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In the heart of downtown San Jose on East San Carlos Street just located across from San Jose State University, an old townhouse with flashing neon signs gain attention as people are seen overflowing the area. A crowded line of about 20 individuals stand in anticipation with their mouths salivating while another crowd stand near the entrance flooding out the front door and seeping off the front steps towards the sidewalk.
It may look like an overpopulated college party, but it isn't. It's just a typical day for those who choose to eat at La Victoria Taqueria, or “La Vics” as locals like to call it.
With a menu equipped with quesadillas, burritos, tacos, and enchiladas all under $8, La Vics poses itself as a generic Mexican restaurant. But when it's time to slap sauce onto the quesadilla, La Vics is anything but generic. Their infamous “Orange Sauce” adds a twist to their common menu.
The taste of a beef quesadilla accented with the flourishing zest of Orange Sauce slightly burn taste buds to satisfaction. While the sauce is spicy, it doesn't set your mouth on fire. Instead, the touch of the sauce on the tip of your tongue keeps you yearning for more. As you continue to drench your quesadilla in a sea of orange, you realize your meal is covered in sauce. Within each bite, a drip of sauce leaks through your fingers causing a mountain of used napkins to pile onto your table as you finish. Then the feeling of a self-satisfied belly rushes through as you can't help but wonder: “What's in this sauce?”
The Orange Sauce has such a unique taste to it that it's difficult to distinguish the mix of ingredients used to create such a phenomenon. Most of the people who have tried the sauce don't even know what it's in it, as the owners like to keep it a family secret.
This family secret is kept so tightly secured that the restaurant's waitresses act as security guards since there have been history of Orange Sauce thefts in the past. During busy nights, waitresses will be patrolling customers' tables like a vulture on its prey. If there's a full equipped bottle of Orange Sauce on an empty table, the waitress snatches it and places it behind a glass until a new customer sits at that table. Supposedly, the waitresses at La Vics don't allow customers to grab their own sauce when eating at the restaurant for fear of stolen bottles, unless a customer chooses to buy their own.
The sauce has created such a stir in San Jose that bottles of orange sauce are being sold separately for $6 to prevent customers from taking the table sauces home. It's even become such as issue that the restaurant has installed cameras to keep an eye on the sauce throughout the day.
Many have fallen in love with how universal the sauce can be. In fact, most customers arrive not caring about what they order just as long as they can have a taste of the infamous Orange Sauce. This sauce can work on any type of food, not just Mexican food. It can be poured on fries, burgers, hot dogs, and pizza – pretty much anything you would want to add flavor to. It's a lifesaver for bland and boring meals.
Which poses the question: “Is La Vics really that good or is it just the sauce?” In this case, I believe the sauce makes the meal. Without the sauce, La Vics wouldn't survive. The sauce is delicious. San Jose residents are lucky to have such a unique flavor in their city.
should i yelp this?
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