I should have been running around the restaurant in unrestrained, near-psychotic exuberance, extolling the culinary virtue of each morsel.
They layered on ground beef, nacho cheese sauce, sour cream, potato chunks and the pièce de résistance, the veritable mother of all toppings: bacon. These are all things I love dearly. So why was Taco Bell's new Bacon Cheesy Potato Burrito, which should have soared with the eagles of delectability, mired in a sea of merely good?
The most striking issue was that the salt volume was cranked up to a level uncomfortable to the palate. One culprit seemed to be the little seasoned home-fry-like taters. And, of course, bacon is what it is on the salt scale.
This $3.19 (tax and all) bundle of Tex-Mex Americana also lost a point because the bacon wasn't evenly distributed and had a bit of Bac-Os flavor about it.
And I'm just not sure that the flavor of bacon blends well with that of Tex-Mex foods. Or maybe I personally just don't care for that blend as much as my love for each independently would lead one to believe.
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That's not to say the new Taco Bell concoction has no virtue. After eating the burrito I purchased for evaluation purposes, I also ate most of the one I purchased for photographic purposes (The rest was consumed by a co-worker.). And if someone had handed me another one the day after, I'd have eaten it, too. So I like this new creation.
It's just that the theory sounds so surpassingly wonderful: a burrito with bacon! But the theory simply outstrips the reality.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Shane Mercer at (701) 451-5734
