What’s the taco 
scene where you live?
Corn or flour?
Beans or no?
Lettuce and cheese or naked?
Hard shell or soft?
Beef, pork, chicken fish, or…?
Or my heritage, deep fried with peas and sometimes potatoes.
I love them all.
:
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North of San Francisco, it’s mostly street tacos. Double small soft corn tortillas, meat, finely diced onion, chopped cilantro, and salsa. I actually like cheese and lettuce on my tacos, but people give you funny looks if you ask for that!
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Well, I live in SoCal … so my tacos are like the stars in the night sky.
Nearly infinite.
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Not much of a scene here. While there a few Mexican restaurants down the hill, only one of them is actually worth going to. Their “scene” is…
Corn or flour? Corn.
Beans or no? No.
Lettuce and cheese or naked? Depends on the taco. Carnitas (my fav), just onions and cilantro.
Hard shell or soft? Soft.
Beef, pork, chicken fish, or…? They got 'em all and more, but I usually only order carnitas or chicken.
As a guy who used to live in San Diego, most of the places up here are laughable. I got spectacularly better food from a 400 sq/ft corner stand than 2500+ sq/ft sit down restaurant up here.
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Austin has them all. I love a puffy picadillo and a semi puffy, semi crisp mixed corn and flour taco with carnitas. I also order al pastor in soft corn and carne asada in soft flour pretty often. I am a big fan of cotija, lime,cilantro, pickled onions, and lime on most of them. And then there are breakfast tacos…
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No taco scene and no real “tortillas” in my food hell.
Can’t wait till I go to Baja Sur again for these!
Fish and prawns with corn tortillas. Same filling with flour tortillas.
One time I was lucky there was no one blocking the vehicle. It’s always busy with people waiting for their tacos.
The prices are sweet. The farther south of Baja Sur you go the higher the prices. Like twice as much or more.
Pavement breakfast birria
I wanted to try but it’s only open in the evening. Meat and other bits from the head of cow or another animal. The partner was glad this shed was still open only in the evening when we were here a few months back.
Meanwhile I make tacos at home with real Mexican tortillas. Half the room in my bag was reserved for these:
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If you have access to lard, home made flour tortillas are easy and delicious. Corn tortillas are even easier. A cheap tortilla press helps but is not mandatory.
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We have pretty much every permutation, from $4 food cart tacos in the East Village to $36 lobster tacos in Midtown. Some of my favorites come from Tortilleria Nixtamel, which makes their own corn tortillas, possibly the best in the universe.
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No heavy taco culture here, but you can find just about everything in the various restos, and easily find the ingredients to make your own too. (PNW - Tacoma and Seattle area)
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Assuming we’re talking authentic places, not Taco Bell or Moe’s, here in NJ it’s flour, no beans, no lettuce, no cheese, soft, beef or pork or chorizo, with sliced radish, grilled spring onions, and lime wedges on the side.
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I’m not putting any limits on the original post.
I thought the answers would be fun.
And they have been so far.
This grew out of the SF Street tacos thread.
I don’t remember the term street tacos till way after my introduction to the soft shelled variety.
But I don’t think hard shelled are an abomination or inauthentic, to torture that term.
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BTW… if you like chicken tacos, I have been working on the filling for years…
https://scottinpollock.us/tinga.html
Give it a try, and if you have any suggestions I am all ears.
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Hard shelled tacos certainly are not inauthentic.
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This sounds really good. I’ll give it a whirl - thanks!
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And in case you can’t find decent tomatoes/tomatillos, you can substitute with a 15-16oz can of fire roasted tomatoes… but better with fresh.
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Thanks - good to know.
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You can get flour tortillas in Baja Sur?
The drive-thru taqueria I go to most often doesn’t put beans, cheese, or lettuce on their tacos. They’re soft tacos, and you’re given a choice of flour or corn tortillas when you order. I almost always get carnitas tacos which have pico de gallo and guacamole on them. Choice of 3 salsas, one of which is some orange colored concoction that is incredibly good.
The other taquerias do similar food, just not as good. And they don’t have that orange colored salsa.
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Yes, flour tortillas are readily available in Baja Sur. When you order something you are asked which type you would like. In the supermarket I also notice there are different flour tortillas for tacos and quesadillas, burritos etc.
In Oaxaca, a corn territory, they don’t ask if you prefer corn or flour tortillas. There are only corn tortillas there. I never saw any flour tortillas at all in Oaxaca.
After this year’s trip I decided from now on I’ll eat corn tortillas whilst in Mexico and bring flour ones home. Corn tortillas can’t keep well, like 2 day max in the fridge. Freshly made corn tortillas are so good and cheap. Warm from the press for 12 pesos a kilo! (Whereas flour tortillas cost 23 pesos for the same amount due to the lard.)
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I live in the middle of Pennsyltucky (ugh), so any semblance of Mexican food or, more pacifically, tacos could only be found at Taco Smell. For years.
However, an Oaxacan family opened up a place in a Unimart a couple of years ago, and their tacos are the bomb: carnitas, barbacoa, lamb, birria – you name it. They’ve become so popular they’ve recently opened their 3 location, which makes me so happy for them (and everyone else in town, bc their food is sofa king good!).
As for where I currently am (Berlin)… the less said about tacos here, the better.
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