# I can has tacos? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 17, 2007, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-has-tacos/419544 "2007-09-17T21:59:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-has-tacos/419544/21 "2007-09-18T01:52:27Z")
Tacos can be all the things listed here. Or you can use my recipe: 1. Corn tortilla 2. Any combination of whatever fits inside and can be folded over and eaten. Just here, in the last few months at different times, I’ve used: steak, carnitas, chicken, duck, salmon, potato wedges and cheese, sour cream, guacamole, pico de gallo, chicharrones, refried beans, at least 5 different kinds of cheese, whatever salsa I have lying around, and once I warmed up a flour tortilla and filled it with apple wedges and cinnamon. Tacos are the perfect food. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-has-tacos/419544/22 "2007-09-18T01:55:14Z")
[QUOTE=Lobsang] Never tried them. Will I ever? Sushi? Snails? Frogs legs? Meatloaf? [/QUOTE] The first three are excellent and I have them whenever they are available. The last is an abomination unto all is holy in both concept and execution. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-has-tacos/419544/23 "2007-09-18T02:26:39Z")
Wow, **Mr. Bus Guy** ’s recipe sounds sorta like mine. Except I’ve never had a apple and cinnamon taco. I’ll have to buy some apples and try it. I _need_ tacos. I need them or I will explode. That happens to me sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-has-tacos/419544/24 "2007-09-18T02:30:00Z")
[QUOTE=Pygmy Rugger] A taco is a corn tortilla, cooked into a hard “U” shape, filled with spiced meat, and usually lettuce, tomato, salsa, cheese, and/or sour cream. [/QUOTE] I’ve found this kind of taco only north of the border (probably inspired by Taco Bell). A Mexican taco is just two steamed (soft) corn tortillas together, folded around some meat. You can put in your preferred salsa, but all that other stuff is U.S. style. (Maybe New Mexico Tex-Mex.) Once I came across a street vendor in northern Mexico selling tacos in fried flour tortillas, but they were horrible. And **silenus** , I’ve never been able to eat a taco of any kind while driving without something falling out on my lap and on the car seat. What’s your secret? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-has-tacos/419544/25 "2007-09-18T03:35:14Z")
Emily Post was right. You have to keep your pinkie extended. In this case, extended around the end of the taco shell to keep all the filling from landing in your lap. It also helps if you minimalist with the taco. No sauces, no sour cream. Just meat, lettuce and cheese. The “ideal” car-taco is something you get on “Taco Tuesday” from a fast food place. Not haute cuisine by any means, but just the thing to soak up the beer you put down at the bar an hour ago. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-has-tacos/419544/26 "2007-09-18T03:39:10Z")
Oh, and **Shagnasty** - A good meatloaf is a work of Art. The ultimate comfort food. Adaptable, protean, chameleon-like, fit for any table and any cuisine. Meat loaf, crater mashed potatoes and mixed veggies are what’s on the menu at God’s Diner. Just don’t let a “chef” get ahold of it. There needs to be plenty of binder in the loaf to soak up the gravy. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-has-tacos/419544/27 "2007-09-18T03:52:16Z")
[QUOTE=silenus] Emily Post was right. You have to keep your pinkie extended. In this case, extended around the end of the taco shell to keep all the filling from landing in your lap. It also helps if you minimalist with the taco. No sauces, no sour cream. Just meat, lettuce and cheese. The “ideal” car-taco is something you get on “Taco Tuesday” from a fast food place. Not haute cuisine by any means, but just the thing to soak up the beer you put down at the bar an hour ago. 😃 [/QUOTE] Okay, I’ll try it. But the only place I know of that puts lettuce and cheese in a taco is Taco Bell. Fish tacos, OTOH, have cabbage and, if made well, a good white sauce that can make or break them. They inevitably fall apart when- and wherever I eat them. Pinkie or no. I’d just as soon pull over. After all, it only takes a few minutes to eat a taco. But I agree in that I can’t imagine eating enchiladas in a car, driving or not. I suppose if I were on a stakeout and couldn’t leave the car I might try it. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-has-tacos/419544/28 "2007-09-18T04:01:48Z")
Fish tacos must be savored. They are best when consumed in the standing position, next to the cart. Hand the vendor a $20, and say “Beer and tacos until that runs out.” You are in Ensenada, of course, somewhere a block or two away from the tourist traps like Papa’s and Hussong’s. I recommend Tres Equis for the beer. Full disclosure: My standard meal at the local Mexican place is the #7 - 2 cheese enchiladas, beans and rice. ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-has-tacos/419544/29 "2007-09-18T04:22:23Z")
You people are weird. Fish? Cabbage? “White Sauce”? Gadzooks. Southern Colorado & northern New Mexico knows how things are to be done. No Tex-Mex, no fish - just pork or beef (special allowances might be made for good chicken), cheese, salsa, lettuce, & tomato (if the salsa isn’t fresh) in a corn tortilla. Mmmmm… ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-has-tacos/419544/30 "2007-09-18T04:31:56Z")
Fish tacos are a Baja California thing. If you haven’t been, haven’t experienced it, then you are inexperienced in some of the finer things in life. You should do something about this, before you die. Tex-mex? Who said any darned thing about Texas!?!! ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-has-tacos/419544/31 "2007-09-18T04:49:10Z")
Yeah, we have fish taco places around here. “Wahoo” or something, not one of my favorite things. The Tex-Mex crack was a preemptive strike. You know how they are… ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-has-tacos/419544/32 "2007-09-18T05:23:46Z")
[QUOTE=5-4-Fighting] What would you want Richard Simmons in a hard corn shell? [/QUOTE] You & Jerry Lewis must love to live dangerously. ---
**Author:** ![Shai\_tan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Shai\_tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shai_tan)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-has-tacos/419544/33 "2007-09-18T06:24:01Z")
[QUOTE=Bobotheoptimist] I had “green chile” in London once. Once. It was very sweet and exceptionally weird. QUOTE] I would like to note that **Pygmy Rugger** is in New Mexico, and was obviously refering to New Mexican Green Chile (is there any other kind?). I’ve never heard it described as “very sweet”, or even “exceptionally weird”. If eaten raw it bears some resemblance to a spicy green bell pepper (not sweet). When roasted, as it typically is, it is the food of the gods, and a staple of New Mexican cuisine. [Fuller Explanation](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=7544202#post7544202) of what New Mexicans mean by “Green Chile”. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-has-tacos/419544/34 "2007-09-18T06:41:09Z")
[QUOTE=guizot] I’ve found this kind of taco only north of the border (probably inspired by Taco Bell). A Mexican taco is just two steamed (soft) corn tortillas together, folded around some meat. You can put in your preferred salsa, but all that other stuff is U.S. style. (Maybe New Mexico Tex-Mex.) Once I came across a street vendor in northern Mexico selling tacos in fried flour tortillas, but they were horrible. \ [/QUOTE] I can guarantee it was not inspired by Taco Bell. You’re right about the New Mexico Tex-Mex part, though. [QUOTE=Bobotheoptimist] You people are weird. Fish? Cabbage? “White Sauce”? Gadzooks. Southern Colorado & northern New Mexico knows how things are to be done. No Tex-Mex, no fish - just pork or beef (special allowances might be made for good chicken), cheese, salsa, lettuce, & tomato (if the salsa isn’t fresh) in a corn tortilla. Mmmmm… [/QUOTE] If you define northern New Mexico as starting in Socorro, I’ll agree. Not too sure about you Coloradoans, though. 😉 The last time I ate in southern Colorado, I ordered some green chile stew. It was decent, I’d give it about a 7 for flavor, but about a 1.5 for spice. The waitress was dumbfounded that I could eat it, I guess they thought it was closer to an 8 or 9 for spice? ---
**Author:** ![Shai\_tan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Shai\_tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shai_tan)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-has-tacos/419544/35 "2007-09-18T06:42:04Z")
Ah, hell. Thought it previewed okay. If a mod happens by, would you fix that? ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-has-tacos/419544/36 "2007-09-18T14:43:20Z")
[QUOTE=Shai’tan] I would like to note that **Pygmy Rugger** is in New Mexico, and was obviously refering to New Mexican Green Chile (is there any other kind?). I’ve never heard it described as “very sweet”, or even “exceptionally weird”. If eaten raw it bears some resemblance to a spicy green bell pepper (not sweet). When roasted, as it typically is, it is the food of the gods, and a staple of New Mexican cuisine. [/QUOTE] Thanks. I spent most of my school vacations within 30 miles of the New Mexico border, which is why I found the … _stuff_ … in London to be so weird. Sounds tho like you’re talking about chili instead of chile. Raw pork? Eww. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-has-tacos/419544/37 "2007-09-18T15:01:05Z")
[QUOTE=Bobotheoptimist] Thanks. I spent most of my school vacations within 30 miles of the New Mexico border, which is why I found the … _stuff_ … in London to be so weird. [/QUOTE] That doesn’t sound as bad as when I was in Brazil this summer, and was served a dish that looked **exactly** like chopped green chile with a little bit of beans. I knew better than to get my hopes up, and scooped a big spoonful onto my plate. Except, as I pulled the spoon out of the bowl, it looked like something out of Alien vs. Predator. Disgusting goo! [QUOTE=Bobotheoptimist] Sounds tho like you’re talking about chili instead of chile. Raw pork? Eww. [/QUOTE] Chile is roasted and pealed, while chili is dried and ground. I’ve never had any raw pork? Well… I have, but never as part of a dish. While sober. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-has-tacos/419544/38 "2007-09-18T15:05:34Z")
[QUOTE=Shai’tan] \ [Fuller Explanation](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=7544202#post7544202) of what New Mexicans mean by “Green Chile”. [/QUOTE] Good thread, I don’t know how I missed it! :o ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-has-tacos/419544/39 "2007-09-18T15:18:24Z")
[QUOTE=Pygmy Rugger] Chile is roasted and pealed, while chili is dried and ground. I’ve never had any raw pork? Well… I have, but never as part of a dish. While sober. [/QUOTE] See, “green chile” (or even “chili”. I’m an engineer, not a spellering-person) to me means “roasted peppers and pork stew”. If I order green chil(i)e, I don’t expect to receive a chopped up pepper. Maybe it’s regional, but from Armadillo \ to Don Quixote’s (where I have to resort to pointing at the menu, since I don’t speak the language) “green chile (or chili)” is a dish, not an ingredient. It’s easier to talk about than it is to spell. I’m sure both **Shai’tan** and **Pygmy Rugger** know what the heck I’m trying to say, but my culinary eloquence is as pathetic as my homemade green chile. Green chili and pork stew good! And so are tacos. But not enchiladas. Unless they’re made with green instead of that horrible red sauce. I’d eat a box of rubber bands if they had a good green chili on them. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-has-tacos/419544/40 "2007-09-18T16:07:49Z")
[QUOTE=Pygmy Rugger] That doesn’t sound as bad as when I was in Brazil this summer, and was served a dish that looked **exactly** like chopped green chile with a little bit of beans. I knew better than to get my hopes up, and scooped a big spoonful onto my plate. Except, as I pulled the spoon out of the bowl, it looked like something out of Alien vs. Predator. Disgusting goo! [/QUOTE] I’m curious as to what this was. It sounds like it might have been _xuxu_ (also known as [chayote](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chayote), which does become pretty soft and squashlike when boiled, although not (in my experience) what I’d call “gooey.” My other thought was that it might have contained _quiabo_ (okra), but if my wife’s preparation is any indication, they usually have the good sense to (literally) boil the snot out of it before serving… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-has-tacos/419544.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-has-tacos/419544.md?page=3)