My favorite tacos are al pastor tacos (marinated pork meat, roasted on a vertical spit like a gyros or doner kebab, often topped with a bit of pineapple that caps the meat on the spit.) Around here, the usual is the double corn tortilla shell, although the area of Mexico I visited (Merida and Progresso and its environs), tacos were almost always served singly-ply with a smaller corn torilla (maybe 4-5 inches) than the usual in the US. I actually prefer the smaller sized portion. I’m sure this must vary by region, though.
After that, cochinita pibil (an achiote-rubbed pork that’s a specialty of the Yucatan.) Finally, there’s a great fried taco (taco dorado) that’s served with mashed potatoes on the inside. It’s a beautiful mix of textures, with the crispy corn shell contrasted by the unctuous mashed potatoes inside.
I should add, another unexpected favorite of mine. I’m friends with a local respected Yucatecan restaurateur who hails from Merida and Cozumel. Anyhow, one night after drinking out in a bar, he invites me home for some tacos. I walk into the kitchen and his wife is there frying up something that smells like my childhood. It’s Polish sausage and onions. I’m completely confused by this clash of culinary cultures, and he tells me that this is one of his favorite tacos since he moved to Chicago. He fries up slices of kielbasa with onions and potatoes and a bit of chipotle peppers, and serves them with flour tortillas (he was adamant that flour tortillas are the ones to use for this dish.) And, you know what? It was freaking awesome. Kind of a tacos con papas y chorizo with kielbasa substituted for the chorizo.
I have lived in México all of my life and beans in a taco are very common. Carne asada, carne adobada, al pastor, pollo asado etc are normally served with beans optional.
Posters here are trying to hard to define a taco which is simply something inside a tortilla. Even a burrito is a taco. Just another style is all.
Beef: Shredded beef in a flour shell with melted Chihuahua cheese and chopped jalapenos
Chicken: Seasoned chicken on a steamed corn tortilla, pico de gallo and a little white sauce
Carnitas: Served on the double steamed corn tortillas with guacamole, white sauce and sometimes some salsa verde
Lengua: Double steamed corn tortillas, jalapeno spiked guacamole and just a little white sauce
Fish: Grilled whitefish drizzled with lime on steamed corn tortillas, shredded cabbage, white sauce and some very mild hot sauce (like Valentina’s)
Other: We like chorizo grilled with onions and chipotle, scrambled eggs, black olives, sour cream, Chihuahua cheese and sometimes some guacamole on flour tortillas for breakfast. Another overloaded taco Americano, but good.
Kielbasa (or other sausage or ground beef) fried up with potatoes and onions and a lot of pepper is one of my favorite quick dishes. I used to make this when I was on the road, since the ingredients can be found in almost any country.
Finally a food thread that didn’t make me sad about my own lunch.
I had yummy carnitas tacos (steamed corn tortillas as decribed in the OP) with onions and green chiles.
The place opened up near my shop about a year ago. I’ve never been to Mexico, but I worked in southern California with several Mexican ladies who liked to feed me (and evreyone else that worked there) so that’s where my knowledge of Mexican food comes from. I enjoy it.
They don’t offer lingua. Their fish tacos are pretty tasty, but I prefer the carnitas.
True. There’s a Hungarian version of this called paprikás krumpli (potatoes paprikash) that used to be my favorite fall/winter cheap eats (made either with smoked Hungarian sausages or diced slab bacon). It just never occurred to me to serve it in a flour tortilla.
I like beef ones light on the beef and heaaaaavy on the veggies. I love beef flavor, but too much and I’m right to sleep.
Chicken should be blackened or grilled with plenty o’ grill marks. Tons of veggies too, but few onions.
Carnitas should be heavy on the guac and all veggies but lettuce.
I’m salivating just thinking about it. Pittsburgh got their first real taco stand just a few months ago in Brookline. $2 for two soft warmed flour tortillas and a crapton of meat. I separate the two tortillas and distribute the meat and have lunch. Brilliant.
ETA: And a fresh lime wedge over aaaaaaall of them.
It’s a white cheese with a slightly milder flavor than Monterray. Most of the taco trucks and Mexican restaurants around here use it melted, melted with chopped chiles or sometimes shredded. I’m not sure how authentic it is, but if you want something that adds a bit of creamy texture/flavor without competing with the main ingredients, it’s a good choice.
I grew up eating (primarily) Ortega tacos but I am so glad that my eyes were opened to actual, real Mexican foods. I like flour tortillas over corn, but with an “authentic” taco, I’ll go with corn.
I have a little place around the corner that is fantastic (and by “around the corner” I mean “I can walk there”) - extremely authentic, and they specialize in a lot of seafood (which is weird in Indiana). I shy away from the fish (1. It’s Indiana 2. It’s pretty expensive, compared to the $4.55 trio of tacos).
After reading about how much people liked lengua here, I gave it a shot. Ooof. That’s some extremely nasty stuff. Waaay too tender - it is exactly what you think eating something’s tongue would be like. Dunno how you guys got turned on to it.
Yeah, so I got hooked on pork or shredded beef tacos - nothing but onions and cilantro, with lime and hot sauce added. It’s so simple and good - Wednesdays used to be $1 taco day at another very authentic place (it was out of an actual hole cut in the wall of a convenience store) - I could eat 5 or 6 if I had the time to spare! I love preparing them that way at home (after stopping off after work to get some homemade tortillas, of course).
But I grew up on “American” tacos. We’d usually have the Ortega hard corn shells. I love the consistency in a taco made like that. Mom would broil them in the oven to really get them crispy (but not burnt). Cheese first (so it gets melty!), ground seasoned beef, salsa, fresh shredded lettuce. I could eat those all night long. The crisp crunch of the shell, the savory/spiciness of the beef and salsa, creaminess of the melted cheese, the refreshing bite of crisp lettuce - the perfect bite!
WTF is white sauce? I’ve been to quite a few taquerias, a few roach-coaches and lots of sit-down Mexican and Tex-Mex joints, and never run across “white sauce.”
I figure you’re talking about something like that stuff on enchiladas suizas, or heaven forbid, that tzatziki sauce that they use on gyros and kebabs.
I’ve always thought the canonical Mexican taco is one or two corn tortillas, some kind of meat, and finely chopped onions and cilantro on top, served with a lime wedge so you can add it on if you like.
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon buttermilk
1 chipotle chile in adobo sauce
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Put the heavy cream in a 16-ounce microwave-safe glass jar. Microwave on high until the cream is just under 100 degrees F, about 30 to 40 seconds. Add the buttermilk, close the jar, and store in a warm place for 24 hours. The cream will have thickened to the consistency of thin yogurt.
Add the chipotle chile and salt and process with an immersion blender, in the jar, until smooth, approximately 20 seconds. Refrigerate until ready to use.
