Find Real Tacos Anywhere in the US

In Mexican Spanish, "taco" means a light meal or snack of a filling folded into a tortilla. One widely cited theory traces the food name to 18th-century Mexican silver miners, who used "taco" for the paper-wrapped gunpowder charges they packed into rock.

By most everyday definitions, no: a sandwich has two separate slices of bread, a taco has one tortilla folded around the filling. Legally it has been argued both ways (a 2006 Indiana zoning case treated a taco as "Mexican-style sandwich"). Cladistically, some argue a taco is a "single-slice" sandwich. In practice, people treat them as different things.

It depends entirely on the build. Two or three street tacos (corn tortillas, grilled meat, onion, cilantro, salsa) are a balanced, moderate-calorie meal with good protein. Large flour-tortilla or hard-shell tacos loaded with cheese, sour cream, and fried fillings are much higher in calories, saturated fat and sodium.

In Mexico, well before Spanish contact: people were folding tortillas around fillings for thousands of years. The word and the modern street taco date from the 18th-19th centuries. The hard-shell taco and the Tex-Mex versions were developed later in the United States.

The taco is Mexican. Several popular US versions (the pre-fried hard shell, the "walking taco", Tex-Mex ground-beef tacos with cheddar and lettuce) were created or popularised in the United States and are American takes on a Mexican dish.

Mexican rice and refried or charro beans are the classic pair. Elote (street corn), a simple slaw, guacamole and chips, a green salad, or grilled vegetables all work. For a crowd, set them up as a build-your-own bar.

Birria is a slow-cooked Mexican stew from the state of Jalisco. It is traditionally made with goat, and now most often with beef, braised for hours with dried chiles (guajillo and ancho), garlic, cumin, oregano, cinnamon and vinegar until the meat pulls apart. It is served either as a soupy bowl with the broth (consommé) or with the meat pulled for tacos.

That is a common debate online. Birria went viral around 2019 to 2021, which means a lot of places now sell a mediocre version with under-seasoned meat and a greasy dip. A good one, with properly braised chuck or short rib and a rich, chile-forward consommé, is genuinely excellent. Judge the specific place, not the trend.

For a treat, yes, if the place makes it well: long-braised meat, a crisp fat-fried tortilla and a real consommé. They cost more and are heavier than street tacos, so they are an occasional order rather than an everyday one.

Traditionally goat (birria de chivo). In the United States, beef birria is the standard, usually chuck roast, short rib or shank, or a mix, because beef is cheaper, milder and easier to source. Some cooks use lamb.