Austin,TX
A Taco Exposé
A chef prepares handmade tortillas in the kitchen of Taco Joint, a taqueria near The University of Texas Campus.
By: Zach Lozano, Doug Waters, and Wes Scarborough
With the round, white tortilla serving as the canvas and a colorful array of meats, salsas, and vegetables acting as the color palette, tacos have become more than just an imported dish from Mexico. They have emerged as an obsession and an artform that gives its makers the ability to do anything they want with just a wad of dough and a handful of fillings.
In Austin, the taco has become as synonymous with the city as live music has, as locals and visitors make the most of the various restaurants and taco varieties made available to them across town.
With origins in Mexico, tacos have come a long way since then, making pit-stops across south Texas along the way and picking up even more fans. As the taco has moved across regions it has evolved, but the basic fundamentals were always the same. With the only real requirement being a tortilla, any sort of food has the potential to be a taco.
“There are three elements- tortilla, filling, and garnish,” said Alejandro Escalante, author of Tacopedia, a book that talks about the origins and history of tacos from Mexico. “The Holy Trinity! It’s simple, but infinite.”
Escalante said that tacos have been a mainstay in Mexico since the advent of the tortilla in 8000 BC, and the taco has been evolving ever since. He said maize and the domestication of animals in Mexico had a big impact on the tacos people still eat today.
“Anything can go into a taco,” said Escalante.
Traditional components of a taco call for tortillas- corn or flour- and meat such as chicken or pork. However, more non-traditional ingredients have emerged and chefs are always looking for ways to innovate a timeless favorite, Escalante said. Some of the more recent ingredients seen in tacos have been crickets and grasshoppers.
Other elements that have been added on as tacos evolved are salsas and cheeses, said Escalante, and each manages to mix well with the other ingredients and create a perfect synergy of flavor within the tortilla and meat combination.
Escalante said that if two ingredients taste good together, they could make a good taco. Because of this simplicity and endless possibilities, tacos are a universal item that anyone can enjoy.
In his book, Escalante said he wrote about 19 different styles that have become common in tacos, depending on the regions or ingredients used in them.
Tacos have since spread from their homeland of Mexico, into Texas and gaining fans from a whole new audience. That popularity has come to Austin, where hundreds of taco restaurants have made a footprint.
Taco Joint is a locally owned and operated restaurant just north of the University of Texas. Lilia Valdez has been the general manager at the restaurant since it opened in 2011. She said Taco Joint is successful because they serve a quality variation of a popular item that can be hard to find in the UT area.
“We are authentic,” said Valdez, who learned to cook as a child growing up in a Mexican American home in the Rio Grande Valley. “It helps the product. We cut the meats by hand and our ingredients are the best- it’s local, fresh produce.”
Valdez said Taco Joint prefers to make its tortillas from scratch, because even such a minor detail in the production can negatively impact the taste of the taco.
Growing up in a Mexican household, Valdez said she was exposed to authentic cooking from an early age and it inspired her to honor heritage in her culinary creations.
“If it wasn’t for the [Rio Grande] Valley and our Mexican heritage,” Valdez said. “This wouldn’t have happened.”
Valdez said she is used to authentic ingredients in tacos and believes these types of ingredients make all the difference to the consumer. Her goal when opening Taco Joint was to stay true to the culture behind the food and bring that experience to a new audience.
College students make up a majority of Taco Joint’s regular customer base, either on the way to class or taking a study break. Valdez said that students often have very little time for a good meal, but tacos make it possible to enjoy your meal even when on the go.
“They’re delicious, quick, and it’s affordable,” she said.
Thomas McRoberts, an electrical engineering freshman, is a frequent taco eater and says the simplicity and low cost of tacos have are what keep him obsessed.
“You can capture the essence of a meal and roll it up into a tortilla,” McRoberts said. “I like how creative you can be with a taco and how you can have a taco as simple or complex as you want.”
McRoberts said he enjoys tacos for the different ingredients that go into them, and that people have embraced tacos for their openness to new ingredients and quality.
Mando Rayo is a self-proclaimed taco journalist and has turned a hobby into a lifestyle. He and co-author Jarod Neece are writing a book called The Tacos of Texas, documenting his statewide tour where he visited 10 cities in search of what he believes are the best tacos around. In Austin, Rayo also gives “taco tours” by appointment to visit different restaurants around Austin and explore diverse styles of the dish.
Rayo said he has traveled across the state looking for the best tacos and publishing his findings in a blog with other taco aficionados. He said growing up around tacos and spending time in the kitchen inspired him to have a lifelong love affair with the Mexican dish.
Recently, tacos have made headlines as journalists from San Antonio and Austin have pitted the city’s competing taco markets against one another. Both cities argue their tacos reign supreme and it has caused everyone from mayors to restaurant owners to argue who really has the best tacos.
“It definitely has to be South Texas,” said Rayo, when asked who should claim the most bragging rights for tacos. “Breakfast tacos did not start here [in Austin].”
Rayo said that the exact location cannot be determined, but the large presence of Mexican Americans in San Antonio and other parts of South Texas make it safe to assume that is where the taco came from.
However, Rayo said that both cities have their strengths when it comes to different types of tacos. He said that Austin is a good city to come to when looking for tacos beyond the fusion of American and Mexican cuisines known as Tex-Mex, which has become the diet of choice in San Antonio.
“If you want a good Tex-Mex taco, like a breakfast taco, go to San Antonio,” said Rayo. “But if you want variety, come to Austin.”