Fightin' Words from Austin

The Chili Queens deserve an apology, in the least. I might go so far as to say they deserve a blood sacrifice (bovine, porcine, and whatever the chicken one is), but I'm sure they would settle for, and appreciate, a simple, "Perdoname, Doña Cuca," because they have been offended by our presumptuous neighbors to the north.

Matthew Sedacca published an article for Austin Eater whose very title is incendiary - How Austin Became the Home of the Crucial Breakfast Taco. Though it might be true that Austin is home of the phrase "breakfast taco," the article posits an opinion that seems elitist to those of us here in San Antonio and South Texas who firmly believe that taco-migration went, and ought to continue going, South to North, not North to South or (gasp) South by Southwest.

Further, is there any way to really know who invented the phrase? Moreover, does it really matter? What is necessary is to understand that no one can monopolize the term "breakfast taco" any more than Disney can own the rights to Dia de los Muertos.

The article goes on to state that "the breakfast taco’s origins lie in the kitchens of immigrant Mexican families living in Texas." It's statements like these that ought to make us demand changes in the Texas education system, especially with regard to history.  Texas, as part of a larger region that included some current northern Mexican states, was established by Spain. After Mexico's independence, it was of course a part of Mexico.  The Texas we know now was an independent nation in 1836 and an American state in 1845. There's been Mexican food in Texas for nearly three centuries.  

Corn was the original type of tortilla, as it was used by native population of Mexico.  Flour tortillas were a Spanish innovation because they didn't want to reduce themselves to eat an ingredient they considered to be pig-feed.

Tex-Mex cuisine is a product of several influences, most notably the availability of ingredients and the clever improvisation of home-cooks when a particular cheese or pepper or sausage was needed.  The primary innovators, it seems, were the Chili Queens that ruled Alamo Plaza, starting in the mid-1800s.  (See fellow San Antonio Taco Council Representative, Edmund Tijerina's article about the Chili Queens here or an NPR Hidden Kitchen report about these legends, here.)  

To make claims about Austin's breakfast taco scene as if it was the birthplace and chief innovator of the item, ignores an entire region of abuelitas waking up early to make tortillas, mom and pop restaurants that have built robust breakfast crowds, and all of the busy workers that didn't have time to make their own morning meals.  It seems that maybe the new European-American immigrants to the Austin area discovered breakfast tacos in the same way Columbus discovered America - just because you found them, doesn't mean they didn't already exist.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: the best breakfast tacos in Texas are the ones you grew up with.  If you started growing up in your 30s, so be it.  

Let's keep peace among the taco community and not make incendiary statements.  Grab a tortilla, a good filling, some salsa, and taco bout it.