Psst. Read what I wrote after that. 
I did. My point is the same: that you never know what those guys will do. On the upside, if they have the ingredients (e.g., real cheese), they’ll usually cook anything you ask for, in any way you want, especially if you’re a regular customer. Go ahead, order some Spam machaca tacos, if that’s what you like.
I made myself some ground venison and black bean tacos last night. Plenty of cumin, chili powder, garlic, plus salt and pepper. Fold that up in a corn tortilla, pour on some hot sauce - damn fine.
My Mexican SO makes ground beef tacos all the time. It’s just cheaper so we eat it more than shredded beef. The kid likes it more too. He just cooks it with lime and onion and salts it. If we have an orange he will squeeze a little juice from that too although I can’t really tell. We eat it on doubled homemade tortillas. He adds cilantro to his but I can’t eat that stuff.
The hard hard about ground beef tacos is getting just the right amount of greasy. You need the perfect level of spice-laden orangey extract around each beef granule. Too little and you lose the taste and it’s boringly dry. To much and it makes a mess and the extra components get assimilated into one mass of homogenized taste. I need them to stay out of the beef-flavor mass and add their own individuality to the taco from the perimeter.
I hate to admit it, but I’ve never made anything other than a ground beef taco with a packet of seasoning. Can someone give me a recipe for an alternative?
We made soft tacos with ground elk this week, and they were dem gud. Only problem is the mister can never remember what spices went in! So they’re good every time, and different every time.
I never spice the ground beef. The additional tastes in my tacos come from beans, salsa, onions, cheddar, lettuce, and tomato. And the tortilla.
Out of curiousity, Johnny L.A., what cheese (if any) do you have in tacos?
Well, when talking about Mexican-style food, saying ‘taco’ is like saying ‘sandwich’ when talking about American-style food. So, really, anything is game for a taco! I’ve seen (on cooking shows) tacos with an Asian influence (shredded pork with a hoi-sin sauce, served with shredded cabbage on top), fish tacos (which seem very popular in California); but generally, shredded beef or pork, or finely diced beef or pork or chicken are good. The seasonings depend on how spicy you like it. Obviously, you’ll want salt and pepper. Smoked paprika is good, imho, for some spice without heat; then you have chili powder, crushed red pepper flakes, cumin for smokiness. Sage always goes well with pork or poultry. Rosemary and thyme, too, for that matter.
Season your meat and chop it fine, throw it in a pan with some kind of fat. Pile it into a taco shell (flour or corn, hard or soft, your choice); top with shredded cheese, pico de gallo, salsa, finely minced onions, finely chopped tomato, shredded lettuce, sour cream. Let your imagination wander!
Tacos are a great use for leftover meats, as you don’t need very much meat for each taco!
Both Alta and Baja. You can make a white-trash version by using fish sticks tucked into corn tortillas, topped with shredded cabbage and a white sauce that is a roughly 50/50 mix of mayo and sour cream, with a touch of adobo sauce for flavor. Squeeze a lime wedge on each taco and chow down.
Much better with decent whitefish, but sometimes you have to work with what is in the freezer.
I make mine with a garam masala: cloves, peppers, cardamom, cinnamon, corriander, garlic, sesame, and whatever else takes my fancy/happens to be in the kitchen. Sure, it’s not very Mexican. The taste is wonderful though…
Usually Tillamook medium cheddar. It’s what I usually have on-hand, other than Havarti or gruyere or some Swiss type. American cheese is reserved for grilled cheese sandwiches.
If you’re going really white-trash, there has to be Velveeta in there somewhere! (or better yet, generic Velveeta). Wash it all down with your choice of Boon’s Farm or Chelada! 
Hm. The only tacos I ever make are with ground beef and seasoning from a packet, and they taste great to me. What I do:
On medium-high heat, cook the beef to not-red. When last bit of red disappears, drain the fat, add the seasoning from the packet (Schilling, I think; these days I use low-sodium, because why not?), add some water, put it back on the heat, and cook for 5-7 minutes longer. The meat should soak up enough water to stay moist, but cook off enough that it’s not drippy. Then, put the meat in warmed crispy shells, add whatever else you want, and eat.
Leftovers are awesome. I just take a little container of the meat to work, nuke it, snap leftover shells in half, and scoop and eat like chips and dip.
We really like pulled pork, green salsa, cilantro, and sour cream in a soft corn tortilla.
Also grilled or baked white fish (with lots of chili powder and cumin on it), guacamole, and pico de gallo in a soft corn tortilla.
Both recipes benefit from a squeeze of lime juice.
Grilled halibut with mango black bean salsa.
The best tacos I had was at a local restaurant run by a Mexican family. They used chunks of roast beef. Somehow they had it tender enough that the meat fell apart in your mouth. Wasn’t stringy or chewy at all.
Around here ground beef Tacos are the norm. Even places run by Mexican families.
At least I hope it’s beef. One never knows for sure.