Tacos are the national dish of Mexico, dating back to the Mexican silver mines of the 18th century, when the word taco referred to gunpowder that was wrapped in a piece of paper and inserted into rocks. It was used to excavate the precious ore from mines and was called tacos de minero or miner's tacos. Today, the word is widely known to signify the leading street food and fast food item in Mexico – thin, flat griddle-baked tortillas topped with numerous fillings, folded and eaten without any utensils. A taco is basically anything eaten on a soft tortilla, and there is an infinite variety of them. In Sonora, in the north of Mexico, they eat the classic carne asada - thinly sliced meat grilled over coals and topped with salsa, onions, guacamole, and a lime wedge. In Baja, the topping consists of fried fish with cabbage and an acidic mayonnaise sauce. In Mexico City, sudados (sweated tacos) are the most popular option, filled with cooked and steamed meat. In Jalisco and Michoacan, they prepare carnitas, eaten in the morning or in the early afternoon, filled with deep fried pieces of pork that are sliced according to preference. Similar is the taco de cabeza, filled with pieces of cow's head that was steamed for a long time, and the customers can choose from slices of eyes, brains, tongue, lips, cheek, or ears. Tacos are mainly made of corn, except in the north, where wheat flour is used more often. They also differ in size, from the tiniest white tacos (blancas) to bigger ones, often made with blue corn. Most tacos come in pairs of two, in order to be able to hold all the flavorful and slightly wet ingredients. Some of them are fried until they become crispy and crunchy, in which case they're called tostadas. As anything can be a filling, there is a version made with fried veins from dried chiles, usually accompanied by salt, a tasty treat called tacos de venas. However, the standard is ground or shredded meat, cheese, potatoes, or vegetables and a topping of onions and coriander. Eaten at all times of day and night, one can find them on every corner in Mexico, in restaurants known as taquerias. Alternatively, they can be bought from numerous street vendors.
Burrito is a dish consisting of a wheat flour tortilla that is wrapped in such a way that it is possible to fully enclose the flavorful filling on the interior. The filling consists of a combination of various ingredients such as meat, beans, rice, lettuce, guacamole, and cheese, among others. Its name means little donkey in Spanish, and a popular theory suggests that it stems from the way the bedrolls and packs appeared on the donkeys that carried them. Some claim that the dish originated in the 19th century by either the vaqueros in Northern Mexico, farmers in California, or the miners from Sonora. The first appearance of burrito in American restaurants was recorded in the early 1920s in Los Angeles, when the owner Alejandro Borquez opened the Sonora Café and started serving the dish. He changed the name of the restaurant to El Cholo Spanish Café, and it's still in business. Once it became popular across the United States, numerous variations of the dish started appearing, such as Thai chicken burrito, Chinese pork burrito, and breakfast burrito.
Enchiladas consist of a tortilla that is usually dipped in a chile-based sauce, then stuffed with various fillings such as cheese, meat, or fish. Then it is rolled up, baked, and topped with sauces, onions, beans, or more cheese. This highly versatile dish is believed to have originated from a Mayan dish called papadzules, consisting of corn tortillas dipped in pumpkin purée and filled with chopped boiled eggs. From there, numerous variations developed throughout Mexico and outside of its borders. The word enchilada, which first appeared in print in 1885, comes from the Spanish word enchilar, meaning to season with chile pepper. Today, there are countless versions of enchiladas. In northern Mexico's Sonora, they make them open-faced, topped with black olives and a red chile sauce, while the New Mexico version is prepared by layering the tortillas in a tall stack with cheese and onions between each layer. Enchiladas have become so popular that there is even a National Enchilada Day (in the US), celebrated every year on May 5, also known as Cinco de Mayo.
Tripas or machitos is a popular Mexican dish consisting of pig or cow intestines. It is mostly used as a filling for tacos, so tripas can be found throughout Mexico, usually at taco stands, and especially in open-air markets called tianguis. Boiled and grilled, tripe is commonly topped with chopped onions, coriander, and spicy chili sauces. The preparation of tripas requires a great deal of knowledge because they shouldn't be overcooked nor undercooked, as it makes them hard to chew.
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