We are kinda famous for having good produce here. Alot of what you are experiencing is probably just that very little of what CA taco bells use is fairly fresh compared to may of its eastern counterparts.
I agree…wait…are we talking about food.
I still love Taco Bell, I’ll eat there at any chance I get, which isn’t often because my girlfriend refuses to eat there. Oh Chili Cheese Burritos, how I love you so.
Maybe due to the large numbers of legit Mexican restaurants here in California, they’ve got to maintain a higher level of quality just to compete. I’ve never noticed any icky feeling after eating at Taco Bell, but then again, I’ve never eaten more than a taco or two.
In the early '90s I had a job at a campus catering office that came with the perk of a $6 lunch credit every day. One of the places I could use that credit was Taco Bell. $6 bought a lot of Taco Bell back then, probably equivalent to about $10 today. I think I could get 2 of the big Burrito Supremes and still have money left over. Needless to say, I had no room in my stomach left over … Ah, youth. There’s no way I’m eating all that in one meal these days.
There’s a Moe’s right down the street from where I live, right past the Taco Hell. Haven’t eaten at the latter in 3 years.
I get the same thing every time I go.
1 beef burrito
3 reg tacos
1 pintos and cheese
I’m a pig.
Oh man I’ve been trying to find that for the longest time. 
I thought I was the only one that liked those! Do you remember when they were called Chilitoes?
I haven’t eaten at Taco Bell for at least 5 years, and sometimes I still get cravings even though I’ve immediately regretted it after the first bite every single time I’ve ever eaten there. They must put some kind of brainwashing agent in the cheese. Oh, well. It’s the one good thing to come out of no longer having a car.
ETA: Speaking of bad late-night tacos, what the hell is the meat in Jack in the Box’s version?
I get a craving every now and then, but manage to keep it to about once a year that I actually eat there.
I have an old fondness for Taco Bell, because it’s the cheap, comfort food of my high-school and college days. It’s predictable, familiar, and almost always open.
But I rarely vary from the tacos, soft tacos, or the Mexican pizza, so I don’t know about their new ventures into “cuisine.” I do wish they’d bring back the tostada, though.
I think the summary and signature dishes for Taco Bell are the Enchirito and the Mexican Pizza. These are about the most harmonious combinations of their limited pantry, the height of Taco Bell technology and taste. These “grilld” and “tostd” abominations that they try to pass off nowadays are assimilated and patched technologies. They just aren’t as good. They aren’t changing their menu, just changing a configuration. Except now, in the case of the Volcano Taco they are actually changing taste… that’s good ol’ YUM! doctrine for ya. As the volcano tacos are no longer available, maybe they have attained McRib status- Seasonal cash injection.
grilld, stuffd, and tostd.
Blegh!
It might vary from store to store, region to region, but I just had a tostada-- I Think it was the first one I had ever had at a taco bell ever, it was a new menu item. I think the entire possibility of the tostada was contingent on the new, flat, crunchy, cornmeal, taco shells that form the center of those crnchy, flour tortilla wrappd, natcho cheese stuf, grilld disks
That spicy cheese sauce they use on the volcano taco is very well balanced. I’m trying to figure out what chile pepper blend they used. I think Cayenne is involved, but what else, I am not sure. Maybe an extract?
3 regular tacos and 2 spicy bean burritos for me, please. And a handful of “hot” sauce packets, thank you very much.
Back in college, our apartment shared a fence with Taco Bell. There was a hole in the fence that everyone used for a short cut. My roommate would cruise over at closing time, hoping to scavenge anything they were going to toss out. He rarely came back empty-handed. That stuff may have been sitting under a heat lamp for awhile, but it was a free midnight snack to him.
Find yourself a White Castle.
Ingest their griddled, onion infused slivers of greasy gristle served between steamed white bread buns with ketchup and a pickle chip. Maybe with jalapeno cheese if you’re the daring kind. Add a side of deep fried onion rings just to add to the empty, fatty calorie count.
Realize that, as far as inexplicable abuse of your digestive system and taste buds go, you have found a new dominatrix. The Bell will be forgotten.
I can’t help it, I’m a slave to the Cheesy Gordita Crunch. Sans bacon, if you please, that’s just naaaaaaasty. Toss a caramel apple empanada on top and my self loathing is complete. Oh, and lots and lots of Fire sauce–that shit’s chock full o’crack.
:dubious: No! Really??