No interplanetary travel is needed to find tacos that are out of this world. If you’re near the old mill village of Collinsville, Connecticut where “Husk—New American Tacos” recently opened in a small turn-of-
the-twentieth-century storefront, a delicious south-of-the-border sandwich is within easy reach whenever the craving strikes. From further away it’s still worth the trip, even if you need a spaceship to get there.
Husk’s menu of tacos, empanadas, nachos and a salad is ready for take-out or can be eaten in a cheerful and funky atmosphere which includes wooden counters and tables fitted with old-time tractor style seating.
The cactus taco with its bright, tangy flavor is an unusual treat and the beef taco is like my Grandmother’s brisket in a tortilla. Washed down with a Coconut soda or another Latin 
American drink and topped with a rich, chocolaty s’more empanada for dessert, the meal is so savory that you’ll begin plotting your next visit even as you relish your last bite. This is no typical Tex-Mex joint. Chef Jordan Stein, who presides over his restaurant like a genial, bespectacled Buddha, has been in South America searching out recipes and ideas. The kitchen lacks a freezer because only the freshest, preferably local ingredients are used.
Tacos may seem like an invasive species in an old New England mill town where hot dogs, meatloaf and apple pie might be considered a more likely bill of fare. But in Collinsville, Latin American food has an unlikely back-to-the-future quality.
The Collins Company, from which the village derives its name, was the nation’s leading maker of edge 
tools from the time of the Civil War to the middle of the twentieth century. Beginning as and axe factory, the business eventually produced every species of sharp metal utensil from picks to pruning hooks and plows. Its greatest renown however, came from the manufacture of machetes and other specialized implements used in South and Central America to cut coca bean pods and sugar cane, harvest bananas, husk coconuts, tap rubber trees, and perform myriad other tasks. Some of the tools bore exotic names like aquiches, coas, podaderas, soroks and tarpalas. So brisk was the business, that factories were established in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and Guatemala beginning in the 1950s.
Husk’s walls are appropriately decorated in blueprints for various Collins tools and machinery. There are also some Company advertising signs in Spanish and Portuguese. Sometimes something wholly new can be a strange reminder of the past and bring an unexpected authenticity enhancing our sense of where we are. So, in the end, a taco that is out of this world is about as down to earth as possible, certainly in Collinsville, Connecticut.
