The word taco likely comes from the silver mines of 18th-century Mexico, where miners used paper wrapped around gunpowder, called tacos, to blast rock. The food version, a tortilla wrapped around a filling, is far older than that and goes back to the nixtamalized corn of pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica.
Tacos al pastor arrived with Lebanese immigrants to Puebla and Mexico City in the 1920s, who brought the vertical spit and swapped lamb for pork. Birria comes from Jalisco, where goat was slow-cooked in chiles for celebrations. Fish tacos belong to Baja California and the fishing towns of Ensenada.
Every taco on our board has a hometown. Ask the staff and they will tell you which one.
