What do you say to out-of-town friends asking about tacos?

You know how it is. You’ve got friends coming to town so you’d like to take them out for some local flavor. They’ve never been to San Antonio before and they really want to know about one thing: tacos. (which is plural, I know, but whatever) What do you tell them? How do you explain a seemingly simple topic that you know to be much more complicated? What do you say when they ask for crispy tacos? What if they ask for Taco Bell? Or worse – Torchy’s?

Before we go on, I have to explain something. Although I’m going to go into some general tacology, this post is primarily about San Antonio tacos. If you’re reading this from any place other than San Antonio and are already scoffing at the presumptuousness of another San Anto writer making claims about quality tacos, then I’m sorry that you’re limiting yourself to your regional palette. I’ve always maintained that the best tacos you’ll ever have are the ones made to you by whomever it is that makes your most preferred tacos. My favorite tacos are the papa con huevo on tortilla de harina that I woke up to on mornings in McAllen, made by mother’s love. Yours might be from your tía in Corpus Christi or your abuelita in Laredo – that’s fine. Being closer to the border doesn’t make your taco better because the border crossed all of us. Our cuisine was indigenous and Spanish and Mexican before it was blended and Texan and American.

Some have claimed that a city north of San Antonio has better breakfast tacos owing that expertise to articles in the New York Times, but remember, that’s the same publication that suggested adding peas to guacamole. I don’t want to get into that debate much except to say this: the difference between the two locations and their tacos is that the northern neighbor is in favor of innovating and fusing flavors as part of a nouveau taco movement, whereas San Antonio prefers a more traditional approach.

So that said, it’s important to know what we’re talking about. What is a taco? Simply stated, a taco is a folded tortilla with a filling. Some people call such items “burros” or “burritos,” but that just tells you that the person making such a claim is from El Paso, and that’s ok. For them. You should know better. Burritos are wrapped like a package you might want to carry on the back of a load-bearing animal of some sort. Tacos are love letters carried from your hands to your soul.

Ancient Mesoamerican people bioengineered a grass about 9000 years ago and eventually figured out a process by which to make the seeds from that plant edible. It’s called nixtamalization and it’s what makes tortillas possible. The Mesoamericans ate corn tortillas for centuries until the colonizers arrived in the 15^th Century. But the Spaniards tried to avoid eating what the natives ate because they feared turning shorter and acquiring a darker complexion, i.e., turning into an indio, so they took corn out of the equation and developed what we see today as flour tortillas. One might say that the flour tortilla is a truly mestizo product, but that’s for another discussion.

Today, we use both tortillas. Some prefer corn over flour because of a sense of authenticity, or because they believe that they’re healthier, or because of the taste. Others prefer flour over corn because they’re usually bigger (though I’ve eaten corn tortillas as big as meal plate in parts of Mexico), or because personal health be damned, or because of the taste. My preference is for whichever goes best with the filling.

You’ll encounter tacos at all hours of the day here in San Antonio. Typically, breakfast tacos are on flour tortillas and are filled with typical breakfast fare: potatoes, eggs, bacon, and combinations thereof. There is nothing wrong with adding cheese to your taco; it’ll likely be shredded cheddar. Most people’s go-to is a simple bean and cheese – know that the beans are refried and the cheese is yellow. For a complete breakdown on breakfast tacos, refer to this post.

My picks for some of the best breakfast taco spots in town is found here.

Lunch and dinner tacos can come alone or with sides. Note that if the menu has “plate,” after the word taco, there will be rice and beans coming along for the ride. Either tortilla is fair game for these meals and you’ll likely see fajitas (beef or chicken), ground beef, or shredded chicken as fillings, among other options.

Late night tacos are what are sometimes referred to as street tacos. You’ll find these at a restaurant or a food truck, billed as “taquitos,” or “mini-tacos.” An order of these is four or five tacos on small corn tortillas and filled with asada (flat steak, chopped), pollo (shredded chicken), carnitas (seasoned pork), or tripas (beef intestines – delicious! Don’t knock it, till you try it), among other possibilities.

As for where the best tacos in San Antonio might be, well, that’s just an unanswerable question. I’ve listed the following spots as places you can go to, but it’s not a definitive list and I refuse to rank them because that’s just unfair. Again, these are just some of the places your out-of-town guests should try, but the list is not exhaustive by any means.

Lunch/Dinner

Ray's Drive-In (822 SW 19th) They invented and hold the patent (yes, patent) for the puffy taco. It's a fried corn tortilla that gets all puffed up to get you all filled up.

Taco Haven (1032 S. Presa) A lot of the cool kids go here, and by cool kids I mean locals, especially artists and politicos. It's been around since 1969 and they have some dream flour tortillas.

Taqueria Datapoint (4063 Medical Dr.) Just great tacos, all day. Go for breakfast, have a lunch special, maybe eat dinner at home, go out with friends and show up after the bar closes (Friday or Saturday night) and pick off each other's plates.

Late Night

Taco Palenque (1002 NE Interstate Loop 410)  In case you're like, pero en Laredo, we have real tacos... OK fine, here's the Laredo place so you can feel at home. Or if you're not from Laredo, you can see some of the subtle differences between SA and the border town. Somebody bring me a pirata!

Tacos El Regio (2726 N. St. Mary's) No website. No table. No problem. This is a taco truck on the St. Mary's Strip where you can find excellent tacos and only a curb to sit on. Pro tip: order your tacos (or quesadillas), but ask for your charro beans before your meal (not with it), so you can eat the beans while you wait. (They don't open until after 11pm.)

Taquitos West Ave (2818 West Ave.) You will be amazed. Stand in line, order at the counter (there's no menu, just a piece of paper on the wall with the handwritten list of ingredients) and immediately receive your tacos. You can go back and ask for more if you want. Pay for the number tacos you ate on your way out. 

We take our tacos seriously here, but let's not get into a food fight about it. If you have something to get off your chest, let's get together over a plate. It's important that WE TACO BOUT IT.

p.s. I'm sure wondering as to my credibility in these matters, which is why I offer the following pics as credentials. Peace.