Celebracion Nationale

     

     Today is a celebratory day in honor of the taco.  Yes folks, it is National Taco Day.  The word taco in Mexico is the English equivalent of "sandwich."  The tortilla, made from either corn or wheat, is wrapped around a filling that consists of a spiced protein, beef, pork or fish.

     It's ironic that such a familiar food has a relatively unknown history to it.  But one expert of the taco, Jeffrey M. Pilcher, says that the word originated from the silver mines in Mexico during the 18th Century when taco referred to the little explosives that workers used to extract the ore.  These were little pieces of paper wrapped around gunpowder and placed into holes created in the rock.  "When you think about it, a chicken taquito with a good hot sauce is really a lot like a stick of dynamite," Pilcher wrote in an on-line article for Smithsonian.com.  "The first references (to the taco) in any sort of archive or dictionary come from the end of the 19th Century.  And one of the first types of tacos described is called tacos de minero --miner's taco.  So the taco is not necessarily this age-old cultural expression, it's not a food that goes back to time immemorial."

    But other sources claim that tacos predate the arrival of the Spanish in Mexico in the 16th Century.  Anthropologists say there is evidence suggesting inhabitants of the lake region of the Valley of Mexico ate tacos filled with small fish.  The fish were later replaced by small ive insects and ants in the states of Morelos and Guerrero, while locusts and snails were favorite fillings in Puebla and Oaxaca.

     There are many traditional varieties of tacos, some of which include Tacos de Cabeza, which are the brain, tongue, eyes and lips of a cow's head.  Others include crispy tripe tacos, shrimp tacos and Tacos dorados, which means fried tacos.  Called Flautas because of their flute shape or tacquito, these tacos are filled with cooked and shredded chicken or beef and rolled into tube or flute shapes and deep fried until crispy.  Taco al Pastor, which means shepherd's style taco, is the most popular in Mexico. It generally consists of spiced pork, which is cut in slivers from a vertical spit over an open flame.  Breakfast tacos are served at many restaurants especially in the American Southwest.  This fried corn or flour tortilla is rolled and stuffed with a mixture of meat, eggs or cheese and topped with onions, salsa and avocado.  

     So on your way home today stop in to your neighborhood Taco Bell and celebrate!