Five reasons to respect Taco Bell

Taco Bell gets 50th anniversary love from an unlikely source: OC Weekly editor and Mexican food expert Gustavo Arellano. Of course, he does have a book coming in April called Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America. He blogs today:

Heaven knows it's an easy whipping boy for everything wrong with Mexican food in this country: the bastardized meals, the incessant appropriation (this week: I finally reveal the name of the restaurant whose taco recipe Glen Bell took for himself and subsequently became a millionaire while leaving the family behind), the bad food, the many bizarre crimes committed at its premises. They'll play a big role in my book on Mexican food in the United States (out April 10), and not always a positive one

But that's the easy part. Fact is, the Bell also immeasurably helped out the progress of Mexican food in this country. Yes, Virginia: there are nice things to say about Taco Bell--great things, actually, for without it, we'd be at a much-worse spot for Mexican food. So next time you want to slam the Doritos Loco taco...don't. At least for this week, out of respect for this taco titan.

Click over for his five reasons.