Tasting: Taco Bell - Crayfish Taco

Taco Bell is offering new Crayfish Tacos in China starting this month and, while I've never been to China, I did get to try the new tacos on a recent visit to Taco Bell HQ.

The Crayfish Tacos feature chilled crayfish, lettuce, Crayfish sauce, tomato, and cilantro in a crunchy taco shell.

The crayfish tastes shrimp but are slightly larger and chewier. They're tossed in the chain's new Crayfish sauce which is a rich, creamy sauce seasoned with Chinese 13 spice mix (Shi san xiang). The sauce is also layered into the taco. The 13 spice mix tastes a lot like Chinese 5 spice mix and imparts a varied aromatic quality as well as a slight numbing from Szechuan peppercorns.

Combined with the veggies, the taco ends up feeling somewhat like a portable shrimp salad with some crunch from the taco shell. It could work as a lighter alternative to a big salad (then again, I've never seen someone order a salad from Taco Bell).

Overall, the Crayfish Taco turned out pretty nicely. Taco Bell plans to roll it out to their other Asian markets but don't expect to see it here in the US anytime soon. It's a pity as I can see it being popular around Lent.