Street Taco (USA)
On a US menu, "street taco" promises what the kitchen leaves off. The restrained build has a precise American birthplace: a converted ice cream truck on an East Los Angeles curb in 1974.
Flatbreads
Step into our Flatbread Sandwiches category - your passport to a culinary journey across cultures! Explore the world of sandwiches made with versatile flatbreads, such as the pocket-friendly Pita from the Middle East or the cheesy Quesadilla from Mexico. Learn how these breads, thin but packed with flavors, make for the perfect vessels for an array of fillings. Remember: whether it's enveloping a Gyro or getting toasted with cheese, flatbreads are the unsung heroes of the sandwich universe.
Sope
A thick round of corn masa with its rim pinched upward while still hot, the sope is an open vessel: beans, meat, cheese, crema, and salsa held in place by a wall the cook builds in seconds.
Sope de Tinga
A sope de tinga sets smoky chipotle-braised chicken inside a fried masa wall over a bed of beans, the rim built to hold a sauce that would otherwise flood the plate.
Sope de Chorizo
Thick masa pinched into a rim, crisped in lard, then loaded with rendered Mexican chorizo, beans, and crema. The chorizo behind it traces to corn-fed pigs Cortes moved into the Valle de Toluca around.
Soft Taco (USA)
American soft taco; larger flour or corn tortilla with Tex-Mex fillings.
Shrimp Taco (USA)
American shrimp taco; grilled or fried shrimp.
San Antonio Breakfast Taco
Bought by the dozen for the office and the Sunday after Mass: a soft flour tortilla folded around a hot filling, with the cheap, enormous bean and cheese as the city's yardstick.
Quesabirria Taco
Tijuana cheese-and-broth reading of the older Jalisco braised-meat taco; corn round dipped in chile fat, melted Oaxaca, beef shred, broth on the side.
Puffy Taco
San Antonio specialty; masa dough fried until it puffs up, filled with picadillo or other fillings. Distinct from hard shell—lighter, air...
Picada
A Veracruz picada is a thick corn-masa round with a thumb-pinched rim that pens in a loose salsa, finished with queso fresco and onion, eaten hot at a Gulf-coast breakfast stand.
Pellizcada
The pellizcada: a thick griddled corn-masa round, its rim pinched up into a low wall, topped open-faced with lard, salsa, crumbled queso, and onion. The pinch, from pellizcar, holds the load.
Nashville Hot Chicken Taco
Nashville hot chicken, lacquered cayenne-red straight from the fryer, folded into a warm tortilla with cooling slaw and crema. Party Fowl puts it on a Nashville menu; the heat ladder tops out.
Nachos (Loaded)
A flat plate of fried totopos under melted cheese and piled toppings, eaten chip by chip while they still crack. Improvised in Piedras Negras in 1943 by Ignacio 'Nacho' Anaya.
Nacho Cheese Chalupa
Fried flatbread shell with nacho cheese, various fillings.
Mulita
The mulita seals taco meat and melted cheese flat between two corn tortillas, the cheese working as mortar. Named for a small mule, it is a folk form with no inventor and a long street life.
Meximelt
Soft taco with seasoned beef, pico de gallo, and three-cheese blend.
Mexican Pizza
Two fried flour tortillas with beans and beef between, topped with pizza sauce, cheese, tomatoes. Cult following.
Memela
Thick oval corn masa base; topped with beans, salsa, cheese. Similar to sope but different shape/region.
Lobster Taco
A whole Pacific spiny lobster split and fried in pork lard, served with a basket of warm flour tortillas the diner wraps themselves; Puerto Nuevo signature.
Korean Taco
Korean barbecue meat in a Mexican tortilla: sweet charred bulgogi or galbi metered by a soft tortilla and sharpened by kimchi and gochujang. Born on the Kogi truck in LA in 2008.
Korean-Mexican Taco
Korean barbecue meat on a small soft Mexican tortilla, dressed with kimchi, a gochujang salsa, and toasted sesame: the Los Angeles cross-cuisine build the Kogi BBQ truck pioneered in November 2008.
Kalbi Taco
Kalbi taco: short rib cross-cut through the bone, marinated in soy, sugar, and grated pear, then grilled fast and folded into a small corn tortilla with kimchi and lime.
Impossible/Beyond Taco
A taco built on a manufactured crumble, where Impossible leans on brewed soy leghemoglobin to brown like beef and Taco Bell tested whether anyone would notice the swap.