The Mad Taco: Waitsfield, Montpelier, Vermont

A recent jaunt to the Mad River Valley region forced me into eating good food and drinking good drink, I hate it when that happens.

It was a few weeks ago during that frigid January cold snap when five willful souls piled into a 1995 Volvo Turbo Sedan. Fully equipped with a top of the line cassette player, we drove to Sugarbush to ski for the day. It was awesome, but this is about food.

Monica, an older veteran of the West Mountain Ski Team and ski house bunkmate threw granola bars at the four other willful souls in the lodge in a parenting manner. She tends to be really good at this mom-ing thing.

She had intentions, good ones too. This crunchy hippy snack was encouragement to hold over our appetites and skip the financial crisis of weekend lodge food for a Waitsfield Favorite, The Mad Taco. We made it.

With the lowering sun, tired legs and empty stomachs five hungry souls flocked into The Mad Taco, like mad seagulls, polite mad seagulls.

I ordered the Chili Colorado Tacos that come topped with avocado, onion and heaping cilantro stalks. Some of the other orders included fish, chorizo, and achiote chicken tacos. Flavors and levels of freshness are hard to describe due to high levels of awesomeness.

This was my second tamale experience ever. Prior to The Mad Taco I have only had the small red hot cinnamon ones that come in twenty-five cent handfuls. This place has specialty tamales and that Saturday afternoon they were serving pork and spiced masa tamales that come wrapped in a cornhusk. You peel off the husk and inside lies some serious nom-nom-nosh.

Hot Sauce, I love it, can’t get enough of it. The Mad Taco has over one hundred home made hot sauce blends, (one of the bottles had the number 131 listed on it) ten of which are in constant rotation with a different number rating of spiciness based off the 1-10 scale. “The Hulk “ was my favorite.

I ordered the house margarita (big surprise). Served with a mid shelf tequila, forgive me I forget its name, and fresh lime juice. Other ingredients included a glass, ice, and salt, need I say more? If you’re not into the worm, The Mad Taco serves a nice array of craft beers.