February 2000 Edition

Disco Taco
141 US 70 E.
7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
7 Days a week.
(505) 378-4224

Don't look for John Travolta at Disco Taco, on Hwy. 70 east of Ruidoso Downs.

Joel Valenzuela Jr., one of the owners of the family business, explains the name comes from a sort of Northern Mexican barbecue. In agricultural areas, people make something that resembles a standing paella pan from big iron disks--the kind the tractor pulls through a field.

"We weld legs onto the disk, then we make a big fire with wood underneath. Then we cook steak, ham, chorizo, onion and bell pepper. We call this discada," Valenzuela said.

The Valenzuela family, Joel Sr. and Joel Jr. and younger brother Jaime, opened Disco
Taco seven years ago. A sign in Spanish outside the restaurant says that if you want to eat dinner in Mexico, this is the place.

There's a dining room off to one side, but most people prefer to sit in the half dozen booths next to the kitchen, where you can watch the culinary action or catch a little Spanish soap opera on the small TV in the corner.

As you scan the menu, written in Spanish with English subtitles, you realize that this is not the place to watch your cholesterol.

One of their specialties is tripitas--beef intestines boiled, sliced thinly and fried. Another favorite is colita de pavo--turkey tail tacos. then there are chicharrones, pieces of dried pork skin, deep fried to explosive proportions. Valenzuela Sr. makes weekly trips to El Paso and Juarez for supplies, including Mexican candy and bottled sodas.

"We get a lot of Mexican people, but we get a lot of Anglos, too," Joel Jr. says. "And a lot of people come because their friends recommended us. That's the best advertising."

--Lynn Kidder