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The Search for Tacos Dorados
Posted on Wednesday, June 10 @ 18:26:02 PDT
Topic: Mexican
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Whenever I sit down at an unfamiliar Mexican restaurant, I scan the menu with the hope of finding tacos dorados--"golden tacos," so-named because the tortilla or whole taco is fried to the namesake color. Rarely do they appear under that name, outside of restaurants serving primarily Mexican-Americans. Rarely do they appear at all. On to the food...
On English menus, tacos dorados are more likely to be called "crispy tacos," "hard tacos," "deep-fried tacos," or even "old-fashioned tacos." The latter two terms better capture the dish by referring to the cooking method and implicitly acknowledging that it has become something of a throwback.
Tacos dorados, like "soft" tacos, originated in Mexico, but have evolved significantly in America through a combination of influences, including ingredient availability, cross-cultural acceptance, and eventually corporate economizing. (Jeffrey Pilcher's Winter 2008 Gastronomica article on the topic--"Was the Taco Invented in Southern California?"--is essential reading on the topic.) The trajectory has been towards greater economy, speed, and convenience, but with sacrifices in taste and texture, particularly when it comes to the treatment of the tortilla.
Originally, tacos dorados were prepared in a "closed" style, by folding or rolling cooked meat in a tortilla and pan- or deep-frying it (as pictured above). (Rolled tacos dorados are also commonly referred to as flautas or taquitos.)
In the late 1940s, patent applications were filed for devices designed to fry multiple tortillas simultaneously in the now-characteristic V- or U-shape--an "open" form that allowed the shells to be prepared in advance and fillings to be inserted later. "Open" tacos had previously been made by submerging one side of the folded tortilla in oil until crisp (e.g., in a skillet), then turning it to finish frying the other side at the proper angle. Robb Walsh cites Raul Molina Jr., of Molina's in Houston, as using crushed tin cans as improvised forms for making "open" taco shells in the late 1940s (The Tex-Mex Cookbook, 181).
The early multiple-tortilla fryers of Juvencio Maldonado and Joseph Pompa--basically submersible baskets--were soon to be eclipsed by more elaborate mechanizations of the process for larger scale enterprises. Patent descriptions wandered farther from the recognizable craft of a human cook into Rube Goldberg territory--out of the frying pan and into the factory.
A patent application by Frank R. Schy in November of 1971, for instance, describes a mechanism that makes tacos from "a sheet of comestible material," using a series of "endless belts," "forming means for engaging the material and deforming it into a predetermined non-flat configuration," and a "cooking apparatus" that could be a hot oil bath or "apertured spraying devices."
As Schy's application put it, "One of the primary advantages of the present invention is that since at least part of the conveying means is in intimate contact with the material during the entire cooking and forming operation, passage through the cooking and forming apparatus and to the packaging station is continuous and uninterrupted."
The idealization of constant, "intimate contact" with conveyor belts--never a human hand--reflects a set of priorities that some consumers (including this one) might not share. McDonaldization of the hard taco has made it common throughout America--so much so that, in the minds of many Americans, the word "taco" is understood to be a pre-formed yellow corn shell filled with mealy ground beef. (Hence the need for the term "soft taco" to describe what, in Spanish, would simply be called a taco.) It has not, however, made a better taco.
To start with, a good crispy taco begins with a fresh tortilleria-made (or, in a perfect world, hand-made) tortilla. The corporate taco's pre-formed shell does not.
A good crispy taco is fried to order, served still hot from the oil, without sitting so long that excess oil is absorbed into the tortilla (which can give it a greasier, leaden feel, or crunchiness instead of crispness). The corporate taco shell can sit on the shelf for weeks, wrapped in plastic, waiting to be filled and heated by a microwave, warming case, or heat lamp (that is, if it's warmed at all).
A good fried taco is crisp, but with a slight suppleness and chew. The corporate taco shell is brittle at best, gummy and stale tasting at worst.
The indignities of the corporate taco extend beyond the shortcomings of the shell. Fillings, garnishes, and salsa usually disappoint. Pilcher recounts how Glen Bell originally tweaked the chili-dog sauce from his hamburger stand to create a "salsa" for the tacos at Taco Bell. "This strategy worked well for Anglo customers in Southern California, but when the company expanded into more established Mexican markets such as El Paso, Texas, the modified chili-dog sauce had few takers. To satisfy more knowledgeable customers, the franchisees began shopping across the border in Ciudad Juarez" (Pilcher, 36). Meat is often pre-cooked off-site and warmed by boiling in a plastic bag.
Independent Tex-Mex restaurants in Dallas rarely reach the depths of quick serve corporate tacos. However, pre-formed shells and commercial seasoning mixes prevail. Of the minority of local restaurants that fry their own shells, most do so in batches before service, so they lack the desired textural quality.
What I'm looking for are crispy tacos fried to order, whether "open" style or "closed." I'll omit rolled tacos dorados, flautas, and taquitos. I like them, but they're really their own animal, texturally distinct from folded tacos dorados due to the reduced surface area of masa exposed to oil and the insulating effect on the inner layers of the roll.
Reasonable minds may diverge on whether "closed" or "open" style crispy tacos are preferable. "Open" tacos have some advantages. Because the filling isn't fried along with the tortilla, they tend to be less greasy. Because both sides of the tortilla are exposed to the cooking oil, the shell can become crisper. The shape allows the filling to be easily supplemented with garnishes too delicate to survive intact in a "closed" taco. Assembly of the taco immediately prior to service allows the shell and meat to be kept hot and the chilled garnishes to remain cold.
"Open" tacos aren't immune from criticism. The open shape and crisper texture are more likely to result in a crumbly mess (or, if you're lucky, just a manageable fissure along the fold). Many restaurants that go the "open" route succumb to the temptation to prepare the shells ahead of time, compromising texture. Some traditionalists eschew the Americanized bells and whistles that accompany every "open" taco (e.g., shredded lettuce, chopped tomato, yellow cheese). "Open" tacos are far more likely to be served with ground beef than shredded beef or other pre-corporate fillings--a substitution some find objectionable on grounds of taste as well as tradition.
"Closed" tacos also have some pluses. In restaurants, there's rarely any question of whether they're fried to order. (Some street vendors and carnicerias will pre- or par-cook them before finishing in hot oil immediately before serving.) They're elegant in their simplicity. Garnishes, for those who want them, are served on the side, avoiding cooling of the meat or warming of the veg. The greasiness of which "open" taco proponents complain may be seen as a virtue, especially when the flavorful drippings are allowed to rain down over rice and beans, making good things even better. By exposing only one side of the tortilla to the cooking oil, there's a pleasant contrast between the shell's crisp outer layer and slight chew of the inner. Both the shape of the taco and the texture of the tortilla's unexposed layer allow it to be bitten without falling apart in one's hand. Shredded beef is more likely to be an option, for those less fond of hamburger meat. For those concerned with tradition and authenticity, "closed" tacos come earlier in the taco's development and are less removed from current practices in much of Mexico. (The terms "old-fashioned tacos" and "tacos dorados" almost always describe "closed" style tacos.)
As for the disadvantages of "closed" tacos...well, there aren't any. Not a one. Okay, so I prefer the greasier, more elemental, toothpick-fastened, old-fashioned taco. That doesn't prevent me from enjoying a good, fried-to-order, U-shaped job.
I don't have the time or will to strive for exhaustiveness in this search. I'm going to post what I've got, then supplement it periodically down the road. There will be photos and descriptions, but no rankings or scores. I'll open a thread in the forums both to maintain an updated list of restaurants serving fried-to-order tacos (noting whether "open" or "closed" in style) and, I hope, to get some leads on where else they can be found.
The Search for Tacos Dorados: Introduction, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5....
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