor should be a bit sweet, layered flavors, it was OK, it didn't hurt my feeling, but it sure didn't excite me.
ASADA: 3, standard?  That is the best word I can come up with.  Nothing impressive here, nothing to write home about, but it wasn't bad like some of the other things that they did to meat.
TRIPA: 4, finally a true win here.  This was something special.  Crispy, seasoned, almost a bite to it.  I have to admit that I was really happy eating and enjoying this one.  I would go back for this and probably get cabeza hoping to find a meal out of the two, but that is a whole other blog if it gets to that.
SALSA VERDE: 2, not enough here.  It was just kind of blah.  I really thought that it would be better than it was, I was incorrect.
SALSA ROJO: 3, please read the asada review and just replace it with salsa.  Just a standard red sauce.  I'm not going to dream about this good or bad.

I was not a fan of the way that they rolled them up like this.  Presentation was lacking, they tried to make it look like there was more meat to tortilla ratio, yeah dudes, you failed!  For a NJ place, this wasn't horrible, but it sure is not Villalobos.  Chef Phil and I might have to make a trip up to Villalobos when we are back in NJ soon.  I think you get the drift on my feelings of the food, place and by the way, the ambiance was kind of strange.  Too spread out and open, it lacked character.  

What a wild and crazy week.  Glad we got one Tacoteering experience in.  Sorry it took a couple of days to write about, it has been a wacky few weeks for me here!  

Thanks to everyone for reading, telling folks and following the taco adventures, hope you enjoy them.  Today's gratuitous photo is of the team of folks that I got to go to NJ with, minus Chef Phil, AKA Yellow Chocolate.  Great group of folks who I did not get long enough to work with on this trip, but I know that I get time with all of them in the near future.  

Stay Excellent!