Years ago, on one of my first visits to the Central de Abastos, my father took me to eat an armored taco next to the banking area. In the tumult of diners, hands came out from behind a stew bar with colorful plates that delivered a good tortilla with a bean smear, a spoonful of rice and the stew that each client selected. Those were the days of the town taco, where we didn’t talk about corn, humidity, nixtamalization and much less about elegance, class or luxury restaurants where there was a taco. Those years of the plaza taco, the basket taco, the rice and egg taco on the outskirts of the work are behind us. Today eating a taco, for some, represents an action where art, memory and nostalgia coexist with a simple flavor that contains several elements that make it more complex, more gourmet and even more expensive.
It’s the tenth anniversary of the restaurant Quintonil and in memory of some of us who visited eight years ago, That avocado taco with a pinch of salt that chef Jorge Vallejo timidly delivered to the table shared with Fer Rivarola still vibrates. Carolina Bazán, Rodolfo Guzmán and various chefs from Latin America who visited him for the first time.
Pablo Salas, for years, has mastered his tripe taco and adds an exceptional pairing designed by Francisco, his brother. Pujol, Enrique served us a taco and many saw it as an overrated dish until his concept of taco omakase to which many became fans. In Spain, Roberto Ruiz at Punto MX He took the magic of the taco to Madrid, long before Norway began to cook it or that some kitchens outside of Mexico understood what the pride of the taco is on a table with white tablecloths. It is important to point out that before everyone and many in Europe, Rita Sánchez, from El Alamillo, taught us the best tacos outside of Mexico.
Patricia Quintana She was a pioneer and, years ago, when the taco was despised for being plain and simple, she put it in diplomacy on the most important tables in the world, pointing out the importance of this dish in our cuisine and our history.
Diego Hernández in his old project called shell in Mexico City made it clear what many of us wanted to try. This chef from Ensenada used to say: “a tortilla with good moisture, some oiliness, a protein, a milk product, something crispy and a touch of acidity is enough”, so you could have the best taco, adding a sauce that gave that special itching that is required.
In our kitchen, the taco has always existed. Sometimes despised and sometimes exorbitantly praised that prices are similar to a plate of protein. It is so appreciated that in some restaurants like Coque in Madrid, chef Mario Sandoval brings it to the table with an extraordinary flavor. For the taco there is no border, only identity.
This morning, Israel Montero will take out from Siembra, in Polanco, a wonderful tortilla with a protein that will relieve us of the long night. Santiago Muñoz will do magic with enormous technique inviting you to go through tortillas for your house, where you will put together a good taco with the family. And so there are many cooks in the country that during this day, will make a taco with a unique corn and with the clear vision that in the taco is the new and the old cuisine of a nation, which apparently likes to reinvent itself after refusing .
And if we are talking about tacos, just go and try the new Pepe Salinas menu at the Balcón del Zócalo, where a very vegetal pleasure taco with squash blossoms, avocado, tapioca, tomatoes and Ocosingo cheese is a delight to the palate in the new menu. seasonal. There, in that beautiful space overlooking the heart of the city, there are eight tacos with an excellent pairing that change your mood and energy.
Perhaps for some the taco is new in restaurants with white tableclothsof beautiful dishes and greatness in digital communication, but for many, like those mentioned here the taco has been part of its history and its memory, That is why we should feel that pride to see a taco in the free tables of the new Mexican cuisine, where some are still surprised because in their cloudy eyes, they believe they have invented the taco, in an era where it never disappeared.
Beto Ballesteros // @betoballesteros