Taco History *UPDATE*

A taco is a traditional Mexican dish comprising a rolled or folded, pliable maize tortilla filled with meat (generally grilled beef, picadillo, fish, chicken or pork), and optionally, a wide variety of vegetables and/or sauces. Common additions include chopped onion and cilantro, chili-based salsa, guacamole, and garnishes such as pico de gallo. (Dishes made with wheat tortillas are generally considered tacos only in northern Mexico.) There are many traditional subvarieties of the taco, and most of them have a certain set of traditional fillings. However, care should be taken when using the word taco outside of Mexico. The word can mean many different things depending on the country in which one is in.

A taco is normally served flat on a tortilla that has been warmed up on a comal; since the tortilla is still soft, it can be folded over or pinched together into a U-shape for convenient consumption. In the variant known as the taco dorado (fried taco) or flauta (Flute in English, because of the shape), the tortilla is filled with pre-cooked chicken or barbacoa, rolled into a cylinder and deep-fried until crisp.

United States
Having cheese, lettuce, or sour cream on a taco is uncommon in Mexico, as is the use of ground beef for the meat — this is more often seen in American fast food chains such as Taco Bell, Del Taco, or Taco John's. Also, hard-shelled tacos (where the tortilla is heavily fried to give it a crisp texture) such as those seen in American fast food are almost non-existent in Mexico.

Mexico
Authentic Mexican taquerías (taco vendors or restaurants) serve many cuts of meat not often seen in some cultures, including stomach, head, and liver meat from cattle. One example of such fare are tacos de cabeza, which are actually made out of the head muscles (including the tongue) and brains of cattle. Mexican tacos are more likely to feature chopped onion and cilantro as condiments, as well as red and green salsa or pico de gallo. Lime slices are also sometimes offered to squeeze over the dish.
One speciality found at many taco stands across Mexico (and a particular favorite in Mexico City) and Texas is the taco al pastor. As the name pastor suggests, they were originally made with lamb or mutton, probably adapted from shawarma which was introduced by Lebanese and Syrian imigrants to Mexico. Now, the main ingredient is spiced pork, which is cut in slivers from a rack of meat standing on a vertical spit in front of an open flame; the method is similar to that used to prepare Döner kebabs and gyros in the Mediterranean. The cooked meat is then placed on a maize tortilla and garnished with chopped cilantro, onion, and a wedge of pineapple, with a dash of salsa as a finishing touch. Since tacos al pastor tend to be among the cheapest tacos, they are the mainstay of many a visit to the taquería.

The authentic Mexican taco is not to be confused with the traditional California taco handed down by the Mexican population of old California. It consists of an over-sized (approximately 6 inches across), lard-fried corn tortilla (not a taco shell) filled with seasoned, bean-diluted ground (or shredded) beef, shredded cheese, shredded lettuce and diced tomato. Most California supermarkets sell oversized corn tortillas for this purpose. However with the influx of recent Mexican immigrants to the rest of the United States, these tacos are hard to find outside of the Southwest; immigrant Mexican restauranteurs tend to emulate the hard-shelled, fast-food version of this taco mentioned earlier in this article.

In the Mexican states of Baja California and Baja California Sur, and the U.S. state of California, along the Pacific coast, the fish taco is quite popular, and is served in many seaside taquerias. These tacos contain chunks of either grilled or battered and deep-fried fish, a white, creamy, milk and mayonnaise based sauce and shredded cabbage.

In northern Mexico, tacos are usually offered in both wheat and maize tortillas, although the former is prefered, with the exception of the above mentioned fish tacos, carnitas and barbacoa. The first dated account of the Taco was written by Bernal Diaz del Castillo in 1520 in his chronicles called A True History of the Conquest of New Spain.

Thanks Wikipedia!

*UPDATE*

CrispyPata added:

I would like to add to the history of the Taco by adding a lil info about the main component of the Taco...the Tortilla. (I'm one of those people that prefers home/handmade tortillas over mass produced tortillas) There is a difference in taste if the tortillas are freshly made. I will eat store bought, but I prefer homemade...yes, I am being a tortilla snob...get over it. :) I'm not sure how many taquerias make their own tortillas, but it shore will be fun finding out. I do know of a few spots that make their own tortillas, and I will review them here later.

If you think I'm the only one going nuts about tortillas, think again. There's an article about Tortillas quickly replacing White Bread in America.

The Tortilla is like the Black Lion of Voltron...its what holds everything in place. A Taco would not be a Taco without the Tortilla. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the Tortilla...

Tortilla

The Spanish language term tortilla [torˈtiʝa] can be used to mean several different dishes, depending on the area. In Mexican and Mesoamerican terms, a tortilla is a kind of unleavened bread, generally made from maize (corn) and with the introduction of wheat by the Europeans, also with wheat flour. This is the most common usage of the term in English.

In Spain, tortilla stands for omelette, and is thus made up of battered eggs, with other ingredients added at will. The terms Spanish tortilla, tortilla española or tortilla de patatas all refer to a common recipe in Spain, an omelette with stir-fried potatoes and chopped onion, often served as a staple food in Spanish bars and cafés.

As an easy solution to both the problems of handling food in microgravity and preventing bread crumbs from escaping into delicate instruments, tortillas (of the American flavor) have been used on many NASA Shuttle missions since 1985.

Tortilla making

The traditional tortilla has been made of corn or maize since Pre-Columbian times. It is made by curing maize in lime water, grinding and pre-cooking it, kneading it into a dough called masa nixtamalera, pressing it flat into thin patties, and cooking it on a very hot comal (originally a flat terra cotta griddle, now usually made instead of light sheet-metal).

Soaking the maize in lime water is important because it liberates the vitamin niacin and the amino acid tryptophan. When maize was brought back to Europe, Africa and Asia from the New World, people left out this crucial step. People whose diet consisted mostly of corn meal often became sick with the disease pellagra, which was common in Spain, Northern Italy and the southern United States.

In Mexico, particularly in the towns and cities, most corn tortillas are nowadays made by machine and are very thin and uniform, but in El Salvador or Guatemala they are still often made by hand and are thicker. Corn tortillas are customarily served and eaten warm; when cool, they often acquire a rubbery texture.

Traditionally throughout Mesoamerica from Pre-Columbian times into the mid 20th century, the masa was prepared by women using a mano (a cylinder shaped stone like a rolling pin) and metate (a stone base with a slightly concave top for holding the corn).

Most people agree that the traditional stone-ground, hand-made tortillas taste better, but these have been supplanted by cheaper, less labor-intensive, machine-ground corn flour tortillas. Most restaurants proud of their traditional fare, however, will have at least one person bent over a hot comal, turning out an endless stream of piping-hot, hand-made tortillas.

The wheat flour tortilla was an innovation after wheat was brought to the New World from Spain while this region was the colony of New Spain. It is made with an unleavened, water-based dough, and pressed and cooked just like corn tortillas. These tortillas are very similar to the unleavened bread popular in Arab, eastern Mediterranean and southern Asian countries, though thinner and smaller in diameter. In China, there is the laobing (烙餅), a pizza-shaped thick "pancake" that is similar to the tortilla. The Indian Roti, which is made essentially from wheat flour, is another example.

Tortillas vary in size from about 6 to over 30 cm depending on the region of the country and the dish for which it is intended.

Among tortilla variants (without being, strictly speaking, tortillas) there are pupusas, "pishtones, gorditas, sopes, and tlacoyos. These filled snacks can be found in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. They are smaller, thicker versions to which beans, chicharrón, nopales or other ingredients have been added. They are customarily cooked on a greased pan.

In Argentina, Bolivia and southern Chile, the size of the tortillas is smaller, and they are generally more salty, made from wheat or corn flour and roasted in the ashes of a traditional adobe oven. This kind of tortilla is called Sopaipilla (not to be confused with a puffy fry bread of the same name common in New Mexico, United States). In Chile and Argentina it may also be sweetened after being cooked by boiling in sugar water. In commercial production and even in some larger restaurants, automatic machines make tortillas from dough.

Thanks again Wikipedia!