For me, a ‘traditional’ taco’s ‘shell’ is two small, steamed corn tortillas. Order a taco from a taco truck – even up here – and that’s what you get. ‘American’ tacos have pre-made crunchy corn shells. (Maybe they use them in Mexico, but to me they’re ‘American’.) There’s a pub I like that makes fish tacos that are pretty good, especially considering that they are not a Mexican place. Only, they use flour tortillas. Fast-food places like Taco Bell use flour tortillas for their ‘soft tacos’. I’m sorry, but I don’t consider anything with a flour tortilla a ‘taco’. When I use flour tortillas at home with fast-food style seasoned ground beef, I call them ‘taco-ritos’ because I consider them to be more burritos than tacos. Pita? No, that’s a pita sandwich.
At Mexican restaurants (as opposed to take-outs) you can get fried tacos. For beef, I like those. (For carnitas or linguas I prefer the steamed corn tortillas.) Put some shredded beef in a corn tortilla, fold it over, and fry it up. The part where the meat is is soft and the rest is crispy. Mmm… Grease! I liked the ones from Tito’s Tacos (basically a take-out) in Los Angeles. They weren’t the best tacos ever, but they were just the thing on a Saturday afternoon, especially after I’d been flying. Up here, I can’t find fried tacos except in sit-down restaurants. They’re not as good as fried tacos in L.A. I’m not sure why. Meat, corn tortilla, fry. Add a bit of lettuce and shredded cheese. Somehow though, they always seem too ‘wet’ to me. Fried tacos I make at home are better, even though they’re spur-of-the-moment things so I use ground beef instead of shredded beef. Ironically, the closest thing to a fried taco I can get in a pinch are Jack In The Box tacos. Fried shells. Too bad they use that weird puréed meat instead of shredded beef. (Still, sometimes ya just gotta have a couple of JITB tacos!)
So how do you like your tacos? Here’s how I like mine:
[ul][li]Beef: Shredded beef, not too wet, in a fried shell with lettuce and not too much shredded cheese[/li][li]Carnitas: Carnitas in two steamed corn tortillas with a bit of guacamole with plenty of jalapeños in it[/li][li]Linguas: Tender tongue in two small steamed corn tortillas with minced onions and cilantro and red or green salsa[/li]Fish: Breaded and fried fish on two steamed tortillas with shredded cabbage, white sauce, and lime juice. (Grilled fish is good too, but I like fried.)[/ul]
Well, now I’m hungy. I have to make my own flour tortillas now. At least I’ve settled what’s for dinner on Saturday. Also, in regards to the OP, I’m a beef, chicken or carnitas fan.
I like them any way I can get them pretty much, but almost always with soft corn tortillas.
I learned how to eat soft corn tortillas from my SO, who is from Mexico. Before that I thought tacos had the hard shells and burritos had the soft flour tortillas. Of course Taco Bell has the small flour tortilla for their tacos. I guess that counts in Taco Bell land.
We eat tacos four or five times a week but that’s breakfast/lunch/dinner.
Different fillings get different tortillas around here. Homemade flour tortillas that I toast a little on the stove burner is sturdier for my chunky chicken tacos, but we usually use soft corn for the rest. I don’t really get hard shells for tacos but we have bean tostadas almost every Friday using the flat fried corn tortillas.
I don’t like cilantro personally but the SO likes it chopped into the salsa and/or guacamole. I just eat avocado, tomato, a little shredded lettuce or cabbage (cabbage with fish). We eat all kinds of chicken, beef, pork, sheep, goat, bean and egg, and fish. Fish I don’t want fried. I like whitefish cooked with a salsa from cream or mayo, lime and cheese crumbles.
We have soft corn tortillas almost every night whether we eat tacos or not. Usually fresh from the corner store if we get up in time.
I got tired of flour tacos either during school or shortly thereafter. Mainly because the TB version, in particular, is so doughy and glutinous and flavor-free.
I eat whatever comes off the taco truck, which usually amounts to carnitas or lengua on a corn tortilla.
I will admit to a nostalgic fondness for those high-tech Ortega hard shells where they’d figured out a way to keep them from shattering apart and dumping all the filling out at the first bite.
If I’m eating out, then two soft corn tortillas around carnitas is the choice. If eating at home, then semi-crispy hot out of the oil corn tortillas filled with whatever meats we’ve cooked up, and loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, and whatever else strikes my fancy.
Another reason I’ve cut down the taco consumption overall is a lesson I took away from Hollywood Henderson’s autobiography (yes, I will admit to being the one person alive who has read that tome, certainly the only one to cite it in a food thread). He said growing up in Austin he loved the Mexican girls, but man, after a few years of piling on the tortillas, they went all to Hell. (The context in which he felt obliged to make this observation is lost in the mists of time). Impolitic though it was, Hollywood was on to something, as periods when I’ve put on excess weight corellated heavily (heh) with my taco-centric days (ehh, which also corresponded to the beer years, so who knows, really?).
Duke: More guac for me! (I forgot to mention the onions.) For 20 years I’ve been searching for carnitas tacos like they made at El Tarasco in El Segundo. They were as I described (with onions), with guacamole peppered (heh) with jalapeños. I have not been successful.
Right on. But for me, only lettuce and cheese on my homemade fried tacos. Add tomatoes, sour cream and onions, and I make ‘taco-ritos’.
Corn or flour, meat or fish, hard or soft, tacos are one notch above burgers in the favorite hand-food category for me. But not those flavorless concoctions from fast food enterprises. I like a good spicy ground or shredded beef on mine, please. Or halibut that’s been dusted with chili spices and flash fried.
Well, here at home, my favorite “family” tacos and what we have grown up with as a midwest family are made with ground beef prepared with a taco seasoning pack (usually Old El Paso taco seasoning), canned refried beans, a lightly fried large flour tortilla (about 35 seconds a side in shallow veg oil), fresh chopped lettuce, tomato, onion, sometimes Green Pepper, La Victoria Salsa, shredded cheddar, and sour cream. Beats the heck out of any commercial taco I have tried, even though it is an overstuffed “gringo” taco.
No its not… because when we fry the tortillas we put a crease in them and eat them “on the half shell” like a taco… not wrapped. Also, the refried beans are optional… we do it family style and everybody gets to put what they like on their tacos. We sometimes also have homemade guacamole as a topping or side, too- Along with tortilla chips… some people like to eat the beans as a side with the tortilla chips… some like them on their tacos and as a side…
There’s just something about the lightly fried flour tortillas that really “makes” these homemade tacos. The tortillas are fried till they have puffed and gotten light, golden, crispy and pliable, it is almost sweet from the caramelization. I suppose there is such a burrito… but it’s called a chimichanga.
The food’s pretty decent, and also cheap. The lines can be long, but they’re not actually an hour. I think the worst lines for me were like ten minutes. Parking sucks, but I could always find a place to park my motorcycle. The burritos were unlike any other places burritos. Just their chili (chunks of beef in a red sauce) wrapped up in a large flour tortilla. I liked those. Couldn’t get them anywhere else. I liked to get two tacos (with cheese) and a cup of refried beans (with cheese). I’d eat the beans with the chips that come with everything. I just liked it.
And it was cool that they used half-dollars in their change.
Barbacoa or lengua on corn tortillas with onion, cilantro, lime juice, pico and hot sauce if I’m eating out. Eating at home is pretty much the same except sometimes I’ll use homemade flour tortillas instead of corn.
Yeah, when I was five. A woman tried to lead me away from my parents.
I’ve eaten in a lot of Mexican restaurants from holes in the wall to ‘Mexican style’ chains, and I’ve never seen beans in a taco unless I made bean-and-cheese tacos myself. Maybe it’s a West Coast U.S. thing.
Actually, I’d prefer not to have beans and/or rice in my burritos.
