Tacos

(pictured taco al pastor... yes it has pineapple slices, where's your god now!)

(Pictured taquero showing his skills with the trompo de tacos al pastor or spinning grill)

So we know the corn tortillas were already in use by the Aztecs and although we don't know for sure if they made tacos, we know they pushed the food and spooned (that's a verb, right?) the food with them, that'll be important to remember at the end of my posts.

I know in USA, UK and other parts, some people just know the taco as a tortilla (or ugh, hard shell) with shredded beef, lettuce, chese and some pico de gallo (type of salsa) but the reality is that the taco is much more than that. The taco is a way of eating, not just a dish.

We put everything on a tortilla, sometimes for convenience. For example, the tacos of guisado or casserole are common as a street food or in parties as a way of eating a good casserole without needing a lot of cutleries. In the picture you can see tacos of eggs and beans, chicharron (fried pork skin) in salsa roja, chicken in an adobo, chicken with mole, rajas (slices of green pepper, corn, onions and cream), and milanesa (similar to the Schnitzel).

So we know the corn tortillas were already in use by the Aztecs and although we don't know for sure if they made tacos, we know they pushed the food and spooned (that's a verb, right?) the food with them, that'll be important to remember at the end of my posts.

I know in USA, UK and other parts, some people just know the taco as a tortilla (or ugh, hard shell) with shredded beef, lettuce, chese and some pico de gallo (type of salsa) but the reality is that the taco is much more than that. The taco is a way of eating, not just a dish.

We put everything on a tortilla, sometimes for convenience. For example, the tacos of guisado or casserole are common as a street food or in parties as a way of eating a good casserole without needing a lot of cutleries. In the picture you can see tacos of eggs and beans, chicharron (fried pork skin) in salsa roja, chicken in an adobo, chicken with mole, rajas (slices of green pepper, corn, onions and cream), and milanesa (similar to the Schnitzel).

You can find the tacos de guisado as a street food in Mexico City, they will put a bed of rice in the taco and usually with two tortillas "con copia por favor" so it doesn't break.

Next are the tacos de canasta (basket tacos) or tacos sudados (sweaty tacos), don't ew me! they're called like that because the tortilla is fried a little bit, then folded and put in a basket all together covered with blankets so the steam doesn't escape, and when you open the basket, they're moist... but in the nice way.

This is Marven selling tacos de canasta, she became popular in Mexico city after she went viral for this clip...

Back to the tacos, we have tacos de carnitas (pork cooked in its stock, but the recipes vary a lot) with cooked little onions (cebollitas de cambray).

Tacos de barbacoa (cooked sheep with herbs). Btw almost all the meat tacos have chopped cilantro and onions on top.

Tacos de Birria. They're originally from the state of Jalisco and have become very popular as a street food in USA too. It consists of cooked shredded beef with a big variety of peppers on its stock, and you have to soak that taco as it was a spoon, this is the way.

Tacos dorados or fried tacos, you could say they're the original hard-shell tacos and you can make them of almost anything but the chicken or potato ones are very popular. There's another variety called flautas, sometimes larger.

BTW I've found that the way we prepare the tostadas (fried or baked flat tortillas with toppings) are similar to the traditional Tex-mex hard-shell taco, Idk if they're related.

Taco de asada or bistec (grilled thin slices of beef) very popular in the north of the country, and btw, when we fire the grill in Mexico, we make tacos of whatever there's in the grill.

Taco de cecina. Cecina it's also made of thin slices of beef but dry-cured with salt (not as dry as a serrano ham and not aged). It's traditional to served them with fries.

This is where you find the tacos de cecina and you say "con todo joven!".

Shrimp tacos, common in many beaches but there's a special variety from Sinaloa called "tacos gobernador".

Shrimp tacos, common in many beaches but there's a special variety from Sinaloa called "tacos gobernador".

Tacos placeros (something like public square tacos) the base it's Chicharrón (fried pork skin) and you can put meat or just a pico de gallo on top, I make them with panela or fresh cheese, cilantro Nopales (cooked cacti) pico de gallo, salsa and my personal touch is ketchup.

Tacos placeros (something like public square tacos) the base it's Chicharrón (fried pork skin) and you can put meat or just a pico de gallo on top, I make them with panela or fresh cheese, cilantro Nopales (cooked cacti) pico de gallo, salsa and my personal touch is ketchup.

The important thing about all the tacos is the tortilla of course, made only with corn treated with cal, a type of lime (mineral). But in other countries is common to find corn and wheat flour tortillas.

The blue tortilla is thought to be the one the Aztecs liked the most and it's still very easy to find them everywhere in Mexico, I would describe the flavor as very similar but stronger.

Remember when I told you it was important to know how the Aztecs use the tortilla? Well, that's because that's the essence of the taco. As I've said in the past, the taco is not a dish, it's not beef in a tortilla dish, it's a way of eating, it's a way to mostly replace the cutlery to eat almost anything in a neat package, that's why it's such a great street-food and you could say it's as useful as the bread to present the food, instead of a sandwich you make a taco (there's space for both in my heart though).

A tortilla is an edible spoon, a plate and a napkin.