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Check out these tacos on National Taco Day


Let's taco 'bout your next meal.

Is there ever a bad time for tacos?

Of course not. And Oct. 4 is National Taco Day, so there's another excuse to push aside your lame lunch of yesterday's leftovers.

Whether it’s National Taco Day, Taco Tuesday or just a regular day, here’s where you can find some great tacos:

Taqueria El Pariente, Hanover

The white trailer with a red strip may not seem like a big deal, but these tacos are the truth.

If you’ve been to the York Fair the last three years, you’ve seen the trailer parked on Memorial Boulevard. When the fair isn’t in town, the trailer is stationed near Sheetz in Hanover on Eisenhower Drive.

Like the trailer, the tacos are simple — a choice of meat with onions, cilantro, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes, topped with a choice of chili de arbol red salsa or tomatillo and jalepeno-based green salsa — but the taste is off the charts. The secret to the taste how the meat is cooked. It's not ground chicken or steak, but instead, it's cooked whole on a flat top with a mixture of secret spices and chopped up before being served on a soft or had shell taco.

“He’s been doing this since he was a child,” Awilda Burgos, co-owner, said of her husband, Oswaldo. “His family has two restaurants in Mexico, and his recipes come from his dad. They do it really good down there.”

Want to take a walk on the wild side? Taqueria El Pariente also does cow tongue tacos.

Mexitaly, Springettsbury

Mexitaly just brings it.

Brings what? Banging fish tacos.

The restaurant serves up motzo and chipotle spice-breaded tilapia served with ginger garlic coleslaw and fresh pico de gallo.

“You have the hot breaded fish, the corn taco and you get a crunch from the ginger garlic slaw. You can’t go wrong with those,” a Mexitaly manager said.

The tacos come in orders of three with an option of rice and beans.

The chains

There’s also nothing wrong with grabbing tacos from one of the local big chains like Chipotle or Qdoba.

Guacamole is the Swiss Army knife of the taco world, with uses as a dip, topping and even a salad, and Chipotle utilizes that tool to the fullest extent. So regardless of what type of taco you get at the national chain, make sure you get some wonderful green guac on top.

Qdoba stepped up its taco game with the Knockout Taco, one of six signature tacos like the Drunken Yardbird — with tequila lime chicken, guacamole and salsa verde — and the triple threat, featuring grilled steak, bacon, three-cheese queso and veggies.

Being healthy generally isn’t the first thought when it comes to having tacos, but if you are looking for a change of pace, the York County-based Robburito’s has a taco salad on its menu. The taco salad comes in acrispy fried tortilla bowl with romaine lettuce, beans, cheese, guacamole, cucumber, salsa and house dressing. You can add chicken, steak or chopped potato for $1 extra.

And then there’s Taco Bell. I heard they serve tacos there.

Here are some other places that serve tacos, but it’s tough to write and eat tacos at the same time:

  • The White Rose, York
  • The Corner Cabinet, York
  • Fiesta Mexico, Springettsbury
  • El Rodeo, York/Hanover
  • Hogan’s Bar and Grille, Newberry Township

Anthony J. Machcinski is the Food and Drink reporter for the York Daily Record. Follow him on  Facebook and Twitter, or email him at amachcinski@ydr.com.