taco

For other uses, see Taco (disambiguation).

Barbacoa tacos.

A taco is a traditional Mexican dish comprised of a rolled, folded, pliable maize tortilla filled with an edible substance. According to the Real Academia Española, the word taco originally meant (and still means) a plug (rolled paper used to plug a hole) or paper or cloth patch for musket balls.^[1] Care should be taken when using the word taco outside of Mexico, as the RAE lists 27 possible meanings for the word. A taco is normally served flat on a tortilla that has been warmed up on a comal; since the tortilla is still soft, it can be folded over or pinched together into a U-shape for convenient consumption. In the variant known as the taco dorado (fried taco), flauta (flute in English, because of the shape), or taquito, the tortilla is filled with pre-cooked chicken or barbacoa, rolled into a cylinder and deep-fried until crisp.

Mexico

A plate of tacos.

A traditional taco stand or taqueria in Mexico may include different types of tacos at the same locale for the convenience of customers and the delight of many different preferences. In the stand it's possible to find up to five taqueros or cooks who'll serve up different types of tacos by area, in order of popularity. Taquerias almost always include the following areas:

Asador or the grill in which the following is served: carne asada tacos which are world famous, tacos de tripita or cow intestine tacos (cow intestines also grilled to a crispyness), chorizo asado (traditional Spanish style sausage on the grill); each served on two overlapped small tortillas made on the spot, guacamole, salsa, onions and cilantro at the customer's request. Also on the grill a very popular sandwiched taco is served called mulita or little mule to which Oaxaca style cheese (the most popular) is added between two tortillas and the customer choses any of the meats on the whole stand even from other areas, mulitas are more expensive than tacos. Also, the taquero on the asador may prepare quesadillas adding any meat and using either corn or wheat tortillas.

Tacos de suadero (grey) and chorizo (red).

De Cabeza or head tacos, in which there is a flat punctured metal plate from which steam comes out for the cooking of the following parts from the head of the cow: starting with plain Cabeza which is a serving of the muscles on the cow's head, cow's brains or Sesos in Spanish, cow's tongue or Lengua in Spanish, cow's cheeks or Cachete in Spanish, cow's lips or Trompa in Spanish, and cow's eye or Ojo; for these tacos the tortillas are warmed on the same steaming plate for a different consistency and served also in two's and also include salsa, onion and cilantro, the guacamole is not standard but is optional.

De Cazo or deep boiler in which a big round metal bowl filled with pork's grease is used for the cooking of the following meats using a blow torch placed under the bowl: Tripa (the tripas cooked here are pig's instead of cow's and deep boiled), Suadero (tender beef cuts deep boiled in the grease), Carnitas and Buche (this type of taco is available in only a few taco stands since on its own it's a very popular dish in Mexico and there are whole restaurants dedicated to the serving of this dish).

Al pastor/De Adobada or Shepherd style is made of thin pork steaks seasoned with adobo (a traditional Mexican seasoning) skewered and overlapped on one another to a sum of about 150 steaks as they're placed through a vertical rotisserie cooked by a flame as it spins (just like the meat prepared in Greek restaurants for gyros replacing the type of meat and seasonings) and it includes the same garnishes as the previous, also the traditional guacamole may be substituted by an avocado cream instead depending on the stand for this kind of tacos.

As an accompaniment to tacos, many taco stands will serve whole or sliced red radishes, lime slices, salt, pickled or grilled chilis (hot peppers), and occasionally cucumber slices, or grilled cambray onions.

United States

Hard-shell taco

The taco in the U.S. is different from the original Mexican taco and is handed down by the Mexican population of old California. It is a gourmet affair, consisting of an over-sized fried corn tortilla (not a hard shell) filled with seasoned ground or shredded beef (or chicken or pork), cheese, lettuce and sometimes tomato. Often, the taco itself is deep-fried so that the shell molds itself around the meat filling. Most California supermarkets sell large corn tortillas for this purpose. However with the 21st Century influx of Mexican immigrants to the U.S., these tacos are getting hard to find outside of the Southwest U.S. More often, Mexican restaurateurs tend to serve Mexican tacos, or emulate the hard-shelled, fast-food version of this taco found at such fast food chains such as Mighty Taco, Taco Cabana, Taco Bell, Taco Bueno, Del Taco, Taco Casa or Taco John's. The taco has become a popular Mexican dish in the United States.

One version of the taco found in Tex-Mex cuisine is the breakfast taco which contains eggs and a combination of potatoes, sausage, or bacon.

See also

• Quesadilla
• Tostada
• Fajita
• Taco rice

Notes

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