Decades before Taco Bell started selling hard nacho tacos, Mexican street stands would spoon grilled ground beef and vegetables with salsa into bags of Doritos. This is as “authentic” a snack as grilled corn, fruit paste, agua de frutas, menudo, homemade ice cream, pollo rostizado cooked on the spit or buying huge slabs of chicharron al mercado.
Frozen dinners are still a little more uncommon in Mexico than the US even though Costco sells similar things. Too many good fresh ingredients. Mexicans often prefer freshly prepared food. Many families make their own shells, and a few make their own masa harina.
“Walking tacos”!. Yeah, here there’s plenty of Mexican snack places that will serve you that. Flaming hot Cheetos with nacho cheese and all that stuff, too. Usually at ice cream places with “La Michoacana” in their name locally (there’s a Chicago Public Radio episode detailing how those came to be.)
It was in PA, don’t know if they were related. But previously I lived in Bethesda and Rockville and might have run across the place eventually if I hadn’t moved
Me neither. A lot more dishes on their current menu but the ones I encountered were very much like some of the new ones, including the naming style IIRC. I didn’t have plans to visit their locations any time soon but at least it’s on the list now. Never thought I’d ever hear of them again. It must be at least 40 years since that little place in PA was there.
I prefer burritos over tacos. But I do like a good taco now and then. I prefer crunchy over soft, and soft tacos are usually better with flour tortillas. A soft corn tortilla is okay if it’s white corn.
Yellow corn tortillas are disgusting if you don’t fry them. They are mealy and gross. I feel like I’m eating raw dough or something. Nasty.
Currently my favorite burritos from a restaurant are the bare-rittos from MadMex. Burritos served in a bowl without the tortilla. With a fishbowl margarita, of course
Corn tortillas have to be steamed for soft tacos, unless they’re made right in front of you – there’s a local place that does this. But once corn tortillas have come to room temperature, they have to be re-heated and steaming is the best option. Frying is absolutely not necessary.
Hah - the one place I had a soft corn tortilla was in NC (Mariakakis, in Chapel Hill).
As far as somewhat more authentic Mexican food: I spent a summer working in Orange County, CA and one weekend at 3 out of 4 meals at Mexican restaurants. Every one was a very different experience. We didn’t dare anything like menudo (may not have even been on offer).
This May, we were driving down from Oregon to LA, through the Central Valley, and had what was a decent (to this gringa) approximation of street food: a restaurant that was basically a permanently parked food truck.
Steamed or warmed on a griddle/pan. You can’t use them straight out of the bag or wrapper. (Or at least I wouldn’t want to—wait, often in the morning I can get them still warm in the paper bag or wax paper wrapper—those can be eaten straight out of the container.) Manna from heaven, they are. I live about a quarter mile from a tortilleria, so about one every four mornings, when the wind is blowing right, I get a nice whiff of fresh masa as I take the kids to school.
I already put up my preferences, but figured I’d also mention (for those with a Netflix sub) Taco Chronicles which goes over a section of the huge variation on the theme found in the Mexican states. Spanish with English subtitles if that’s an issue for any watchers.
It isn’t a super in-depth dive or anything, but goes far, far beyond what we’ve discussed here.
I don’t understand the point of tacos. The fillings, sure - they can be great. But the tacos themselves? Best as I can tell, they’re just poorly designed pitas.
