Taqueria Huentitan #2, 6502 Babcock Road

Taqueria Huentitan #2 — located in a fast food building shell in BFE northwest San Antonio — offered a rare rollercoaster of emotions. I remember praising the ingenuity of one taco one moment, then spitting out some of another minutes later.

First, the carne guisada. Perhaps it needed a little bit more seasoning, but otherwise the meat was tender and the stew flavorful. The stew left me wanting more. I could tell this was a simple carne guisada — not a lot of ingredients.

The flour tortillas were soft with medium thickness — completely serviceable flour tortillas for San Antonio.

The ham and egg wasn’t the most photogenic taco ever. The egg amounted to yellow and white egg crumbles mixed in with bits of ham in a tortilla. So, the eggs weren’t whisked. And yet the taste was pretty good. I applied the red sauce — a straight-up chile de Arbol, vinegary sauce — and it definitely helped. This red sauce was very, very good, actually.

I ordered the pierna (pork leg) taco on corn and I immediately gave it a thumbs down. I bit into it and the thumb went lower. The tortilla was hard. It looked homemade, but not very good. I mean, the tortilla was literally hard. The shredded meat was well seasoned, but dry. It needed grease. So I added that vinegary red sauce and the quality of this taco shot up several notches — hard corn tortilla and all.

The bean and cheese was the low point — not just in this visit but in the brief history of this blog. Parts of the cheese were discolored. Like they were paler than your normal unnatural, nuclear yellow cheese. “Something not right about the cheese,” I wrote in my notes. Took a bite. Yup. That cheese was rancid. Couldn’t even tell you about the beans.

I must now explain my rating. I’m giving this place one salsa cup — not half a cup, or no cups — because the pierna taco with the red sauce and the carne guisada tacos were actually really good. If the bean and cheese had been edible, this place would have received the standard two salsa cup ratings. The lesson here: Beware of rank cheese.