BajaNomad - Reinventing the Taco

Reinventing the Taco

JESSE - 10-20-2005 at 03:54 PM

As some of you know by now, i have decided to go ahead and start a project to open a new Taco place here in Tijuana, but not an ordinary Taco place, i am thinking about gourmet Tacos, new Tacos with new combinations of meats, chesses, sauces, herbs, spices, you name it, theres no limit to the amount of ingredients i can use in these Tacos. I already have about 10 Tacos that will have anything from Pastor Salmon to Lobster and beef, and since this whole new idea is to create something different, i tought this board would be great since americans are so good at experimenting and trying new things that the traditional Mexican would never consider.

So, if you have a great recipie for a different Taco, something exotic and great tasting that you think can make its way into my menu, let me know, i off course intend to make money off of it, and for those that give me an idea that i can use, you will win yourself a lifetime of free tacos at my new venture.

Cincodemayo - 10-20-2005 at 04:18 PM

The Gringo Cantina and Tacobar....set up as a saladbar only fixin tacos!
Good Luck Jesse.

Fudging the definition of taco

Hook - 10-20-2005 at 04:23 PM

With your permission, I'd like to propose two "tacos". One is certainly stretching the conventional definition.

First the conventional definition. I'd like to see a taco made from smoked, firm fish that uses a brown sugar/teriyaki brine that remains rather like a glaze on the fish. Add to this some deep fried slices of jalapeno peppers, without the seeds, that have been marinated in soy sauce. These would NOT be batter-dipped jalapenos; just fried as-is. Then cover the whole thing with cabbage and drizzle crema mexicana on it. Probably best on corn tortillas.

Now the unconventional.

Serve a traditional Greek gyros "taco" with the gyro meat, the tsatsiki, tomatos and red onions marinated in Greek herbs and olive oil and wrap in a traditional pita. But next, (and this is what I used to get in Greece but haven't really seen offered here) add a few of the thin French fries like they serve at a McDonalds. These would go right into the pita along with the rest. Delicious, though not sure how economical this could be created. With the FF on the top, people can pick a few out if they want them solo or eat in bites with the rest of the innards. Greek fast food is becoming more and more popular up here.

Diver - 10-20-2005 at 05:17 PM

1. tacos pescado with other fish ie salmon
2. Smoked fish tacos
3. Veggie tacos ie roasted peppers
4. Chicken tacos for the anti beefers
5. Steak tacos with chunks/strips instead of ground - tenderloin medalions
6. Pork tenderloin tacos with pork medalions
7. tacos with marinated fish or beef - fried or not

Diver - 10-20-2005 at 05:31 PM

1. Blue collar gringo tacos - hamburger helper with the seasoning packet
2. Lazy gringo tacos - McDonalds patty, onions, ketchup, mustard, cheese
3. Sea loving gringo taco - crab sticks with mayo
4. Ghetto gringo taco - Alpo or oother canned delight (try cat food for that
almost fish-like taste and smell)
5. Road kill tacos - different every day !
6. "Seasoned" tacos - with meat that is more than two weeks old
7. Recycled tacos - personal ingredients recommended
8. Ethnic tacos - Bratworst/polish
Sushi
Lo Mein
Gefilte fish
Curry
Meatball
Armadillo
Reindeer
Blowfish

Tacos

Tim - 10-20-2005 at 06:20 PM

It's nothing that is new in the Mexican culture and it's not exactly gourmet -- but nothing beats a good, deep-fried potato taco. MMM!!!!!!

Mike Supino - 10-20-2005 at 06:52 PM

Also for the veggie bunch......

Zuchinni, battered and deep fried (similar to fish), served with a bleu cheese dressing, hot pepper sauce such as "El Pato" and finely sliced cabbage.

i just grilled some carne asada...

eetdrt88 - 10-20-2005 at 07:05 PM

we had asada taco's with green onions,queso,habanero sauce,and just a little crema...if you get the pre marinated carne you can't go wrong because it has so much flavor...wash it all down with a cold Cerveza,i could eat that same dinner almost everyday :yes:

Tacos al Viento

Bajalero - 10-20-2005 at 07:21 PM

I'll second that Tim- you beat me to it.

My grandmother used to put fresh mashed potatoes in a corn tortilla and pan fry them . Add some lettuce, cheese and salsa they are muy excelente

Mike Supino - 10-20-2005 at 07:30 PM

I've found that GOOD corn tortillas need to be made with REAL yellow corn for flavor.
They are getting harder to find lately in So. Cal.; there seems to be a switch to the white corn tortillas with much less flavor.
From what I'm told, the white corn is for the aristocrates and the yellow corn is for everyday folks.
Maybe someone could elaborate on this for me.

comitan - 10-20-2005 at 07:34 PM

Tacos Hawaiiano:

Pollo with a drizzel of plum sauce, Lettuce,Salsa made with tomatoe,papaya,pinapple, topped w/sour cream.

Plum sauce or duck sauce.

[Edited on 10-21-2005 by comitan]

Oso - 10-20-2005 at 07:35 PM

Maybe nothing new, but when I think 'gourmet taco' , I think about Huitlacoche and Flor de Calabaza. The filling can vary, but what's really important is to have the best quality tortilla possible. For me, that means hand-made- no machine pressed. My Cachanilla friends reject corn altogether and only want flour, but I spent so many years in central Mexico that I have a deep appreciation for fresh hand-made corn tortillas made from nixtamal, NOT masa harina. There really is a difference. Of course for "trendy" gringos, Blue Corn torts might be an attractive menu item.

Totally aside, in my younger days I hung out with a couple of novilleros who were "bien leperos" en esto del "cotorreo". Whenever we would pass by a tortilleria, "El Tieso" would ask the ladies; "?Estan Calientes?" When they would answer in the affirmative, he would always say "? Aguantense, ahorita vuelvo![ :lol:

Spyderman - 10-20-2005 at 07:38 PM

From the Pacific northwest, how about Halibut tacos. And from the Midwest, catfish tacos.

Spyderman - 10-20-2005 at 07:39 PM

Oh, almost forgot, from Texas, BBQ rib tacos, make sure to take out the bone.

Spyderman - 10-20-2005 at 07:40 PM

Here's another, from Washington State, Dungeness Crab Taco!!!!

hey Mike you can get the real yellow corn tort's

eetdrt88 - 10-20-2005 at 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mike Supino
I've found that GOOD corn tortillas need to be made with REAL yellow corn for flavor.
They are getting harder to find lately in So. Cal.; there seems to be a switch to the white corn tortillas with much less flavor.
From what I'm told, the white corn is for the aristocrates and the yellow corn is for everyday folks.
Maybe someone could elaborate on this for me.

at Trader Joes here in So. Cal.,theyre pretty cheap too

JESSE - 10-20-2005 at 11:16 PM

Gracias to all, lets keep this thread alive, so many good ideas, the hawaiian taco, the cuitlacoche, the bbq, i guess i am going to owe you guys a lot, so later i am going to post a great marinade i use for carne asada.

Saludos

Its all in the corn

bajajudy - 10-21-2005 at 06:50 AM

I agree that the most important part is the tortilla.
I dont care what you put on an old tortilla, it tastes like....doo doo.

There used to be a place in Oakland that we went to regularly and while you were sitting in the restaurant waiting for your food, you could hear mama in the back patting and slapping the masa to make the tortillas. It made the entire meal taste better to know that those tortillas had just been made to order!

So I vote for fresh handmade tortillas

comitan - 10-21-2005 at 07:32 AM

^Taco Valladolid (Yucatan style)

Chicken w/a drizzel of chinese duck sauce, lettuce, salsa made from tomato,papaya, banana topped w/sour cream.

Duck sauce can be subsittuted w/an appropriate Mexican sauce.
Jesse. with both of the tacos I submitted you could add mango or substitute, I'm sure that you will want to experiment I think you will come up with something exotic.

[Edited on 10-21-2005 by comitan]

[Edited on 10-21-2005 by comitan]

Braulio - 10-21-2005 at 07:33 AM

Use a sweetened flour tortilla with chocolate and pastry cream and roll an eclair - or with sweetened apple to make an apple turnover type deal.

A great dessert Burrito

Keri - 10-21-2005 at 08:07 AM

A flour tort with a couple squares of a hersery bar, fold it like a chimi and deep fry or pan fry very quickly then sprinkle with powdered sugar. Yummy!!!!!!!!! Can also be placed on the grill like a quesadilla. k :tumble:

Monia - 10-21-2005 at 08:30 AM

Jesse,

Good luck to you! I recommended your restaurant to some family members who wanted a new place to try, they will be there next week. I make great tacos with fresh shrimp, any sauce goes, garlic/butter, chipotle, crema fresca and some lettuce/cabbage for garnish, you can call them "Monica's tacos"!!

Baja Bernie - 10-21-2005 at 08:35 AM

To Bajalero's potato taco add raisins and schreded casrrots like my wife's aunt did with her tamales.

Comitans Hawaiian Taco add spam as they do to everything.

my wife's mother used to make flour tortillas with cottage cheese--they were to kill for. Never heard anyone else doing this.

Hook, now you got me thinking about food.

Oso - 10-21-2005 at 08:37 AM

Jesse, if you really want to impress people, at least the dinner crowd, set up a small comal on a raised platform in the dining area. Hire a lady wearing indigenous dress to sit there on a petate making tortillas by hand. There is nothing that can compare with a fresh, hot tortilla right off the comal. Just for show, you could have her occassionally grind some corn on a metate. Of course your hoped for volume would require supplementing the masa from the kitchen, but the visual and olfactory effect would be killer.

bajaden - 10-21-2005 at 10:50 AM

Take crab meat and combine it with cooked carrots, celery, onions and mango. mould it into small cakes and refrigerate. Take balls and roll in egg yellow and then in coconut. Deep fry until golden brown. Place several in a tortilla with shredded lettece and drizzle a mustard, balsamic vinegar sauce over it.

comitan - 10-21-2005 at 10:59 AM

Bajaden

Sounds like a great taco, but I think they should be dipped in the white of the egg to hold together and brown.

Tucker - 10-21-2005 at 11:14 AM

I re-invent the taco almost daily. The recipie starts out; ""open the refrigerator door, see what's inside and make a taco out of it."

bajaden - 10-21-2005 at 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by comitan
Bajaden

Sounds like a great taco, but I think they should be dipped in the white of the egg to hold together and brown.

It will work with just the yellow. However, your right about the white. I just like the way it browns up with the yellow. Hell just use the whole egg.

Bajame - 10-21-2005 at 02:55 PM

take a whole wheat tort and spread it with cream cheese and spread your favorite jam, roll it up and fry till golden brown sprinkle with powder sugar. Yum! Vegi tacos, spicy fried zuc"s and black beans, cheese, tom let. onion, avacado's. Topped with carrot and cabbage salsa. Gotta go and get a taco fix!

RonnieRockCod - 10-22-2005 at 09:49 AM

Jesse, I recommend Tacos Japon?s. This was the Okinawan effort to satisfy the Jarheads' craving for Mexican fare in the mid 1950's. The problem was lack of corn, white or yellow. So they made their masa from rice. Quite tasteless, very crispy when fried, but that was all we had. For the adventurous there was Tacos Unagi, (eel), Tacos Tako, (octopus, how extraordinarily appropiate) Tacos Kujira, (whale), Tacos Ebi, (shrimp), Tacos Sakana, (fish), Tacos Gy?niku, (beef) and Tacos Sea Urchin. The one taco everyone was afraid to try was Tacos Fugu, (blowfish) This was a delicacy that was fatal if the fugu was not properly prepared.

Your clientele will probably be limited to grizzled, old, retired Marines from the Naval Service Retirement Home and some Japanese tourists with cameras dangling from their necks. Good luck with the new menus and rice tortillas. RRC

Oso/Jesse

Baja Bernie - 10-22-2005 at 05:44 PM

They do that in Old Town San Diego and the people wait in line on the sidewalk to buy tortilla's (flour) for 50cents a piece. They are very good but the show and smell is what does the selling.

ElNido's in Rosarito does the same thing but they cook them on a tin sheet over a oak fire and when I go in for breakfast I may not really be hungry but after watching the lady and smelling the aroma's I am starved when the Nopales and eggs finally get to the table.

comitan - 10-22-2005 at 06:00 PM

Bernie

Tortilla's 50cents a piece, that sounds very expensive?

Comitan

Baja Bernie - 10-22-2005 at 06:14 PM

You got it--but even my wife pays the price because of the show and the aroma. Six bucks a dozen and she will not share them with anyone. I guess they are really good--they smell great--perhaps if she drops one I can tell you how they taste.

I guess I should tell you she only weighs 112 pounds.

comitan - 10-22-2005 at 06:24 PM

Bernie

You better come back to Baja, how can you afford it. Hope your not eating them, I call them heart plugs. I only eat corn tortilla's and Masa or not when I go down by a kilo from the tortillaria for 8 pesos bring them home hot I get soooo hungary.

Comiten

Baja Bernie - 10-22-2005 at 06:36 PM

Corn are my favorites also--but my doctor says no to to any such thing and a bunch of other good stuff also.
I would to come back but there is my heart doctor again--A real party pooper.

comitan - 10-22-2005 at 06:54 PM

Bernie

I'm very sure there is no bad fat in corn tortilla's its the flour ones that are bad. by the way I'm a thousand miles from my heart doc. in La Jolla, so far so good. four ways 9 years ago.

Hose A

Baja Bernie - 10-22-2005 at 08:58 PM

WE had a lady in camp, Lois, who sipped Tequila for over 50 years and the doctors told her to quit when she was 86. I closed her eyes about 6 months later. What do they really know????

Spyderman - 10-24-2005 at 06:38 AM

They make another meat in Ohio, Kentucky, Wisconson area, I forget the name of it, but its ground up beef and pork, I bet that would make a good taco too.

Spyderman - 10-24-2005 at 06:40 AM

They make another meat in Ohio, Kentucky, Wisconson area, I forget the name of it, but its ground up beef and pork, I bet that would make a good taco too.