Guest blogger Stephen Evans is an IT operations manager of a multi-national corporation, a frequent flier, a food lover and a home cook. He's embarking on a 3-round blog adventure he's calling "Salsa Exploration."
By Stephen Evans
Today is "chain day." Let us go from a location yesterday with a savory salsa, to a small Mexico-based chain restaurant, Pollo Regio, which features a flame-throwing salsa bar.
I dined at Pollo Regio prior to this review and experienced their XXXtra Hot Habanero Salsa. At the end of my month of salsa exploration, this salsa was still the hottest in town. In fact, no others came close in heat level. Pollo Regio has a salsa bar — free but a bag of chips costs extra — with multiple salsa heat level options, all quite good in their own way. But for the time being I want to focus on this mean creamy goodness they call XXXtra Hot, which is featured in the photo with this blog.
Looks quite mild there doesn’t it? This stuff just can’t be hot! Oh, if you think that, like I did the first time, you would be wrong.
It is a rather fun human social study to just come here and watch people try this deceptively colored salsa. It just doesn’t fit the profile of being hot when you have visions of hot salsa dancing in your pleasant dreams. This salsa is wonderfully painful! A great start to the day, or a great start to your nightmares before bed.
While the salsa is hot it also has a flavor aspect that benefits the food you may have accompanying. It makes a great topper on the quesadilla in the manner I devoured for this review, but is also wonderful with their namesake chicken and beans as a spicy add-on.
Pollo Regio offers salsa for all tastes. If you like medium-hot but highly flavorful I highly recommend the green salsa. With a jalapeno base, it brings the heat, but has a completely smooth texture and wonderful aftertaste and mouth feel afterwards.
The other salsas are equally competent, and there is no service aspect, you order at a walk-up counter and self-serve salsa and drinks and clean up after yourself. The food is good and the prices right, but the tortillas are not handmade and the guacamole has too many fillers — yucca chunks if I am not mistaken — for my liking. Other than the two items above I have thoroughly enjoyed all my visits both in Waco and Corsicana.
Now to a place many of us may have eaten as it is hard to avoid the corporate behemoths in the food world now: On the Border.
Chips and salsa are free for dine-in. The chips at on the border tend to be on the size-of-Texas scale of big, requiring to be broken down for dipping into the salsa.
Whenever I think of On the Border, I remember back to a time about 10 years ago when one of my father's friends proclaimed he found the best salsa in the world. Let it be known, I do not agree with this summation of the salsa at On the Border. However, it is not a bad salsa, especially considering the chain status.
You can also get a salsa verde, which stands out from the original salsa, at On The Border. It's a good contender in the salsa verde category — much milder than most verde salsas but still packing a flavor profile that can leave you wanting more. The salsa verde is also a great accompaniment to the Firecracker Stuffed Jalapeno’s, which is my favorite item at On the Border.
