Some tacos al pastor. Always!
“A taco is like the Mexican team, like the Virgin of Guadalupe”, says gastronomic writer Pedro Reyes in the last of the six episodes that make up the first season of Taco Chronicles. "Tacos are in everyday life, they are a matter of pride." There are no tacos without Mexico, and no Mexico without tacos. They are national flag, identity, history and legacy. They are democratic, they unite the entire extensive and diverse Mexican nation.
“Different cultures, different social and economic strata converge in a single taco”, explains another food critic. A flour or corn tortilla as a blank sheet of paper to write history and stories, fill it with different ingredients that taste like memories and family, compadres and carnal, raw and peda.
A dish that, due to its versatility and apparent simplicity, has traveled far from its country of origin. Today, even in Madrid, we have more than worthy tacos.
The taco is Mexico.
“I really believe that tacos are the perfect food”, he explained in Vice, Xavier Cabral, the man with the most envied job: taco tracker for the series. “There is a double standard about them compared to other essential foods in the world. No one complains about paying $30 for a plate of pasta that is mostly flour and water and a handful of good ingredients. But if you charge $30 for a plate full of tacos, they will come for you." That double standard was in his head and in that of the creator of the series, paul cross (known film producer: Miss Bala, Zama), while they were preparing it. "We wanted to show the nuances and intricacies and techniques of work that go into cleats and why some cost a little more."
Each of the episodes is dedicated to a type of tacos. They have chosen, with pain, only six, because the variety is very extensive. There are six tacos that are eaten, above all, in the northern part of Mexico. So, in the event of a second season, the entire southern zone would remain and much more.
They start with the shepherd tacos, they continue for those of carnitas, basket, roast, barbecue and finally, of stew In each one they explain their origin, but they also visit some of the best places to eat them (a job that led Cabral to eat up to 18 tacos a day) and trace the stories of their chefs and cooks, the ranchers who provide the meat, the tortillas. And, in some cases, they speak of the innovation that lives the recipe. The taco himself introduces himself and speaks in voiceover of himself, while images of his steaming ingredients will make you salivate. Much.
The most chilangos: pastor.
SHEPHERD TACOS
“Sacred balance between sweet and salty”. "Pure badass flavor." They are the most emblematic of Mexico City (where they recommend El Pastorcito or Los Güeros), the most chilangos. And perhaps one of the most international. Loin or leg meat, rolled in marinade, with chili, vinegar, spices... each taco maker has his personal and secret recipe. Then the meat is punctured and it is turned over vertical embers that are always better if they are made of charcoal. Cutting it on the tortilla is also an art, part of the success is part of the cut, the finer the better. A few slices of pineapple, onion, cilantro, sauce and two bites to the mouth. You eat standing up, temperature is key.
As you imagined, its origin is in the eastern Mediterranean. And little by little they are accepting variations in their recipe. There is the red trompo (meat skewer), with more marinade, the meat-colored one, with less marinade, and even the black one prepared by Monterrey, in Mercury, "a taco al pastor without rules."
Carnitas: 500 years of history.
CARNITAS TACOS
The taco with history, which is traced back to Hernán Cortés. It's like a pork confit, because they leave the pig stewing in its own fat. The different pieces are cooked and the balance between the textures of these meats is the success of this taco that for many is the king and is, especially, popular in Michoacán, where they suggest a visit to Carnitas Cortés or Carnitas Don Raúl, sites with hearth; and, above all, the Quiroga Market, the capital of carnitas, where Jaime Ayala's stall is always the busiest. Jaime gets up every day for more than 50 years at half past two in the morning to prepare his carnitas.
Basket tacos: those who are looking for you.
BASKET TACOS
The most popular and the cheapest, those that find you. Except on Sundays, when they rest. They are called that because they are sold in a basket, covered with blue plastic and brown paper. to keep them warm. Each bicycle rack or bicycle rack can carry between 300 and 600 tacos in each basket. Potatoes, beans, pork rinds. Those are the three classics. Well soaked in their sauce. And then each taco player has its innovations, like Lady Basket Tacos that prepares them with chorizo. In addition to Mexico City, the basket tacos come out of the state of Tlaxcala.
Asada tacos, a trip to Sonora.
ROASTED TACOS
sound, to the north, it is the great state of these tacos that are pure meat. The best meat. Grilled in a flour tortilla and with good sauces. There is no more secret. In Hermosillo, the Armando Tacos they are the most popular: it started in a cart and today it is a restaurant that continues to serve asada tacos non-stop.
Here they follow the cycle of meat, the ranchers, Nereida, the retail butcher. Those of asada are synonymous with family reunion. Of Sundays around coal and meat.
Maguey: the plant of pulque, of barbecue, of mezcal.
BBQ TACOS
The most spectacular in its preparation. Of mutton or lamb meat that is put into red-hot pits, covered with maguey leaves and left to cook for 12 hours, letting its juice drain over a consommé that later also accompanies the taco. At least that's how you eat El Pica, the most famous place in Texcoco, "the Disneyland of barbecue", where you have to go very early as they open at eight in the morning. Because the barbecue ones are morning tacos.
Guisado tacos, the nostalgic tacos.
STEW TACOS
Are nostalgic tacos, those that taste like grandma's kitchen. They were called cazuela tacos because they were the stews from the cazuela poured into a tortilla. “It is the crowning of Mexican cuisine in tortilla”, they say. In the same position, as in The Vegetable or Tacos Hello, You can find the entire map of Mexican cuisine because they usually have a minimum of 10 different stews, almost always accompanied by rice or beans. From liver with onions, mincemeat, Swiss chard... In Los Angeles, Guerrilla Tacos has innovated from nostalgia.