humble taco is subject of new research

[donnadaf]

Story in Washington Post today on the origins of the taco. (No matter where and how tacos came to be, I'm just glad they did.)


http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/hum ... story.html

[rabihorcada]

My favorite part of that article:

The word “taco” appears in Spanish dictionaries dating to the 17th century, but not meaning foodstuff. To blast ore, Mexican miners would wrap an explosive charge in a wad of paper called a taco. “So with circumstantial evidence, you could see someone calling a tortilla wrapped around beans and chilies a taco — a culinary explosion,” Pilcher said. He found later references to tacos de minero.

[GeckoS]

Yummy food porn.

Is there any food more sublime than tacos al pastor, the King Kong of Mexico City street fare, served up on plastic plates 24-7 at a thousand stands by a taquero who shaves off the caramelized pork from the twirling rotisserie, plops the shreds of meat into a warm tortilla lying open like a welcome mat in the palm of his hand, adds chopped onion and cilantro, and then finishes it off, with a flick of his knife, by adding that genius bit of pineapple?

[dentistavallarta]

Pool/Billiards Cues are also called tacos: taco de billar
go figure

[GeckoS]

How did someone think of putting corn in lye to make it digestible?

[rabihorcada]

It probably has something to do with lots of rain and a wood fire.
Leaching wood ashes with water gives you lye. Somehow it ended up in the corn meal pot after a long night of drinking fermented agave, but that is another story....

[freeeye]

Basic chemicals make not so basic chemicals "normal."

I have a hard time digesting either extremely acid or basic foods easily. Don't underestmate the wisdom of people who have eaten this stuff of centuries.

Just as you NOTB people need all kinds of preservatives in your food to make it presentable, the people here need to address the reality of ease of digestion.