¡Yo adoro tacos!

Tacos.


I consider them to be one of the world's most perfect fast foods.
They are simple, versatile, self-contained bundles of joy. No utensils are required. They're made to be eaten on the street, purchased from a food cart, filled with parts of the cow or pig that most people nowadays have never even considered eating, victims of a modernity where eating the unsavory parts is no longer a necessity.

But wait, tacos are so much more, aren't they? 


Some have tried to tie the advent of the taco to the conquistador Cortes around 1520, noting that many a grand feast was held during his occupation of what is now Mexico, these feasts being well chronicled by several of Cortes's soldiers and members of the clergy. These chronicles included descriptions of flat corn breads, what the native Nahuatl peoples called "tlaxcalli" and the Spanish call "tortillas", filled with the meat of pigs Cortes brought over from Cuba. But, anthropologists have found evidence of indigenous people in the Valley of Mexico eating tacos filled with fish, insects, and snails well before the arrival of European explorers.


In the U.S., the first English-language taco recipes began to appear in California in the early 1900's.


Tacos have since gained a level of ubiquity in the United States that is not seen anywhere else, not even Mexico. Mexicans generally eat tacos for either breakfast or as a late night snack. Trying to find a taco between 12 and 6 in the afternoon in Mexico is a exercise in futility. In this age of instant gratification, I can grab a taco in one form or another at almost any hour of the day or night, even here in medium sized Madison, and if I look hard enough, I can find fillings such as lengua, (beef tongue) cabeza, (meat from a cow's or pig's head) and other types of offal wrapped in a soft corn tortilla. Or, I can have ground beef with lettuce, tomatoes, cheddar cheese, sour cream, guacamole, pickled red onions, etc. For all of the vitriol and anger aimed at Mexico and its people these days, Americans have come to embrace one of its greatest imports, doing so in the best way we know how; by taking the basic idea and expanding upon it, utilizing foodstuffs and techniques from many ethnic backgrounds, finding a particular recipe or recipes that appeals to the largest demographic, and then placing our stamp of approval, making it our own. This is what we've done with Mexican food, and other ethnic cuisines in general, for the past 100 years or more. 


Thinking about this has me thinking of other facets of this topic as well. In the past decade, we've come full circle on the "homogenization" of ethnic cuisines. There is a greater demand for the "authentic" experience in ethnic dishes. But what, exactly, does authentic mean? What is an authentic taco? Would someone from Oaxaca find the same taco to be authentic as someone from Mexico City? What does it mean if they do agree or they don't agree?


This will be discussed next time. It may be a bit drawn out and I'm not sure where it will lead us, but I know I'll be hungry at the end.


Until then...¡Tenga una gran semana!