La Barranca, 1026 Cincinnati Ave.

After I ate my tacos at La Barranca, I walked to the Woodlawn Casting Pond and Park a stone’s throw away, popped violet flavored Canel’s gum and had a lovely stroll. Though I was attacked by two geese — they do this thing where they bring their neck and head go low to the ground as they charge at you — I don’t hold it against them because that’s who they are. They’re assholes.

Oh right: the tacos. At La Barranca, they were fine and respectable tacos. I really enjoyed the bean and cheese on corn. Especially the corn tortilla. They were uniform in shape suggesting they went through a machine of some sort. But these had very good corn flavor and were soft. They held good plain mashed beans with a decent amount of cheese.

The carne guisada was quite good, actually. The meat had a really nice meat flavor suggesting they’re not skimping on the quality. A bit salty with some kind of chili powder. The meat was a little chewy, and there wasn’t a lot of stew. But this carne guisada was much tastier than most. And on a flour tortilla that was soft and totally respectable.

The chilaquiles on flour was hot temperature-wise with crunchy chips; very eggy and not much cheese — but I loved the application of fresh pico de gallo. The potato and chorizo was kind of meh. Good chorizo, not greasy. Well cooked potatoes. But the ingredients didn’t come together well. Kind of plain to average.

Back to the stroll. This is as good a place as any to mention the importance of Canel’s gum as a post-taco digestif. There should be a City of San Antonio ordinance requiring all Mexican food restaurants to have Canel’s gum on hand at all times. Let’s make that happen, folks.