Taco Day

I was calmly cruising the aisles of the local supermarket when I got blind-sided by the goofiest question I've had thrown at me by a fellow expat in three decades living south of the border.

"Excuse me," the pleasant looking lady said. "Can you tell me where I can find taco shells?"
"Sure thing," I fired back. "Jump in your car, head north and as soon as you cross the border, hit the nearest Safeway."
I know, it was a petulant reply, but jeez Louise, here she was in the kingdom of the fresh tortilla, looking for a box of vile imitations. And you just know she intended to take those perfectly uniform, shopworn shells and stuff them full of hamburger meat, grated Kraft cheese and some American-made so-called salsa.
In hindsight I realize the poor woman didn't have a clue what she was missing. Mexico offers more kinds of taco than Imelda has shoes, but none that even vaguely resemble what this poor soul had in mind.
That singular interlude came to mind the other day when I learned that March 31 has been declared as the Dia del Taco... as if there weren't already enough fiestas and commemorations on the nation's collective calendar!

Actually it turns out to be a totally bogus celebration, cooked up by the Televisa television chain for unknown motives. I discovered that Mexican bloggers are going ballistic over the issue. But for me it's a great justification for sinking my teeth into a platter of piquant taste treats... once my salivating palate works through all the menu options.
Diana Kennedy, the grand master of Mexican cuisine, describes the taco in its simplest terms: "a fresh, hot corn tortilla rolled around one of a hundred or so fillings and liberally doused with one of a hundred or so sauces." For brevity's sake, let's go with that definition and forget about anything involving the wheat flour tortilla.
Tacos can be grossly divided into two essential categories: blandos (soft) and dorados (crispy).
A soft taco, as Kennedy explains, is simply constructed by using a plain tortilla as a vehicle for whatever savory strikes your fancy... meat, beans, cheese, vegetables, fish or combinations thereof.
The meat category includes beef, pork, lamb, goat, chicken, even iguana. Without getting too graphic, just about any body part you can imagine is considered fair game.
A big seller is the taco de cabeza, made out of beef carved off the entire head; you can specify the part you like best. The taco al pastor, a universal favorite, is made with pork slathered in a mild chile sauce and roasted on a spit. There are tacos de bistec (thinly cut beef thrown on the grill), tacos de chorizo (spicy pork sausage), and tacos de guisado (any beast, any cut, stewed up in an infinity of manners). And just to be fair, let's mention tacos de picadillo – made with, yes, ground beef, but invariably cooked with finely diced veggies and a tomato sauce.
Choices for non-meat fillings are also endless. Among the most common offerings are frijoles refritos (refried beans), papas (mashed potatoes), rajas (poblano chile strips) and hongos (mushrooms).
There's a special category of super soft tacos that get that way through various wrapping and steaming techniques after the tortilla is filled. These are known as tacos al vapor (vaporized), tacos sudados (sweated) or tacos de canasta (basket).
Tacos dorados can be filled just about any of the fillings listed above. Sometimes the tortilla is folded over before frying, sometimes it's rolled.
The taco is the quintessential finger food, which is what makes it such a marketable, stand-up-and-go snack food for anytime of the day or night.
The topic of the taco knows no bounds, so I'll call it quits with this brief primer, hoping your appetite is sufficiently whetted to get the Dia del Taco marked in red on your calendar. But for heaven's sake, if you find yourself craving plain ground beef crammed into a pre-fab shell, get behind the wheel, head north and don't turn back!