I believe it's now a title loans office.
Going to Taco Bell was always a treat in my house, as it was not near our home, and it was the only one in our city, and it was almost always my father's idea. I always felt like it was a big deal to go to Taco Bell, and I always wanted to get what Dad got because he was a man, and I wanted to be just like him. This meant an early taste for hot sauce and spicy food, and one I enjoy to this day. Now, my favorite Mexican restaurant chain is Baja Fresh, but these days my wallet only allows me to go old school, and that means Taco Bell. Now, back home, Taco Bell is much more ubiquitous in 2008 than it was back in 1986 when we left town the first time, as it is everywhere. Here in Nashville, where I presently reside, there's about one Taco Bell per every three to five miles. Where I live in West Nashville, there are two within a three mile radius of my apartment, so I can enjoy that tasty grade D meat, snot, and shit anytime I damn well please.
Now, my favorite item on the Taco Bell menu for years was the Chilito, also known as the Chili Cheese Burrito. This was tasty, spicy chili, wrapped in a steamed tortilla, topped with cheddar cheese and only seventy-nine cents. This taste and this price was perfect for me as a teenager later living in Vero Beach, Florida where our town's first Taco Bell caused mass hysteria on U.S. Highway 1 back in 1989 by the simple act of opening. The Florida chain, Taco Viva, simply could not compete, but I digress. I remember Dad and I going to our new Taco Bell in Vero together for the first time in years and being completely ecstatic about this. See, for four years, we didn't have a Taco Bell, and this was exciting to me. My father ordered the "Mexican Pizza" and Chilito as did I. Upon receiving our meals, we went to the condiment bar, picked out our hot sauce, sat down, slathered our items in said sauce, and enjoyed our tasty fast food, Mexican meal.
Oh, I remember it well... the crunch, the cheese, the tomatoes, the onions, the green onions, the black olives...
Wait, what was that I just said?
Green onions?
Olives?
See for yourself...
Yes, the Mexican Pizza for years had black olives and onions on it, and it was oh, so tasty. Each bite burst with spicy, gooey, cheesy flavor, and just like a pizza, it's toppings were what made it. The Mexican Pizza was my father and I's favorite thing to order at Taco Bell because of it, and over the course of the last several years, I've watched this once tasty item be stripped of it's former glory one ingredient at a time, and I'm not one bit happy about this. First, the onions went, then the black olives seemed to disappear from everything that Taco Bell once served, and about a year ago when there were some nasty green onions killing people, Taco Bell stopped serving green onions altogether on their Nachos Bell Grande, Taco Salad, and the Mexican Pizza.
I've now gotten in the habit of keeping scallions regularly stocked in my refrigerator so when I order any of these Taco Bell items, I have them readily chopped and prepared to top and complete any meal I have brought home from one of the nearby Taco Bell restaurants in my vicinity. I don't recall exactly when the black olives stopped, but I think it was the mid nineties, but the Mexican Pizza sans green onions is sub standard, and simply unacceptable. I am begging Taco Bell to bring back the green onions, because the only thing at Taco Bell on the menu that will truly kill you isn't the green onion, it's everything else ON the menu that will, and we will all die happy for eating at Taco Bell, and happier because you brought back the green onions to your Mexican Pizza.
I would also like for the Mexican Pizza to not look like this when I get it too.
Now, if I could just get a Chilito, I'd be really happy.
