From Bloviator Joe –

“Eat at taqueria, pop-lockin’ beats from Korea…” (Muchas gracias a Beck.)

Having already eaten, I kept it simple: a beer and an appetizer. The beverage of choice was, fittingly, a Mexican offering: Bohemia, which appeared to be a lager, with a comparable taste (subsequent ‘net searches have revealed it to be a pilsener, a type of lager, to be precise). Though it was inoffensive, I’ve never been particularly keen on Mexican beer, my points of reference being Corona, Dos Equis, Modelo and Tecate. The latter three have a definite leg up on Corona, but only in that they’re not revolting. You can, likewise, praise Bohemia, but it’s certainly not worth $3.95/bottle.

For my bedtime snack, I ordered the “gringas”, which is described thus on the online (cucostaqueria.com) menu:

“Two flour tortillas topped with Al Pastor marinated pork, melted cheese, lettuce, tomatoes ans [sic] onions.”

I have no idea how this dish relates to the derogatory Latin American slang term for foreign (especially American or English) women, but it was pleasant enough. I wouldn’t be surprised if the staff, which was clearly in a hurry to lock the door at the stroke of 10 PM, was calling me (having arrived at 9:25) much worse.

Qué onda, guero? (Thanks again, Beck)

Nevertheless, it was a perfectly good Mexican take on the late-night fast food run. Not even the overabundance of lettuce could quite overshadow the meat, cheese. tomatoes and onions. Not astounding, it was, nevertheless, good taqueria cuisine and (mostly) worth the $4.95 price tag.

Thanks Joe – I had the tamales pictured above which I found to be very enjoyable. Some of the best tamales I’ve ever had were found at a farmer’s market in Evergreen, Colorado. I thought the tamales at Cuco’s were a close second. It would be nice if they had more salsas to choose from to go with the tamales.

I visited Cuco’s a second time (as did Joe, I later learned) and had La Mexicana, one chicken stuffed poblano pepper, one tamale, one chicken enchilada, rice and beans. Like the tamales, the Mexicana is an especialidade de la casa. Again, I made the gringo mistake of eating too many chips and there was no way I was getting through this large plate of food. Cuco’s had run out of tamales so I received two rellenos. Rellenos are some of my favorites and Cuco’s didn’t disappoint.

I neglected to mention that Cuco’s has some of my favorite tequila, Don Julio Añejo. I wonder if they could serve it chilled in a sipping glass. That might be beyond the grasp of many Columbusites but fine tequila is meant to be sipped and not slugged back in rapid succession. But I don’t expect a lot from Buckeyes after all.

Cuco’s
2162 Henderson Road
Columbus, Ohio 43220
(614) 538.8701
Fax (614) 538.8601

Monday – Saturday
8:00 AM – 10:00 PM