美国国家公共电台 NPR Food Critic Now Halfway Through Taco-A-Day Quest. Will He Fold?

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

One taco is good, but Mike Sutter thinks a lot of tacos is even better, like a lot. He is the food critic for the San Antonio Express-News. And he is now almost halfway 1 through his quest to eat at least one taco a day all this year and write about it. I talked to him back in January at the beginning of this amazing endeavor. And we are going to check in with him again now. He's with us from member station KUT in Austin. Hey, there.

MIKE SUTTER: Hi. I'm glad we're following along with the important news of the day.

MCEVERS: Absolutely.

SUTTER: I'm about 173 places into it so far. And that's about 10 away from the halfway mark.

MCEVERS: How many tacos have you had so far this year?

SUTTER: Well, 173 times, at least, four - I mean, we're knocking on the door of 700 so far?

MCEVERS: Be honest, are you at all sick of tacos?

SUTTER: No, because you can put so many different things inside of a taco, the constant being the tortilla and even that - flower or corn. So you multiply your choices by two. And it becomes just this infinitely 2 rolling equation.

MCEVERS: But, you know, come on, there's got to be like a Tuesday night when you're just like, please, I can't eat another taco.

SUTTER: Well, I did hit that point a little bit yesterday because it was an 8-taqueria day yesterday. And I had to take a dinner break in between those to do the other part of my job.

MCEVERS: (Laughter) You had to take a dinner break?

SUTTER: Well, I did...

MCEVERS: I don't understand that.

SUTTER: ...Because I have to be a restaurant reviewer on top of just a taco guy. I feel - some days, I feel like I'm getting stuff like a foie gras goose.

MCEVERS: (Laughter) So you take the dinner break, and what happens?

SUTTER: After that, I had to go to the trailer outside the male strip club.

MCEVERS: So wait. Did you have a taco at that truck?

SUTTER: Well, I did. I ordered tacos out of pastor 3, which I should have been a little bit wary 4 of. As I looked into the trailer - and it just thrown up its flaps. And there was at least a foot-tall mound 5 of raw meat sitting on top of the flat top grill 6, trying really hard to get cooked, I guess, in time to be served. And maybe then I should have thought, this isn't the best possible idea. But I did have the tacos. And they were awful.

MCEVERS: What are some of the surprises since we talked to you in January? Like, what are some of the real, like, standouts for you?

SUTTER: I found some brains in my barbacoa. And I found a knuckle 7 bone in my cabrito.

MCEVERS: You did not.

SUTTER: Yeah, I did. Well, it might not have been a knuckle bone. I don't know. It was certainly an animal bone of some kind - a mammal bone. But that's sort of an occupational hazard. I mean, any full animal roast is a contact sport. This is the NFL of tacos.

MCEVERS: So I live in L.A., which means I'm surrounded by some very good taco situations. But for those people who are listening who do not live in taco country, I guess I want to know, like, what have you learned that you can teach us as a nation?

SUTTER: Well, I think we have to respect the tortilla. The big difference in San Antonio is how many places make their own tortillas. And it makes a huge difference because it's a fresh bakery product. A bigger lesson that I think is, we have to be careful not to call everything that you put in a tortilla, taco, in the same way that you don't want to call every political scandal a gate because it starts to lose its meaning after a while.

MCEVERS: So enjoy them but be a little discerning.

SUTTER: Yes, let's do that.

MCEVERS: (Laughter) And don't try to eat 700 in half a year.

SUTTER: Well, no. I'm not going to advise against that because that would make me a hypocrite.

MCEVERS: (Laughter) Mike Sutter of the San Antonio Express-News who is eating tacos everyday this year.

SUTTER: And you can come with me on that journey at Express-News.com/tacos.

MCEVERS: Oh, I thought you were inviting 8 me to actually come with you.

SUTTER: All right. But you have to agree to go to the one outside the strip club.

MCEVERS: Done. Yes.

SUTTER: (Laughter) OK.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE FUNK ARK SONG, "HORCHATA")