All photos by Samantha Demangate
What is Mexico City without tacos? Food cannot define a place, but tacos do their best. Global cities around the world take pride in their local working class delicacies and Mexico’s capital is no exception. From savory Suadero, to the Lebanese inspired tacos Al Pastor, anyone can satisfy their cravings no matter which neighborhood you’re in.
Mexico City is a sprawling megalopolis of over nine million people with a metropolitan area that stretches into the neighboring state of Mexico. Makeshift neighborhoods cover the surrounding valleys and mountains, creating an endless urban landscape that surrounds one of the world’s most densely populated modern cities. To get around this vast urban landscape, citizens of all classes have to rely on mass-transit, from buses, efficient subway systems, and the famous sky-trams or cable bus lines that cheaply connect the poorest residents with their city. It’s here, at the entrances of the mass transit stations, where many of the best basket tacos, known as Tacos de Canasta, can be found. Cheap, quick, and piping hot, these soft delicacies feed the entire workforces of people. Residents of the small mountainous state of Tlaxcala created these tacos as an affordable way to feed the region’s workers. Today, a vast majority of businesses, especially around the small city of San Vicente Xiloxochitla, make the long drive into the city to sell their tacos to hungry workers. Traditionally, basket tacos come with four different base ingredients made in a stew and rolled up in rich, buttery tortillas. Frijoles (beans),Chicharrón, potatoes, and occasionally adobo (brisket) make up the fillings.
Another working class staple is the magnificent Suadero, which is the cut of beef between the cow’s mid-section and leg. These tender morsels are slowly cooked in fat and their own bubbling juices in a deep convex griddle known as a comal. Using this confit technique, the Suadero masters add spices and other seasoned cuts of meat and sausages to add intense flavor and depth. Suadero is synonymous with Mexico City and it’s hard to choose which neighborhoods have the best. If you’re in the centro historico, one can argue that Los Cocuyos is up there for making one of the city’s most dependably perfect Suadero tacos, crisped on a hot metal griddle before being plated and doused with the holy trinity of lime, onions, and cilantro. The only thing needed to complete this perfect taco are heaping spoonfuls of their homemade salsas.
Mexico City is a global city. Its neighborhoods are full of immigrants from other states and overseas locations with their own proud traditions. They have and continue to collectively influence the city’s food culture. No ethnicity has had such an impact on Mexico’s insanely bold cuisine as the Lebanese who moved here in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Similar to the middle eastern Shwarama it originated from, Al Pastor uses a split grill to slowly roast thinly sliced pork that was marinated in chilis and other spices. Generally, a pineapple is stuck on top of the rotating rotisserie and the taquero will swipe off a nice chunk with his knife directly on the taco. Tucked away in the corner of the wealthy Anzures neighborhood of CDMX is the small and unpretentious Taquería Selene. Here you can load up on heaping plates of Al Pastor with everyone from construction workers, business elites, and taxi drivers and barely spend 100 pesos.
Meat and freshly pressed tortillas deserve endless amounts of praise, but what really makes or breaks a taco is the salsas. In Mexico, salsas take on an individualistic persona. At the greatest taquerias, they never overpower. They add the perfect balance of acidity, heat, and flavor that heightens everything else and makes the taco shine in harmonious balance. But what makes the perfect salsa? For many, it’s the quality of the ingredients. In the early mornings at the city’s markets, people rush to snag the best chilis, limes, onions, and other ingredients needed to make the flavors sing.
Salsas, savory meats, tortillas. Where did such a combination of flavors and textures originate? The origins of the taco may lie within the convergence of the indegenous tortilla and the grilled meats introduced by the Spaniards when they flooded the new continent with cattle. Or, according to more reputable sources like Smithsonian Magazine, they originated in the 19th century silver mines. Tacos back then meant gunpowder charges wrapped in tiny pieces of paper and eventually became the style of easy meals that fed the workers. Regardless of their origins, tacos are working class by origin, and in Mexico City, one of the few things that people of all classes can enjoy together.
