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The first Tuesday in October is National Taco Day, and this year it coincides with Taco Tuesday. What does that mean?
Tacos for breakfast? Definitely. We have a breakfast taco recipe for you (below). If you’re a taco lover, you’ve already had tacos for lunch and dinner. How about tacos for dessert?
To put them all in one list, the year’s four taco holidays are:
January 25: National Fish Taco
March 21: National Crunchy Taco Day
March 31: Día del Taco (in Mexico)
October, 1st Tuesday: National Taco Day
Below:
> The recipe for breakfast tacos.
> More taco recipes: beyond the tried-and-true.
> The history of the breakfast taco.
> A brief taco history.
> The history of Taco Tuesday.
Elsewhere on The Nibble:
> Bake hard taco shells from corn tortillas (so easy!).
> The history of tacos.
> Taco party menu.
> DIY taco bar.
> 20+ hard taco recipes.
> Ice cream tacos recipe.
> The year’s 25+ Mexican and Tex-Mex food holidays.
Elsewhere on The Nibble:
> Bake hard taco shells from corn tortillas (so easy!).
> Taco party menu.
> DIY taco bar.
> 20+ hard taco recipes.
> Ice cream tacos recipe.
> The year’s 25+ Mexican and Tex-Mex food holidays.
A BRIEF TACO HISTORY
Surprisingly, the Aztecs did not invent the taco; nor did anyone else, until the 18th century.
According to Professor Jeffrey M. Pilcher, author of Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food, tacos are not an ancient food.
Rather, as he discusses in an article in Smithsonian Magazine, Mexican silver miners in the 18th century likely invented the taco as a hand-held convenience food.
Deriving its name from the “tacos” of gunpowder used to blast through rock, the humble miner’s fare was followed by taco carts and taquerías in the working-class neighborhoods of Mexico.
As the taco spread throughout Mexico, each region added its own touches: meats, spices, salsas, and garnishes.
Mexican Americans in the Southwest reinvented it. As late as the 1960s, tacos were virtually unknown outside Mexico and the American Southwest.
In 1962, businessman Glen Bell founded Taco Bell as a drive-up with a few outdoor tables. It grew into a mass-marketing powerhouse, serving an Anglo version with a hard shell at quick-service restaurants nationwide.
This hard pre-fried corn tortilla shell (photo #2) is not authentic. Like the burrito, a larger wheat flour tortilla, it was born in the U.S.A.
Yet within 50 years the United States had shipped its hard taco shells worldwide, from Australia to Mongolia—redefining the taco in the eyes of millions, if not billions.
Today the taco is an internationally beloved snack and meal, with an abundance of styles and varieties. You can invent your own “signature” taco. Ours is Japanese-style spicy tuna in a hard corn tortilla shell with a drizzle of wasabi mayonnaise.
Along with diced onions, instead of diced tomatoes, we add diced mango.
We make the mayo ourselves, to make it have more wasabi and less mayo. The process is the same: Just blend wasabi into mayonnaise until you reach your preferred degree of wasabi heat.
See more creative spins below.
And Taco Tuesday?
This American event was begun in 1982 as a successful promotion by Taco John’s.
It encouraged people to go out for tacos on Tuesday nights and offered specials like $1 fish tacos.
Since tacos are easy to make at home and popular with the whole family, Taco Tuesdays are also a frequent event in home kitchens.
While Taco John’s trademarked the name, other venues use the trademark but can receive “cease and desist” letters.
Taco Tuesday has become such a part of American culture that we think Papa John’s should allow Taco Tuesdays for everyone!
The history of the breakfast taco follows.
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[1] An upscale taco in the classic mold. This one includes braised beef and mole sauce, with cottage cheese Here’s the recipe (photo © McCormick).
[2] Fried hard taco shells are an American invention. They stand up on their own (photo © Old El Paso)!
[3] Baked breakfast tacos. Here’s the recipe (photo © Pillsbury).
[4] Breakfast taco with scrambled eggs and sausage (photo © Imusa, recipe below).
[5] A DIY set-up from David Burke at Fabrick | NYC (photo © David Burke).
[6] A simple dessert taco in a waffle cone shell (photo © We Heart It). Add as many toppings as you like. You can use a waffle maker to make a soft waffle shell.
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[7] Fried egg and chorizo breakfast taco. Here’s the recipe (Abacus Photo).
THE HISTORY OF THE BREAKFAST TACO
While the term “breakfast taco” is relatively modern, its roots go back 2,500 to 3,000 years when the indigenous people of Mesoamerica—Aztecs, Mayans, and others—wrapped food in thin, flat corn cakes called tlaxcalli. (The cultivation of the corn itself goes back much further*.)
When the Spanish arrived in the 1500s, they renamed them tortillas (“little cakes”).
Eventually, wheat was introduced to Northern Mexico and Texas. According to legend (and some historical records), Juan Garrido, an African conquistador and former slave of Hernán Cortés, found three grains of wheat in a bag of rice. Because wheat grew better in those arid climates than corn, the flour tortilla became the standard vessel for food in the borderlands.
The “Pre-” Breakfast Taco Evolves In Northern Mexico & South Texas
For centuries, families in Northern Mexico and South Texas ate eggs, beans, and leftover meats wrapped in tortillas for breakfast. It was portable, cheap, and filling.
In the early 20th century, these “breakfasts” were mostly sold by “Chili Queens,” who made them at home. They weren’t called “breakfast tacos”; they were just breakfast. You’d simply ask for a “taco de huevo con chorizo” (egg and chorizo taco).
The Breakfast Taco Arrives
The modern breakfast taco exploded in the 1970s and 1980s when it transitioned from a home-cooked staple to a restaurant phenomenon. This led to a famous contention over bragging rights:
San Antonio, Texas: Most historians agree that San Antonio (and the Rio Grande Valley) is the true birthplace of the breakfast taco. In the 1950s, small cafés in the area begin listing “egg tacos”” on menus. The first documented use of the term “breakfast taco” appeared in a 1975 newspaper article in The Arizona Republic.
In 1978, Taco Cabana opened in San Antonio, helping to mass-market the concept of a 24-hour patio taco spot.
Austin, Texas: Austin didn’t invent the dish, but they marketed it through festivals like SXSW, which turned the breakfast taco into a globally “cool” food.
This controversy erupted in culminated in a 2016, when an article claimed that Austin was the home of the breakfast taco. This sparked a petition from San Antonians to exile the author from the city for “taco negligence.”
That year, the mayors of Austin and San Antonio signed a “Peace Treaty” to end the Taco War, agreeing that the taco belongs to all of Texas.
Fun Fact: If you travel to the Rio Grande Valley (Deep South Texas), they often refer to breakfast tacos as mariachis, after the Mariachi Bus Line. These buses would stop at local roadside stands and small cafés for passenger breaks. The most popular “to-go” item was a flour tortilla filled with eggs, beans, or meat. Over time, the name of the bus became the name of the food itself.
[8] Scrambled eggs, avocado, scallions, and corn kernels (photo © Quinciple).
RECIPE: DIY BREAKFAST TACOS
Unlike the American-invented breakfast burrito, essentially an egg-and-sausage wrap sandwich, this recipe is truer to Mexican preparations.
There’s a fight between Austin and San Antonio over the origin of the breakfast taco.
At first, it was a breakfast made at home: eggs, sausage, or other pork and cheese, rolled in a warm tortilla. In Mexican kitchens, tortillas are a staple, like a loaf of bread.
The concept then migrated to breakfast stands and restaurants, as far back as the 1950s.
Thanks to IMUSA USA, a maker of kitchenware for global recipes—for this breakfast taco recipe. You can find more recipes on their website.
Ingredients
6 eggs
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 chorizo links (about 7 ounces), diced
1 medium onion
1 cup cilantro, divided
1 medium tomato, diced
1 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup sharp cheddar
10-12 corn flour tortillas
Chipotle-flavored Tabasco or other hot sauce (substitute ketchup)
Preparation
1. MIX the sour cream, lime juice, and salt in a bowl; put aside.
2. CHAR the tortillas over a gas flame or directly on an electric burner until blackened in spots, turning with tongs. Place in a tortilla warmer or aluminum foil and set aside.
3. ADD the olive oil to a nonstick sauté pan and bring to medium-high heat. Sweat the onions for about one minute and add the diced chorizo. Cook for 5-6 minutes until chorizo is browned.
5. ADD half of the cilantro and all of the cooked chorizo to the beaten eggs. Blend and pour into the pan. Cook on low heat, stirring from time to time.
6. PLACE the cooked eggs, cheddar, tomatoes, and remaining cilantro in separate bowls and lay them out throughout the table with the warm tortillas. Let everyone build their own.
[9] Migas breakfast tacos. Migas are a Tex-Mex dish with scrambled with eggs, tomatoes, onions, and jalapeños, often topped with cheese, salsa, and/or avocado. Here’s the recipe (photo © Taste Of Home).
TACOS BEYOND THE TRIED-AND-TRUE
You may think that National Taco Day is a day to celebrate the classics; but as you do, put on your thinking cap and invasion the next great taco combination you can make.
Sophisticated tacos. Chefs at better restaurants are pushing their creativity to transfer icon dishes to tacos. Try these braised beef tacos in mole sauce (photo #1).
Put your own spin on it. Ground beef tacos became cheeseburger tacos, for example. Grilled, sliced steak is popular in northern Mexico, and our tony friend Ordway wanted to try the concept with filet mignon. We made them for his birthday, with a sauce of melted gruyère, crème fraîche and salsa verde, a Mexican-French fusion. (May we say, it was a silly excess but very appreciated by the birthday boy. We’ve since gone with braised short ribs or lamb shank—DEE-licious.)
Trio of tacos. Our favorite dish at our neighborhood Tex-Mex restaurant is a trio of tacos, each with a different filling. Why choose just one?
Specialty tacos for every occasion, like these corned beef and cabbage tacos for St. Patrick’s Day.
Sashimi tacos. Fish tacos are great, but sushi lovers will adore these sashimi tacos as well. The shell is made from wonton wrappers. Fillings can be anything you like. Haru restaurant in New York City serves three full-size tacos: tuna with cherry tomato salsa, salmon with avocado and striped bass with apple yuzu ceviche sauce.
Dessert tacos. Whether they’re in a sideways waffle cone resembling a hard taco shell, or in a waffle from your waffle maker, this is fun food. How can you resist? Here’s the recipe. Warning: It’s not the neatest ice cream sandwich to eat. It’s best served on a plate at the table.
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*The origin of maize and the tortilla: Around 9,000–7,000 B.C.E., indigenous peoples in the Balsas River Valley of Mexico began domesticating teosinte, a wild grass, into what we now recognize as corn (Zea mays). A breakthrough came circa 1,500–1,200 B.C.E.: nixtamalization. Cooks discovered that soaking dried corn in an alkaline solution (usually water mixed with wood ash or lime/calcium hydroxide) softened the kernels. Nutritionally, it unlocked B vitamins and amino acids, but the ancients didn’t know that—they just benefitted from the nutrients. Without nixtamalization, the corn couldn’t be ground into a cohesive dough (masa).
Around 500 B.C.E., archaeological evidence) shows that comales (flat clay griddles) were being used in regions like Oaxaca and Central Mexico, proving that people were flattening dough into thin discs and searing them over a fire.
The oldest “tortilla” fossil dates to roughly 500 B.C.E. in the Valley of Tehuacán, but most anthropologists believe the practice was widespread long before it was captured in the fossil record.
By the 14th-16th centuries C.E., the height of the Aztec (Mexica) Empire, the tlaxcalli (pronounced tlahsh-KAHL-lee), or corn tortilla, was an essential component of the Mesoamerican diet. It wasn’t just a side dish; it was a vessel and a utensil. In a society without metal forks or spoons, the tortilla was the “edible spoon.”
Women spent hours every morning grinding nixtamalized corn on a stone tool called a metate. Bernal Díaz del Castillo, one of Hernan Cortez’ soldiers in the context of Mexico, wrote in his journals about the massive markets at Tlatelolco, describing dozens of varieties of tlaxcalli—some white, some yellow, some folded, and some filled with everything from beans and chili to turkey and small dogs!
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