Is a taco mexican?

Question

YOu know this sounds like a dumb question, but I was at Taco Time today and it occured to me that I have never had a hard taco or seen a hard taco at a REAL mexican restaurant, roach coach or otherwise. Is the hard taco an american invention like Egg Foo Young and the Fortune Cookie? Or is the hard taco really mexican.

You know I don't think you idiots get it. I know tacos are mexican. I want to know if Hard Shell tacos are mexican.

Answer 1

Mexican tacos are made with steamed tortillas, American tacos are fried and crispy. Also, Mexican tacos aren't laiden with cheese and sour cream, that's an American thing. Mexican tacos can have different ingredients, like chicken, salsa, pickled onions/carrots/jalapeno peppers, cilantro (when do you ever see cilantro in American tacos?), radish (bingo, never in an American taco), green onion, lemon juice, and I'm sure there are more things.

IMHO, a Mexican taco is healthier than an American taco. Mexican tacos are served with steamed tortillas and don't have fatty dairy products like American tacos. However, they generally have more meat. Yum!

Answer 2

Depends... the nasty tacos you get at Taco Bell are not common in Mexico... A good Mexican taco would be something like a 'taco al pastor'... marinated pork with some fresh cilantro and onion. Or many Mexicans enjoy tongue and brains tacos. Also, in the coastal areas fish tacos are very common and delicious!!! The boring ground hamburger, cheese, lettuce and Old El Paso taco sauce tacos make most Mexicans' skin crawl.. yuck!!! Look for a local taquería in your area to try to find a REAL taco! :-)

Answer 3

The hard-shelled deep fried "American" style taco comes from a very small regional section of the northen border area of Mexico. They have taken an extreme liberty in calling it a "taco" only because it is fried into the u-shape and can be filled with ingredients like a normal taco.

Outside of this very small area, all Mexican tacos are usually made with soft tortillas. (there are exceptions, like tacos dorados, sometimes incorrectly called "flautas" -true "flautas were originally longer- these are rolled up in tubes and then deep fried). Anything made with a hard toasted tortilla, would normally NOT be called a "taco" in Mexico but rather a "tostada." That is why Mexicans often think that the "gringo taco" is purely "American" invention and why you never see a Taco Bell in Mexico (try Taco Inn!)

Anyway, all that said, the "American" taco is still a legitimate taco and quite good if one uses decent ingredients. I make the "gringo style" taco filling lots of times here in Mexico City for my extended family and serve it with lettuce and shredded cheddar in soft corn and flour totillas and everybody LOVES them.

It is much more a regional difference, like the difference between "carnitas" of Monterrey (pork pieces, slowly cooked, lightly coated then braised), and "carnitas" from Mexico City (pork leg deep fried in a vat of oil or lard.)

They are quite different and both are quite delicious. My advice is to just enjoy whatever you enjoy..........

Answer 4

I have lived in Mexico for 20 years and the only hard fried taco shell that I have eaten here I have cooked myself. I have never seen or heard of hard tacos being served here. Mexico does have a hard flat taco shell called a toastado that is served plain with pozole (a soup) or topped sort of like a pizza with various stuff(beans,onions,veggies,tomatos,etc)

Answer 5

I live in México, and yes they are from mexico. They are very good. But, I think that the ones of Taco Bell, dont go near comparing the taste of the ones here. Heck, youll see a taco stand every 2 blocks very yummy! ^_^

Answer 6

The taco is Mexican. And it had been "Americanized". Taco Bell tacos are not authentic but I think they are good.

Answer 7

Taco is eaten by Mexican people, yes.

Answer 8

Really Mexican.

Answer 9

its mexican . have u ever tried the super zizzle cheese taco?

Answer 10

Taco
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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For other uses, see Taco (disambiguation).

Tacos al pastor
Plate of tacosA taco is a traditional Mexican dish comprising a rolled or folded, pliable maize tortilla filled with meat (generally grilled beef, picadillo, fish, chicken or pork), and optionally, a wide variety of vegetables and/or sauces. Common additions include chopped onion and cilantro, chili-based salsa, guacamole, and garnishes such as pico de gallo. (Dishes made with wheat tortillas are generally considered tacos only in northern Mexico.) There are many traditional subvarieties of the taco, and most of them have a certain set of traditional fillings. However, care should be taken when using the word taco outside of Mexico. The word can mean many different things depending on the country in which one is in.

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) or flauta (Flute in English, because of the shape), the tortilla is filled with pre-cooked chicken or barbacoa, rolled into a cylinder and deep-fried until crisp.

Contents [hide]
1 United States
2 Mexico
3 See also
4 External links



[edit]
United States
Having cheese, lettuce, or sour cream on a taco is uncommon in Mexico, as is the use of ground beef for the meat — this is more often seen in American fast food chains such as Taco Bell, Del Taco, or Taco John's.

[edit]
Mexico
Authentic Mexican taquerías (taco vendors or restaurants) serve many cuts of meat not often seen in some cultures, including stomach, head, and liver meat from cattle. One example of such fare are tacos de cabeza, which are actually made out of the head muscles (including the tongue) and brains of cattle. Mexican tacos are more likely to feature chopped onion and cilantro as condiments, as well as red and green salsa or pico de gallo. Lime slices are also sometimes offered to squeeze over the dish.

One speciality found at many taco stands across Mexico (and a particular favorite in Mexico City) and Texas is the taco al pastor. As the name pastor suggests, they were originally made with lamb or mutton, probably adapted from shawarma which was introduced by Lebanese and Syrian imigrants to Mexico. Now, the main ingredient is spiced pork, which is cut in slivers from a rack of meat standing on a vertical spit in front of an open flame; the method is similar to that used to prepare Döner kebabs and gyros in the Mediterranean. The cooked meat is then placed on a maize tortilla and garnished with chopped cilantro, onion, and a wedge of pineapple, with a dash of salsa as a finishing touch. Since tacos al pastor tend to be among the cheapest tacos, they are the mainstay of many a visit to the taquería.


A taco cartThe authentic Mexican taco is not to be confused with the traditional California taco handed down by the Mexican population of old California. It consists of an over-sized (approximately 6 inches across), lard-fried corn tortilla (not a taco shell) filled with seasoned, bean-diluted ground (or shredded) beef, shredded cheese, shredded lettuce and diced tomato. Most California supermarkets sell oversized corn tortillas for this purpose. However with the influx of recent Mexican immigrants to the rest of the United States, these tacos are hard to find outside of the Southwest; immigrant Mexican restauranteurs tend to emulate the hard-shelled, fast-food version of this taco mentioned earlier in this article.

In the Mexican states of Baja California and Baja California Sur, and the U.S. state of California, along the Pacific coast, the fish taco is quite popular, and is served in many seaside taquerias. These tacos contain chunks of either grilled or battered and deep-fried fish, a white, creamy, milk and mayonnaise based sauce and shredded cabbage.

In northern Mexico, tacos are usually offered in both wheat and maize tortillas, although the former is prefered, with the exception of the above mentioned fish tacos, carnitas and barbacoa. The first dated account of the Taco was written by Bernal Diaz del Castillo in 1520 in his chronicles called A True History of the Conquest of New Spain.