A knock-out meal at Los Tarascos

Whenever MC and I passed Los Tarascos, the place looked lively and full of satisfied diners. So when the question came up of where to have dinner before our fiction workshop, we seized the opportunity to check it out. Joined by WP and KS, as well as one of MC's visiting friends, we squeezed into a booth near the front and settled in for an early meal.

Fresh, warm corn tortillas appeared on our table unbidden, which turned out to be excellent vehicles for sampling the range of salsas and sauces available at the bar in back.

I could have happily feasted on the guacamole and this basket of chips alone. The hearty tortilla triangles were fresh-fried to order, and they made perfect companions to the large bowl of thick, flavorful guacamole we ordered. The five of us made short work of the first basket, and while a refill wasn't free, none of us minded. They were that good.

After the chips and guac I should have known better than to try finishing my entree, but I was in denial. I had asked for the seafood trio—a seafood enchilada, a seafood fajita, and a seafood-stuffed chili relleno accompanied by sides of rice and smooth refried beans—and everything on my plate was so fresh, well seasoned, and flavorful that I left only a smattering of rice and a smear of beans on the plate in the end.

And oh, how I paid for it afterward. And I wasn't alone: WP, MC, and I spent the duration of our three-hour fiction workshop clutching our full bellies and fighting food coma while trying to make coherent, insightful statements about our classmates' work. I daresay we pulled it off, but it wasn't pretty. Heavy dinner before workshop, never again.