Pic(k) of the Week: 'Old-Fashioned' tacos

Cocktails and tacos!

Pop-up kitchen Mascogo Tacos ¹ was cooking up their fare on 4 June 2021, outdoors on the 'whiskey patio,' at small Independent Distilling Company, in Decatur, Georgia, USA.

We were there; we ate; we drank. Pictured clockwise from top:

• Old Fashioned cocktail ²
  Independent Distilling Hellbender Bourbon, demerara syrup, aromatic bitters, Regan's Orange Bitters, twists of lemon and orange.


• Barbacoa taco
  Braised brisket cooked in smoked chilis, with spices, onions, cilantro.


• Pollo con Chili Verde taco
  Hatch-chili-verde-stewed chicken breast, onions, cilantro, Cotija. ³


• Los Cactus taco (partially obscured)
  marinated grilled cactus, onions, cilantro, charred tomato salsa, with/without Cotija.

"What's the cactus in the taco?" I asked Mascogo Tacos' chef, Craig L. Headspeth, "It's tasty." "There's only one edible cactus," he replied. "Prickly pear." ⁴ "Ah!"

I thanked him; the other half complimented him on the two meatier tacos. Thanks were also proffered to Independent's 'mixologist' Corey for the cocktail and to Michael Anderson, Independent's owner/distiller, for the Hellbender Bourbon, the first bourbon distilled in the Atlanta area since before Prohibition. That's one hundred-one years ago, in 1920(!), in case you're counting.

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• ¹ The name "Mascogo Tacos" is an homage/reference to the Mascogos, descendants of Black Seminoles who, in the 1850s, escaped slavery and forced removal to reservations in the United States, emigrating to what is now the town of El Nacimiento in Múzquiz Municipality, Coahuila, Mexico. (Wikipedia)
• ² Given its name in the 1880s, the old fashioned is a cocktail made by muddling sugar with bitters and water, adding whiskey or, less commonly, brandy, and garnishing with orange slice or zest and a cocktail cherry.
• ³ Cotija is an aged Mexican cheese made from cow's milk and named after the town of Cotija, Michoacán. (Wikipedia)
• ⁴ To be fair, while prickly pear is the most commonly consumed cactus, there are indeed other cacti and succulents that are edible, as well, not to mention the sweet nectar of the agave plant (tequila/agave anyone?).


• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of images posted on Saturdays, occasionally (as is the case today) with a good fermentable as the subject.
• Photo 23 of 52, for year 2021. See it on Flickr: here.
• Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10 II.
  • Lens: Meike MK 25mm f/1.8
  • Settings: 25 mm | 1/400 | ISO 200 | f/7.1
• Commercial reproduction requires explicit permission, as per Creative Commons.


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