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What are Tacos
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You’re hungry, you’re in Mexico... you’re lucky! Mexican cooking runs the gamut from hot snacks to haute cuisine and is basically regional in nature.
That means, just for starters you have a choice of 32 cuisines, one for every state in the nation!
SOME COMMON PLATES
The variety of food is tremendous, although categories remain constant.
For example, served in proletarian-style dining rooms across the land is the no-frills cooking called comida casera.
And while the dishes vary, the presentation does not.
Antojitos are those savory snacks and quickie meals we all get the urge for - to give you an idea, if hot dogs were Mexican,
they’d be an antojito. There are literally hundreds of them, and they differ greatly from region to region.
Quesadillas, (melted cheese in a tortilla) tortas (sandwich in a roll) and tamales
(steamed corn dumplings stuffed with a variety of fillings) are all antojitos,
but by far the greatest of them all is the traditional, beloved, quintessentially Mexican, taco.
THE TORTILLA
The Mayan people, inhabitants of southeast Mexico and part of Central America since immemorial time,
believed that man was created from a corn husk. Nowadays, the grain is used in every imaginable way,
but its simplest form is the versatile tortilla. The tortilla is a round, flat, cornmeal cake grilled on a sheet of tin called a comal.
It's not easy to make tortillas, the lady in charge of this tricky operation is called a tortillera.
She’ll flip a tortilla several times, with her fingers, before satisfied it’s ready; and when it is, the ‘right’ side is slightly puffy.
Tortillas are the basis of many dishes, not just tacos, and at meal time, are preferred ten to one over bread.
THE TACO
A taco is a corn tortilla wrapped around, or topped with, a filling. In both cases, the right side should be ‘up’.
Tacos are only limited by the size and consistency of the tortilla. Those used for open-faced tacos are thickish,
while soft, thin, more pliant ones are used for the rolled variety. The filling can be just about anything.
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• The regulars: fresh grilled tortillas topped with any combination of beef or pork; served with a variety of chile sauces and (often)
a side of grilled cambray onions.
• Carnitas tacos: pork, baked until it is so tender that it falls from the bone.
Ask for maciza which is the thick, meaty part.
Carnitas come with guacamole (a kind of avocado dip), or sliced avocado and chile sauces.
• Guisado tacos: made from dishes prepared with several ingredients (somewhat like stews).
Usually a variety of guisados, up to six or more, are offered at a time. Cruising past the huge,
ceramic pots in which the guisado is prepared, you indicate how many tacos of each kind you want.
Guisados are too numerous to be mentioned, but here are a few of the national favorites: poblano chiles in cream sauce;
chicken mole (a chile pepper-peanut-chocolate sauce); squash flower and mushrooms; potato and spicy sausage;
pork rinds in green sauce; ground beef and veggies. Guisados are rolled in thin, soft tortillas.
• Sudado tacos: It means “swet” and is because of the way the tortillas are stuffed, folded,
then layered in a basket where they sweat, due to the basket being wrapped in clothes to keep in the heat.
The fillings for sudados are pretty constant - the buyer knows exactly what options to expect.
There are refried beans; pork rind; red mole; green mole. Pickled vegetable sticks (carrot, onion, cauliflower) and,
of course, chile peppers, come with the purchase. These last are never inserted in the taco,
but rather eaten with it: you take a bite of one, a bite of the other, and so forth.
• Dorado tacos: the term means “golden” and refers to the fact these tacos are deep-fried.
Dorado tacos are stuffed with shredded pork, beef or chicken, then served on a bed of lettuce,
topped with sour cream and grated cheese. Some of the most popular side dishes include guacamole
and refried beans. In many parts of Mexico a tomato, onion and chile broth is served with the tacos.
A derivative of dorado tacos is the flauta. The tortilla used for the flauta, however, is much longer
than that used for any other taco; it’s also rolled very tightly, hence the name which means “flute” in Spanish.
The original flauta was filled with kid that had been baked in an earthen oven, a cooking method referred to as barbacoa.
Flautas are deep-fried and garnished just like dorados.
• Pastor tacos: tacos al pastor are a treat indeed. Raw pork is cut into thin strips, marinated in adobo chile sauce,
skewered on a vertical spit and cooked over a low flame. The meat for each taco is carved right from the spin.
The tortillas are then garnished with chopped onion, coriander (similar to parsley) and a snip of pineapple.
Surely by now you’ve decided to try Mexico’s number one culinary export, so here’s a little advice: eat at a taco stand.
These places serve nothing but tacos so they know what they’re doing. Tacos ordered off a menu in a fancy restaurant
don’t taste the same; besides, part of the fun is the ambiance in which they’re served.
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