I love tacos. I love tacos so much, I dream about opening a taco stand. Mostly, it’s just a mental diversion, a day dream that entertains me. I think about where it should be, what is on the menu, what it would look like.
And the name. That is a hard one. Every time I think I have come up with a clever name, bam! somebody else did it years ago. I must have lost my touch, because it seems like there are no new names under the sun.
Don’t get me started on taco memes, otherwise I will link to “it’s Raining Tacos”, which I somehow missed when it was a thing.
Maybe I am just obsessed with tacos for the moment, but is the taco craze done? Am I too late?
It seems to me that people are always willing to try what might be a better taco. With the right location, right price, right taste, it’s still possible.
Taco craze? Some places sell them. Most don’t. The places that do sell them, mostly sell them in basically the same forms they’ve been sold in for centuries. What are you seeing that’s different now?
I never noticed any taco “craze.” It’s been mainstream American food most my life. I haven’t noticed any trend or anything involving them, except maybe for fusion tacos, like Korean tacos and the such.
I should add, you may be seeng a local or regional craze. For example, here in Chicago, barbecue has just exploded over the last 5 years. It’s another example of fairly mainstream food, but for some reason, it’s become very popular lately.
In main stream retail, a much wider variety of fillings. More authentic; no cheese, no lettuce, no tomato. Soft tortillas instead of hard. Fish, carnitas, asada and the fusion tacos, like with asian influences. Yes, they have been made this way in Mexico for, well, forever. But they are new to most Americans, who are used to hard shells, with ground beef, cheese, lettuce, tomato and hot sauce (unless you are in New England, which seems to be allergic to heat in anything).
There is a huge taco craze now across much of the country. Just a few years ago, I had not ever heard of fish tacos. Even tacos that were traditional in Central America and Mexico weren’t common in much of the United States. Now we get them all—tacos al pastor, carnitas, lengua, even lamb, goat, and others. Now there are bison tacos, boar tacos, mahimahi tacos, Korean tacos, Vietnamese tacos, … almost every kind of cuisine is producing something in taco form.
At a free outdoor concert last night I had catfish tacos that were delicious. Grilled catfish, diced mango, cilantro, peppers, sauce, on a soft taco. Mmmmmm.
That’s how you get them off of any taco truck in L.A. I did eat the pre-made hard shells with ground beef, etc. when I was a child in the '60s and '70s though.
I never had a fish taco until the '90s. Up until then I thought ‘fish taco’ was a rude joke. (‘I Fish Tacos’) Boy, was I missing out!
The legnua, cabeza, lamb, goat, etc. (I love the tongue and the cow-face ones) are normal to me. I must go to the wrong taco trucks, because I’ve never seen ‘exotic’ tacos like bison or Vietnamese.
Anyway, we have tacos fairly frequently. Since they’re a convenience food, they’re almost always ground beef or shredded beef. And they’re always ‘tacos dorados’ – put meat in the tortillas, fold them, and fry them until they’re golden – because that’s what Mrs L.A. wants when she wants tacos. I think I have some cod in the freezer, though. Might be time for fish tacos on soft tortillas with cabbage and pico de gallo and crema-analogue.
There was a time when taco trucks were not as ubiquitous as they are today, and you had to go into the latino neighborhoods to find them. The explosion of taco trucks is a relatively recent phenomenon.
Actually, I’ve seen a decline in the number of taco trucks in the last several years. In L.A. they were all over the place. Even after I moved to the PNW you could find them. Recently though, I see fewer taco trucks and more ‘catering trucks’ (to use the generic terms) that have more limited menus. For example, Maximus/Minimus only offers pulled pork, veg, or grilled chicken sandwiches. Others only sell ‘gourmet’ hot dogs. Still others sell Asian or ‘fusion’ food. In Seattle, taco trucks are harder to come by. In Bellingham there are a few, but Burrito King in Blaine sells taco truck food (though not as large a menu as I’m used to in L.A.) and is more convenient.
That’s what I was wondering. It seemed like taco innovation peaked a couple of years ago, and tastes have moved on somewhat (to what, I’m not sure). Tacos will never go away, of course, but I’m thinking they will never be as hip as they were for a while. IMHO.
The trend I have seen is not that people aren’t eating tacos or offering wide varieties of tacos, but that tacos have moved up from trucks into restaurants.
That’s what has happened around here with things like District Taco and Takorean.
Tacos are overrated. Because they’re poorly designed. Because there’s no good way to eat them.
If you hold them vertically, you can’t take a bite without tilting your head sideways. If you turn them sideways, stuff falls out. And either way, the layers aren’t aligned right, so that you get one bite with just meat, and then another bite with just lettuce or salsa or whatever’s on it, which defeats the purpose of having all the ingredients together in the same food in the first place.
Plus, if it’s a hard-shell taco, with every bite you take you run the risk of cracking it or shattering it, turning it into a cross between a taco salad and an ungodly mess.
Aha. OK, I see what you’re saying. (I’m trying to hear what you’re showing! ) It sounds like what’s happening is that there was an invasion of not-taco trucks, and ‘upscale’ taco trucks, and those became hip. And with their new hiptitude, people ate there instead of at traditional taco trucks. So it’s not that taco trucks became un-hip, but more people noticed them but ate at the upscale/fusion/not-taco catering trucks.
That’s a good point. Some people who have heard of new wave tacos (is that a thing?) may not want to chase down a quality taco truck, and prefer to go to the same location every time to get their curried goat taco or whatever.
I don’t think that is true with soft tacos. It is a lot easier to keep everything inside becase the tortilla is flexible, and wraps around the fillings better than a hard taco. Plus, it is easier to add hot sauce or other condiments. People like hot dogs with lots of added condiments, and they are the same open face construction. Losing a little is par for the course for many foods.
Just a small nitpick, whether tacos are waning or not they have not ‘jumped the shark’. That would imply they had done so out of character that they are no longer true to themselves. Tacos as we know them have always been a bit of an American basterdization. Not even Taco Bell can fuck that up.
As far as “jumping the shark” what’s the deal with paninis?
Every bar/restaurant around here is suddenly offering paninis. They are all virtually identical, other than the number of "n"s and "i"s in the name. I tried my first one last year and I’m already sick of them.
Yep, the taco is on its way out. Soon to be followed by “the sandwich”.
Fish tacos are a staple of hundreds or restaurants were I live (coastal CA), and if it seems like a “craze” in your area it’s because you don’t live where people consider them to be one of the most normal things in the world to eat.
Fish Tacos’) Boy, was I missing out!
) It sounds like what’s happening is that there was an invasion of not-taco trucks, and ‘upscale’ taco trucks, and those became hip. And with their new hiptitude, people ate there instead of at traditional taco trucks. So it’s not that taco trucks became un-hip, but more people noticed them but ate at the upscale/fusion/not-taco catering trucks.