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Those of you of a certain age will remember the old Life cereal commercials featuring Mikey. Being a kid named Michael at the time those commercials aired meant that every unoriginal jacknape around me would, upon getting something unsavory in the school cafeteria, point to me and say “Give it to Mikey, he’ll eat anything!” As a kid, this bugged the life out of me. As an adult, I realize that…yeah, it’s probably true, give it to me and I’ll try it. (It has been pointed out to me in the comments that the people I went to school with misquoted this commercial. Figures.)

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All that’s to set up the method of my trying the gordita from Lucy’s on Chicot Road. I’ve never actually been to Lucy’s, but a co-worker who eats lunch there regularly knows I’m a food writer and swore up and down that these gorditas were one of the best things to eat in the Rock. Putting his money where my mouth is, he brought me one the other day, and after a squeeze of lime and a healthy dose of hot sauce, I’ve got to say: Mikey likes it. The gordita is a little hand-pie made from masa and filled with meat, onions, and cilantro. With the Lucy’s version, the masa is very fresh tasting, and threads the needle between staying moist and being too soggy quite nicely. The steak is tender and well-flavored from the grill, and the fresh onions and cilantro add a nice brightness to the dish made even better by lime juice. And when my buddy told me the price — just $1.75 — I knew I had been introduced to the winner.

Which brings me to the interesting coda to this tail of delicious gorditas. My buddy who brought me the thing is a Hispanic guy who lives in the neighborhood and has been a valuable resource for knowing what’s good to eat in the Geyer Springs area. Another co-worker — a white guy like me — overheard the conversation about how cheap and good the food was and made his way down to Lucy’s to try these tasty little treats for himself. Somehow, his gorditas wound up costing somewhere in the $3.25 range, so either my first buddy gets a heck of a friend discount, or my second buddy got outsider-taxed on the thing. Not great business tactics, but in any case: these gorditas were pretty fantastic, even for just north of three bucks.

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