By Rachel Hergett EBS COLUMNIST
It was not my intention to determine how many tacos one person can eat in a single sitting when I set out to compare Big Sky’s three taco buses, but here I am, staring down 17 tacos.
Big Sky does not lack in Mexican cuisine. Aside from the sit-down restaurant offerings, the community is currently home to three taco buses. There’s Mi Pueblito at 1567 Lone Mountain Trail near Ace Hardware, the Jalisco Taco Bus #3 at 47650 Gallatin Road, in the parking lot of the Exxon and Casey’s Corner convenience store, and now El Imperio Mexican Food at 12 Skywood Road between the Meadow Village and Town Center. We’re wealthy with choice.
But this abundance also begs questions. Is one taco bus superior? Does one offer better value? And how, with extensive menus, do you make a fair assessment of the offerings?
My first thought was to compare my personal favorite Mexican dish: the chili relleno. I’ve had some very good and very terrible versions of this dish, both in the U.S. and Mexico, and decided this could be a decent barometer. But alas, El Imperio does not have a relleno on the menu.
With that idea rejected, I realized I was putting too much thought into the set-up. I call each of these places a “taco bus.” They call themselves taco buses. What better to test than the tacos?
I started my comparative research on a weekday mid-afternoon—wanting a true test of the flavor of the food when the staff is not crunched by a rush of people. I went to each taco bus and ordered a plate of mixed tacos, telling them I was writing this column and wanted to try the various meats on offer.
Tacos were ready within two minutes at Jalisco, which means the meats were prepped and sitting in some sort of warmer, ready to be scooped into tortillas. El Imperio took about eight minutes and Mi Pueblito took more than 10.
At each bus, my taco plate came with a red and a green salsa, and between one and three limes. Mi Pueblito and El Imperio added pickled carrots and a pepper. Jalisco’s plate had carrots and pickled onions, but no pepper. I wasn’t mad. I wanted more pickled onions and would have topped every taco with them if I had enough.
Jalisco’s salsas were the most mild, and I used the green one to cool my mouth after my salsa taste test. Mi Pueblito’s red-brown salsa had a nice depth of flavor and hit of heat, though I could not identify what seasonings went into it. I was most impressed by Imperio’s salsas. You could both see and taste the roast on the peppers that made up the extra spicy red salsa.
Pricing is fairly similar, with a difference of only $0.23 per taco between the most and least expensive. I paid $14 for six tacos at Jalisco, $12 for five tacos at El Imperio and $13 for six tacos at Mi Pueblito. Mi Pueblito was the cheapest at $2.17 a taco, with El Imperio the most expensive at $2.40 a taco. Other factors that are not discussed here are the ability to pre-order or pay with cards or Venmo. Plus the abundance of dishes on each menu that dive well beyond tacos.
There was not an easily discernible difference between the tortillas, and each bus served up their tacos on the exact same type of paper plate. This I was not expecting: Even though I wrote the name of each bus on them, I had to work to keep the plates straight.
Jalisco’s “mixed” plate only held three types of tacos: two each filled with chicken, steak and spicy pork. The menu also contains shredded beef, fried pork (carnitas), chorizo, tongue and tripe. I have no complaints about any of the tacos I tried. However, Jalisco’s tacos felt the most basic.
This is especially true when eaten right next to the more flavorful options at both Mi Pueblito and El Imperio. You can see peppers, onions and other means of adding seasoning within the taco meats at Mi Pueblito. They easily teased more flavor from the steak, shredded beef and fried pork.
Of all the tacos I tried, the al pastor at El Imperio is the one that left the strongest impression. The meat mix’s sweet bits of pineapple were unique among the tacos and perfectly balanced the pork’s peppery spice. I’m certainly full up on tacos for the time being—17 tacos is simply too many—but when I’m back at a Big Sky taco bus, this is the taco I would line up for.
Rachel Hergett is a foodie and cook from Montana. She is arts editor emeritus at the Bozeman Daily Chronicle and has written for publications such as Food Network Magazine and Montana Quarterly. Rachel is also the host of the Magic Monday Show on KGLT-FM and teaches at Montana State University.
