Volcán
A small open-faced taco built on a brittle cheese-fused tortilla disc, mounded with carne asada or al pastor and eaten before the crust softens.
Quesabirria & the Cheese-Crusted Taco
Vegan Birria Taco
The vegan birria taco keeps the dip, the griddle, and the consomé and reassigns the meat to jackfruit or king-trumpet mushrooms; the chile broth is the engine, the protein is the sponge.
Vampiro
The Jalisco vampiro is a corn tortilla dried rigid on the comal, fused to a lace of fried cheese, and topped with chopped carne asada: a tile that has to shatter to be right.
Taco Rojo
A taco identified by its red sauce, the colour naming the dish before the filling does: tinga, picadillo, or red chile pork from the red pot of the Mexico City fonda counter.
Taco de Costra
Cheese crust taco; cheese melted on griddle, tortilla placed on top, filled, folded. Crispy cheese exterior.
Taco de Birria
The taco de birria is a stew you can hold: meat steeped in dried-chile adobo, simmered until it shreds, folded into a warm tortilla with a cup of consomé to dunk.
Taco de Birria de Res
Beef birria, chuck and short rib stewed in a guajillo-ancho adobo, the shred tucked into a fat-dipped griddled corn tortilla with a cup of consomé to dunk.
Taco de Birria de Chivo
Slow-cooked goat in a guajillo-and-ancho adobo, shredded into corn tortillas with a cup of chile broth alongside. The Cocula, Jalisco, original that the beef version descends from.
Taco con Costra de Queso
CDMX cheese-crust taco: a lacquered quesillo disc fried on the comal becomes the outer shell, with a soft tortilla bonded inside cradling the meat.
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.
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.