Growing up my favorite thing for dinner was Mexican taco night and it still is one of my favorites, especially in the wintertime.  If I’m enjoying a taco and margarita I start to feel warm and sunny, even though it is 20 degrees outside.  I saw a commercial on TV recently for a flat-bottomed taco shell and commented, “Genius.”

One of the major issues for hard-shell taco lovers is that they fall over and spill out their contents, usually turning your meal into a taco salad.  Being 10 cents cheaper then the other taco dinner brands I had no excuse not to try the Old El Paso Stand ‘N Stuff Taco Dinner Kit.

True to its name, the inflatable tent shells stood perfectly vertical on the plate and were extremely easy to stuff.  Being wider than traditional shells they could really hold more of everything so I didn’t have to eat so many to feel full.  That’s really where the differences to traditional shells ended and actually the design became more problematic.  Because of the flat bottom it is an uncomfortable shape to get your mouth around.  More importantly, once you bite into it the bottom immediately cracks down the middle.  Although they did stand, they didn’t hold their shape once I started eating.  I think it was a great marketing attempt. It got me intrigued enough to try it, but in the end I’m going back to my traditional taco shells.