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[Guy Courchesne]

Inspired by a comment in the Gen Lat Am thread...

Where is the best taco joint in Mexico?

For me, it's a place in east Mexico City known to everyone here, called El Pastorcito. This place is rocking from 5 pm to the wee hours, with 5 100-lb slabs of seasoned pork roasting any given moment.

10 pesos a taco seems a little expensive, but the massive molcajetes of guacamole and red garlic/chile salsas make it a worthwhile treat.

The owner of the place is a fat little rich guy, with a handlebar moustache, a ten gallon hat, and finely decorated cowboy boots.

[delacosta]

Any place open at 3 or 4 in the morning after a night out...not that I engage int that kind of behaviour(anymore).

[Guy Courchesne]

[aisha]

You guys are making me hungry! I miss the taco joints, especially after a night out because that's when they tasted the best. So many memories......some painful (too many cervezas).

[MixtecaMike]

There was an old guy on Matamoros between Comonfort and the next street over heading east (away from Reforma) in front of a general store. His tacos were the best of any I have had. Don't get confused and go to the lady about two stands over, hers are OK but only average. His tacos were $6 for a great tasco de obispo, with a ton of nopales or onions or a smallish pile of french fries on it. Buy them on Sunday after shopping for your goth outfits in the Comonfort tiangis or any day (except Tuesday) before stocking up on your pirate CDs.

[Gregor]

Aw, man, Guy, great thread.
I mentioned this in Gen Lat, but the best taco shop I know is in Oaxaca, called Tacos Alvaros (God, PLEASE let it still be there!). Their tacos al carbon, and their gringas (do those of you north of DF know about gringas?) are just...words fail. Man, oh man.
There's a joint down the street that serves its tacos care asada to the bar next door to it, and those are pretty amazing to. They get mentioned because they'll bring your order right into the bar for you, which is cool.

Honorary mention is a nameless food place in Puerto Vallarta, opposite the market on a little side street right before you get to the little suspension bridge going to the supermarket. That place has the most amazing tortas machaca I have ever tasted, ever bloody ever.
And right opposite said supermarket (not Gigante I don't think, but a well-known one - anyone know?), there's an awesome rotisserie chicken place with really nice salsa.

But for taco shops? Tacos Alvaros, man. That is the stuff. Anyone in Oaxaca able to tell me if it's still there?

[ls650]

Guy, that avatar GIF scared me.

There was a great little hole-in-the-wall taco shop called 'Lupitas' just a couple of blocks from my apartment building. Cheap delicious tacos/tlayudas/alambres right off the grill. No matter what I was doing, I could always stop by there late at night and get something to eat.

Unfortunately they've closed and now I have to walk over to the other side of the town to find decent tacos.

[Guy Courchesne]

Acapulco really teed me off when I lived there for lack of a decent taco. You would think that such a tourist destination catering mostly to Chilangos would be able to scare up something halfway decent. They do a great pozole there but finding a good salsa roja was mission impossible.

[Gregor]

POZOLE! TLAYUDAS!!
What was I THINKING when I left Mexico???
Oh, yeah, sure, I met and married the woman of my dreams, and yada yada yada, but DAMN! I haven't eaten like THAT in YEARS.

[Guy Courchesne]

However...


When I image/googled Mexican tacos, this came up.

http://images.google.com.mx/images?svnum=10&hl=es&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=mexican+tacos&btnG=B%C3%BAsqueda

Those aren't tacos! Google is up to something...

[MO39]

Guy, the images of tacos you googled look to me like the Americanized taco that you find in the States. If you want the real thing, you have to ask for "soft" tacos as opposed to the "hard" (actually, crunchy) variety.

[Ms. Atondo]

Looks like Google and Old Elpaso are in cahoots. The hardest part of being back in Canada is going for "Mexican" food. I don't remember ever eating so much cheddar cheese, sour cream, and lettuce while I was in Mexico... "Authentic" food just isn't that authentic.

[Gregor]

Guy's photos look pretty authentic to ME.
Just not pictures of tacos.

I remember in Oaxaca, Do�a Tina (boarding house where I used to live) used to buy packets of those crispy corn tostada "shells" (just like American "taco shells" but flat instead of bent).

I also remember telling a friend in Puerto Vallarta about Americans' ideas of Mexican food and tacos and he thought it was hilarious. I don't think he believed me, until I found the expensive resort supermarket closer to the airport, and went in just to buy a box of Old El Paso taco shells. Man, that was the strangest thing he had ever heard of.

Soft tacos in the U.S. are made of white flour tortillas. The "standard" taco in Mexico (the Mexico that I am familiar with, anyway) comes in a soft corn tortilla.

That's the thing about foreign foods, though, isn't it? I used to think it was just Mexican food, but it's ALL foods - you cannot get authentic Mexican/Chinese/Indonesian/ANYTHING food outside the country in question.
Unless you count fast food chains, that even counts American (U.S.) food. There's an American restaurant in Shenyang, China that's really popular, and you'd laugh to bust a gut if you went in there and saw and tasted what passed with Chinese people for "authentic American food."

[Guy Courchesne]

White flour tortillas are pretty common here too...I find they make a better quesadilla than the corn variety, unless of course you're making one of those deep-fried, clogging your arteries with a helping of cream and three cheeses quesas...then you want that thick masa and nothing else.

I'm hungry now...

I found a decent Mexican lunch spot in Ottawa while I was this past summer. It was run by a woman from Puebla and a guy from Michoacan, called The Ahora (in the Byward marketon George St, if you're in Ottawa and salivating). PRetty authentic fare, except for the cheddar and lettuce as Ms. A notes. The salsas were labelled for the Canadian pallet...the hottest salsa there would be too mild for pizza here. But, a well-traveled Mexican here told me a secret for dining out in Canada or the US. Take a quick look in back and see who's cooking. If there's a Mexican back there, go in and ask for a handout from his personal chile supply. I did just that at The Ahora and fixed things up right.

[tonydicer]

Stay away from the head tacos