One of my
first lessons on food and its cultural importance to a person’s ethnic and
cultural identity revolved around the Taco or more accurately, the Americanized
Taco.
I remember
sitting at a food court as a teenager eating Taco Time tacos, when a friend who
was Mexican bluntly stated that Taco Time was an affront to her cultural heritage
and that what I was enjoying was not Mexican but American. I knew in that instant that if I wanted
to piss her off all I had to say was “Taco Time is the best Mexican food ever!”
Well 17
years later, I very much appreciate and prefer the traditional Mexican taco, although
I still occasionally crave the Taco Time version.
When I sat
down to write about the tacos from La Taqueria, that high school memory popped
into my head and I thought to myself, “I better double check tacos are Mexican.”
They are
and the history of the Taco is very interesting. I came across an interview between the Smithsonian and Jeffrey M. Pilcher, a history professor from the University of
Minnesota, who wrote a book exploring the global impact of Mexican cuisine,
chronicling the origin of the taco called, “Planet
Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food”
If you want to read the interview in its entirety,
you can go to this link: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Where-Did-the-Taco-Come-From.html. If you want the Cole
Notes version, here we go:
·
Tacos
are Mexican and predate the arrival of the Spanish
·
Tacos
were probably invented by silver miners in 1700s
·
Tacos
are traditionally the food of the working class
·
Soft
corn tortillas are the traditional vessel for the taco
·
The
Hard Shell U shaped Corn Tortilla was around since the 1940s and are definitely
an American invention but by Mexican Immigrants
·
The
popularity of the Hard Shell took off in the 1950s when a machine was invented
to mass produce them
·
The
Al Pastor filling synonymous as a traditional Taco filling was actually
invented by Lebanese immigrants in Mexico in the 1960s and is a rift off the
Lebanese shawarma.
·
In
fact, when Lebanese immigrants started to put the rotisserie meat they used for
their shawarmas onto corn tortillas instead, this new type of taco was
originally called tacos arabes or Arab tacos
This simple
yet delicious concoction has a complex history. When it comes to the tacos at the La Taqueria, all I’m going
to say is they use traditional ingredients, the fillings better reflect what
you can get in Mexico even if they are not necessarily exact replicas and above
all else they are tasty.
La Taqueria
has 2 locations (one on Hastings and one on Cambie) and the menu is the same at
both. Each place produces consistent tacos. So even though I went to the Cambie location for the below
tacos, the Hastings location would serve the identical yummy tacos.
The
flavours of the fillings are simple which suits me fine since the antitheses of
the traditional taco is covered in cheese, tex-mex seasoning and tomato-ey
salsa.
You can amp
up the taste with salsas (varying degrees of spiciness offered) and pickled vegetables (onions, carrots,
cauliflower & jalapeño peppers) which La Taqueria provides free of charge.
My personal
favourites are:
The ASADA
(grilled
‘AAA’ flank beef): I like I can taste charring of the beef.
The AL PASTOR
(Pork marinated in achiote chilli and served with
pineapple): The pineapple is traditional but they don’t use a rotisserie to
cook the pork as they do in Mexico.
However it’s still a tasty filling.
The DE CACHETE
(Braised beef cheeks): I just like that it is rich and
full of beef flavour.
The RAJAS CON
CREMA
(Roasted poblano peppers with creamed corn, sour cream & mexican
cheese): The is a vegetarian taco that I feel has a lot of character. The sweetness of the corn and peppers
balances out the sour cream.
The tacos are about 4 inches in diameter and one can easily eat 4 at one
sitting. The only downside is that some of the fillings, in particular the beef & pork based fillings, can be a touch greasy.
Currently
La Taqueria has a special on Wednesday where you buy 4 tacos you get 2 free. Perfect opportunity to find your favourite fillings.
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