WEBVTT - How Tacos Work 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.320 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:16.919 and there's Chuck and Jerry's even here, and this is 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:21.400 Stuff you Should Know. One of the best episode topics 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:25.160 I think we've ever come up with, I agree, ironically, 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:29.080 recording on a Thursday. You know where it's Taco Thursday. 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:33.240 But I ate tacos for lunch. Dude, I want a 0:00:33.320 --> 0:00:35.680 taco so bad, but I'm holding out until I see 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:39.040 the next like good taco truck. Yeah, so what I did, 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:41.120 and I'm going to shout out my favorite taco places 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:44.040 at the end. But um, tacos is most people know 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:49.159 are aren't the best delivery food because that you know, 0:00:49.360 --> 0:00:52.279 so you should eat right after assembly basically is your 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:56.080 best taco. That's why when you go to a taco 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:58.320 truck or a taco area, they're putting those things together 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:00.520 right in front of your face. But there's a place 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:03.400 in Atlanta called Bar Taco in Edmond Park, which they're 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:08.160 kind of fancy, swancy tacos. Uh, but they have a 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:10.119 couple of really good ones, and they deliver a little 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:14.360 taco kit like a little Bento box. Almost you got 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:17.720 your meat, separate from your tortillas, separate from your fixin's, 0:01:18.640 --> 0:01:20.280 and then you put it all together there at home 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:25.080 and it's Uh. I got the the pork belly that's 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:28.400 flavored with pineapple sauce. It was sort of an l 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:31.200 past store kind of flavor sounds like and then like 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:35.280 a shredded beef, and boy did it hit the spot. 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:37.759 After researching this for the past day and a half, 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:44.440 I can imagine Deli turkey sandwich was weeping while I 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:47.080 was eating it. I could not have tacos. I tried 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:50.960 to think of something else, but I got my tacos. 0:01:51.240 --> 0:01:53.760 I think that was the right thing to do. I'll 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:55.360 tell you what else was the right thing to do? 0:01:55.520 --> 0:01:59.280 Chuck asking Dave Rouse to help us out with this one, right, 0:01:59.840 --> 0:02:02.639 because it turns out that Dave Ruse was apparently born 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:07.240 to write this episode. So so, just a little bit 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:11.639 of backstory, Um, Dave and his wife moved to Mexico 0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:15.360 looking for adventure years and years ago, and while he 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:18.560 was down there, he'd being the journalist he was uh 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:22.280 and and meeting up with like really really good, authentic 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:24.880 tacos for possibly the first time in his life, he 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:27.600 decided he wanted to write a story, an article about 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:32.520 how we got from authentic, you know, real good Mexican 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:36.679 tacos like the ones you just described, to the kind 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:40.920 of tacos we had in America as kids outside of 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:44.800 Texas and California, which is like that crispy hardshell, little 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:48.440 ground beef, little taco, seasoning, iceberg, lettuce, tomatoes and just 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:51.040 shut up and eat it and don't ask for anything else, which, 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:54.200 by the way, I do love those. I think it 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:56.560 could be good. There's a place for them, but it's 0:02:56.600 --> 0:03:00.760 the same place that that grilled cheese occupies. Yeah, you know, 0:03:01.000 --> 0:03:05.440 or your square pizza. Yeah well, well, well said so. Um. 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:07.520 The thing about Dave, though, is when he when he 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:10.200 started researching this, he he found out, like I guess, 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:13.399 he reached out to a guy named Jeffrey Pilcher as 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:16.880 a source. Jeffrey Pilcher's a Latin American or he's in 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:19.639 a story and of Latin America. I don't think he's 0:03:19.680 --> 0:03:24.640 Latin American. Um, And Jeffrey Pilcher realized that he didn't 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:27.160 know actually, with the answer to that question, how we 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:31.720 got from authentic Mexican tacos to kind of blandish American tacos, 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:35.440 right yeah, and it seems like he might have even 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:38.360 like Dave may have possibly been an inspiration for what 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:43.800 ended up being the Jeffrey Pilcher book Planet Taco, a 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:46.840 Global History of Mexican Food, because he's even listed in 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:51.320 the acknowledgments. Right yeah, he thanks Dave um directly for 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:54.080 helping come up with this idea. And I can't remember 0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:56.360 exactly how you put it, so okay, So then now 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:59.960 we fast forward to one we asked Dave to help 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:03.200 was with the tacos article, and Dave goes back to 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:07.440 Jeffrey Pilcher's book that he helped inspire as a source 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:11.480 for this episode. Yeah, I mean it's pretty great. And 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:14.720 Dave loved Mexico so much he uh, he ended up 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:17.200 living there several different times for a total of about 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:20.120 nine years. The country he found so nice. He lived 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:25.040 there twice thrice. I think, oh, yeah, that's right. Country 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:27.880 is so nice he lived there thrice. It still works. Yeah, 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:30.719 it makes I mean, I've done very little travel in Mexico. 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:33.360 I've done some of the border town stuff in Tijuana 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:37.560 and Alcadonis, but I really want to go south, south 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:41.919 south into central and south Central Mexico. Uh, I just 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:45.320 gotta do it. It's wonderful. Uh. I worked at Mexicaly 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:47.880 Girl in college in eight Mexican food literally every day 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:50.679 for three years, and it's just one of my favorite 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:53.839 cuisines and favorite cultures in the world. It's pretty good. 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:56.480 One of the things that really is kind of shocking 0:04:57.120 --> 0:04:59.840 um about all this, though, Chuck, is the taco, the 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:03.440 thing that pretty much everybody in the world associates with 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:09.080 Mexican cuisine, is possibly the latest comer of all of 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:13.000 Mexican what we would identify as Mexican cuisine. It's actually 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:16.120 fairly recent invention. And that's pretty much what this episode 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:18.360 is going to be about. How the taco got invented 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:20.920 and then how we got from an actual authentic Mexican 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:25.560 taco to the americanized kind of Taco bell version of it. Yeah, 0:05:25.600 --> 0:05:28.159 and Dave makes a great point that, you know, growing 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:30.760 up in the seventies and eighties, like we did, we 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:34.920 had our our what's the brand again, old El Paso. Yeah, 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:38.720 the old El Paso like Taco kit style tacos. And 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:40.800 like I said, I still love him. You love them. 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:43.560 There's a place for that. Uh. If you get if 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:46.960 you put that pop that taco shell in the oven 0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:50.840 and get it crispy, it's really a beautiful thing as 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:52.440 long as it doesn't break in half. That you can 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:56.480 get a little messy. But while there's a place for those, uh. 0:05:56.560 --> 0:05:58.720 Dave makes the point, and I agree that, like we 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:00.560 are truly in the golden age of tacos here in 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:03.719 the United States, because it used to be, like you said, 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:06.160 Texas in California, you could always get pretty good tacos 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:08.880 once they came on the scene in the nineteen fifties 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:16.839 or so. But now every major city has world class tacos. Yeah, yeah, 0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:19.320 And I mean not just like taco trucks that somebody 0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:21.640 pulled up and and thank God for those as well, 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:25.800 but I mean like like multiple taco restaurants Takorea's like 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:29.440 authentic ones all over the place. Then they're that in 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:31.920 just about any town in the country. And I don't 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:35.120 know exactly how it happened, but it happened, and it's 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:38.159 great that it did, because it's not like people from 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:42.039 south of the border started showing up in you know, 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:44.480 two thousand five, and then that was it, you know, 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:47.080 and they brought tacos with them and in that kind 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:50.719 of cuisine. Like, there have been plenty of Mexican and 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:54.960 Central American immigrants that have moved up into the United 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:57.520 States for a very long time, and they did bring 0:06:57.560 --> 0:07:00.680 tacos with them. But for some reason there those authentic 0:07:00.720 --> 0:07:03.320 tacos just took a while to catch on. I think, Chuck, 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:06.920 it was America that finally came around and caught up 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:11.800 to what the the Mexican cuisine actually was, rather than 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:13.400 being like, no, we don't want that, we want this 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:16.680 taco bell version. Yeah, I think I agree. And when 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:19.720 I said every major American city, I'm talking, if you want, 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:24.400 you know, fifty taco places to choose from, Atlanta probably 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:26.480 has that many, I've got. I looked on the map 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:30.400 today out of curiosity. I counted like seventeen taco places 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:33.840 within literally three miles of my house. And those are 0:07:33.920 --> 0:07:36.800 just places that have taco in the name, right, Yeah, 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:39.040 I mean these were places that I mean they weren't 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:42.800 I kind of through some generic or not generic, just 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:45.840 some overall Mexican restaurants in there that have really great tacos. 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:48.800 But most of those were sort of Tacorea style or 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:53.520 taco trucks. But you know, forget major American cities, like 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:58.200 small towns like you can find really good tacos everywhere 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:01.640 in this country. Now, yes, yeah, the best. The best 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:08.120 taco I ever had actually was in some little countryside 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:10.760 rural area outside of Boston. I remember we had a 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:13.480 show in Boston. Then we had another show somewhere else 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:16.000 that was within driving distance, and I was driving there 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:20.760 and no, okay, it was driving from Seattle of Portland. 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:24.960 Best taco IVE ever had. Driving Seattle of Portland in 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:28.040 the middle of the like nowhere, and there was a 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:30.680 taco truck and they had a beef tongue taco and 0:08:30.720 --> 0:08:34.120 it was hands down the best taco I've ever had. Yeah, 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:36.480 I'm not in love with the tongue. I would you know? 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:39.559 When I worked at Mexicali and College in Athens, that 0:08:39.760 --> 0:08:42.920 was the guys in the kitchen would they would make 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:45.200 our food, but then on special days they would make 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:48.360 their own food for themselves. And Mexicali didn't have stuff 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:49.640 like tongue. It was a bunch of frat boys and 0:08:49.679 --> 0:08:51.640 stuff that we're eating it, so they weren't into tripe 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:53.719 and tongue, but they would make that stuff and I 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:56.240 would always try it don't love the texture of tongue. 0:08:57.000 --> 0:09:00.040 I definitely don't love the texture of tripe um, but 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:02.800 I gave it a whirl. I did not like tripe. 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:06.800 I would eat kabeza, which is cheek and jowl meat taco. 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:09.360 Those are I like those better than the tongue in tripe. 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:12.720 I've never had beef cheeks, but I've had no Actually, 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:14.520 I guess I have had beef cheeks, but it wasn't 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:16.960 in a taco. It was like prepared, like braised beef 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:19.440 cheeks and they were deish. Yeah, but give me some 0:09:19.559 --> 0:09:24.160 carne asada or shredded beef or carnitas or l pass store. 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:28.280 I'm down with rizo, but that's probably lower on my list, 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:31.040 just because I like the others more. Yeah, I'll lead 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:34.240 a fish taco. I'll lead a shrimp taco. I love 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:37.760 those seafood tacos. I like it, definitely, definitely. Yeah good. 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:40.640 A good fish taco with some red cabbage slaw on 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:43.880 there is pretty tough to beat. Really, Yeah, let's just 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:46.880 do this. We'll talk about the tacos that we like 0:09:47.000 --> 0:09:49.320 for the rest of this episode. Like the fried fish 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:53.880 in this Dude Fish, It's all good and so it's 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:56.360 worth restating again. I think we're living in a golden 0:09:56.360 --> 0:09:59.200 age of tacos here in the United States, clearly, because 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:01.280 you can find end all these tacos. And if you're 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:03.680 not out there finding all these tacos and this sounds good, 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:06.640 make a concerted effort to go find an authentic taco 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:08.640 place and see what's what, and I'll bet you never 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:11.240 really go back. That's right. One last taco that I 0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:15.000 love is the Korean taco. Yes, the little fusion tacos 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:17.840 that are out now that are so delicious. Do you 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:20.359 know the first time I ever even knew that existed 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:25.240 was Uh, Chad Crowley, who produced, one of the producers 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:29.040 on that show, had that catered some Korean taco, Korean 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:32.920 barbecue taco place somewhere over on the West Side, had 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:36.600 it catered and cooked Tacorea. My friend, is that what 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:39.839 it was? Okay? And and I it was like, I 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:42.959 don't I don't ever want to leave this craft services table. 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:44.640 I just want to stay in here and eat these 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:47.120 tacos for the Let's just call off the shoot and 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:50.400 do this and yeah, that's still go there. Uh, there's 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:54.040 a lot of houseware places over there, so whenever Emily 0:10:54.040 --> 0:10:55.400 and I go over there to look at those, I 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:59.600 always pop into handcook for some sesame fries and beef 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:04.480 bull tacos. And the guy there, dude still recognizes me 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:07.360 from stuff you should know, the TV show That's awesome, 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:10.000 that's really cool. He's like, it was no good, but 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:12.240 I recognize you every time I go and he's, hey, man, 0:11:12.280 --> 0:11:14.120 how you doing. You're still doing the TV show, like 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:18.439 for the fiftieth time. No, no, he said, get very 0:11:18.520 --> 0:11:21.080 nice guy that went delicious tacos. We gotta shout out though. 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:23.720 Roy CHOI apparently was the guy who came up with 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:27.760 Korean barbecue tacos, so he's worth mentioning for sure, at 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:31.040 least for that. So I guess we should really talk 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:34.480 about tacos instead of just salivating and talking about our 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:39.640 favorite tacos. Agreed, because, like I said, tacos are fairly 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:43.720 recent creations as far as Mexican cuisine goes. But one 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:46.520 of the things that is essential to a taco, the tortilla, 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:51.200 is actually very very very old. Yes it is, and 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:53.640 technically if you put something in a tortilla and eat it, 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:58.000 you could describe it as a taco. But you know, 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:02.720 basically since the domestication in southern Mexico of corn about 0:12:02.800 --> 0:12:06.640 eight seven hundred years ago, they have been grinding that 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:10.680 stuff up, flattening it out, and cooking it near a 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:12.760 fire usually you know back then, like on a hot 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:14.760 rock or you know, we saw in Guatemala they were 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:18.360 still doing this hand every morning. Some of the best 0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:21.480 tortillas you're ever gonna have. Yeah, but that was it, 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:23.760 Like then you have a tortilla after that. And they've 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:26.120 been doing this for thousands of years. I think it 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:29.000 was kicked off by the Maya who figured this out. 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:32.360 And then there was another really important innovation that the 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:35.480 old Mec people came up with, and that was to 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:39.800 take that corn and soak it in hot water with 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:44.120 wood ash, which made an alkaline solution basically, and that 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:48.200 actually broke down the um. The I think the pair 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:53.880 of carb the whole of the corn um and change 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:56.599 the corn nutritionally like it made a lot of the 0:12:56.640 --> 0:12:59.840 stuff inside more bioavailable. So it took something that was 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:02.280 already like okay, this is this is fine, we can 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:04.720 stay alive on this and actually turned it into like 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:08.480 a really nutrient rich food. So the tortillas you're eating 0:13:08.920 --> 0:13:13.240 um as long as they've undergone a process called Nick's tomalization. 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:17.800 Um is actually pretty pretty healthy for you. That sounds 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:20.800 like you said the word tomali in there, I did, Yes, 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:22.920 would you like to spill the beans? And being KOI 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:28.480 so in the uh nahuaddle language that the language of 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:33.800 the Aztecs next teale was means ashes and then tomali 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:37.520 with an eye means unformed maze dough, which will sound 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:39.360 familiar if I've ever had a tomali with an e 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:42.240 on the end. Let me ask you this, do you 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:46.120 and youumy ever do tacos yourself at home? Yeah? We 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:50.360 do more like just variations on taco salad typically, but 0:13:50.520 --> 0:13:53.480 you know, yeah, we'll get like some blue corn tacos 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:55.640 once in a while and fill them up, or else 0:13:55.679 --> 0:13:58.199 we'll make We'll get like some of those like um 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:00.720 some usually we do flower though, like that this the 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:02.920 ones you have to refrigerate, we'll get those, the lucy 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:06.600 goosey ones. Make some fish tacos with slaw that kind 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:09.200 of stuff. Yeah, we do sometimes, all right. If you 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:10.720 ever want to just kind of take it to the 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:15.000 next level, I highly recommend making your own tortillas. Get 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:19.320 a tortilla press. It's a maze or some massa maze 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:21.560 and just give it a whirl. It's it's they're a 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:23.520 little tricky, but once you get the hang of it, 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:27.480 it uh. It really just takes things to a stratosphere 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:30.560 that I previously did not know. I can imagine I'd 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:33.760 never really even considered doing that, but I'm going to now. Yeah, 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:36.400 get maybe I'll buy you a tortilla press. Would you accept? 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:39.760 I you have to now you've just offered on the 0:14:39.920 --> 0:14:42.760 on the podcast. I will hold you to that. Good. 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:46.520 I'll send you mind and I'll get into it. Be 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:49.400 like there's like old crusty dough on this one. Actually 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:51.400 I worn't in I don't know if there's anything to that, 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:55.200 but if it's like cast iron, that may yeah like seasoned. 0:14:55.200 --> 0:15:02.000 Sure cool, thanks man? Sure. So um, we've got mixed 0:15:02.000 --> 0:15:05.120 to moll ization, which makes the stuff in the corn 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:08.440 that was already there like iron and vitamin B three 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:13.680 way more bioavailable. Right. Yes, it actually sucks calcium into 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:16.720 the corn, so it adds a lot of calcium. It 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:19.440 fortifies it with calcium. Just this process of soaking the 0:15:19.520 --> 0:15:23.720 corn in wood, ash and water before you turn it 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:27.600 into massa and then it also kills off mico toxins 0:15:27.600 --> 0:15:31.640 which can mess you up pretty good fungal toxins that 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:33.640 can be present on corn. And when you put all 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:36.440 this together, especially if you added together with some beans, 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:39.520 you have what's called the complete protein. Huh, that's right, 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:42.520 And that means you can indulge in those tacos and 0:15:42.520 --> 0:15:45.600 feel good about it. A complete protein is when you 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:50.320 have the nine essential amino acids and basically equal amounts. 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:53.360 And here's the little trick to tacos though, that make 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:57.560 it special. You can have beans and you're not a 0:15:57.560 --> 0:16:01.080 complete protein. You can have corn and not a complete protein. 0:16:01.680 --> 0:16:04.520 But if you put those things together, you do have 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:08.320 a complete protein because beans have all those essential amino 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:13.520 acids but one it's called matthionine, and corn does have that. 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:16.600 So it's it's almost like it was meant to be. Yeah, corns, like, 0:16:16.920 --> 0:16:19.760 I'll help you out with some methionine, no problem, Yeah, man, 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:24.200 brief red beans. I know there's something about food that 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:28.640 when you know that they form some sort of like 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:34.080 natural pattern just makes them even more satisfying and wholesome. Yeah, 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:38.160 or when things come together to make a greater whole, Yeah, exactly, 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:40.880 should we take a break. Yeah, let's take a break 0:16:40.880 --> 0:16:44.239 and we'll get back to the We'll get to contact 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:57.120 between the Spanish and the Mesoamericans. I want to learn 0:16:57.120 --> 0:17:01.120 about how to take a perfect but on a fractals 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:03.680 gone that hun the Lizzie Border murders, that they kind 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:09.800 of all runs on the plane. Everything we should know. 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:14.520 Word up, Jerry, Okay, So, um, we've got the invention 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:19.320 of the tortilla. That doesn't mean that tacos were invented yet. Um. 0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:22.159 One of the reasons why tacos you can't say tacos 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:26.399 were invented is because um, meso Americans used tortillas for 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:30.399 just about everything. I think the Spanish said that Montezuma Um, 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:33.920 the emperor of the Aztecs, who was running the show 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:38.080 when the Spaniards showed up in fifteen nineteen, um that 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:42.160 he would eat He would basically use his tortillas as 0:17:42.200 --> 0:17:44.720 a as a spoon, much much the same way. Have 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:47.479 you ever eaten eat the open food? Yeah, I mean 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:50.080 I do this with tortillas, but sure you know, so 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:51.760 those I can't remember the name of the bread, but 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:54.400 they use that bread for like everything. It's just it's 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:56.920 just generally a utensil as much as it is a food. 0:17:57.119 --> 0:17:59.840 And apparently that that the Aztecs used to do that 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:02.920 with tortillas, and I would guess Meso Americans as a whole. 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:06.720 So Dave points out quite rightly that you can't really 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:09.040 say what they were eating were tacos, even though they 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:12.040 might have even been putting stuff in these tortillas. And 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:15.439 the way that you couldn't say that, you know, whatever 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:17.679 you were eating was a sandwich because there was a 0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:19.800 loaf of bread on the table or a basket of 0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:22.760 rolls on the table. Uh, in the exact same way 0:18:22.800 --> 0:18:25.240 that that makes sense. Yeah, I remember when I went 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:27.280 when I lived in Yuma twenty five years ago and 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:29.720 I went to Algadonis right over the border for the 0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:34.280 first time, and I saw the local Mexican population with 0:18:34.359 --> 0:18:38.000 these big plates like stewed meat, and they had the 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:39.679 tortillas and I was like, Oh, they're going to assemble 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:42.359 that to a taco, but no, no, they ripped it 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:45.000 up and they would just use it to grab the 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:47.320 meat and put it in their mouth. And I thought 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:50.080 that's when the lights kind of went off. And you know, 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:52.880 I still love the traditional taco too, but I also 0:18:52.960 --> 0:18:54.919 love to just put the stuff on my plate and 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:58.440 use it as a spoon or a grabber. Sure, it's 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:02.679 like uh oh, I can't remember what it's called. But 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:05.880 there's a kind of sushi. It's almost like deconstructed sushi 0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:07.920 where they don't bother to turn it into a roll. 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:10.280 It's just a bed of rice and then they put 0:19:10.320 --> 0:19:12.240 all this stuff you would put in the sushi just 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:15.400 on top of the rice, so it's technically not sushi, 0:19:15.400 --> 0:19:18.040 even though all of the elements are there. Yeah. And 0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:19.800 I do the same thing with Indian food with the 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:24.760 garlic non yes, which again is another one of my 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:28.439 favorite cuisines. To like Indian food. Oh my god, I 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:32.480 just I love like all food. Human is always saying she, 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:34.680 she's like it. It doesn't really matter whenever you talk 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:36.600 about how great a food is, because you think all 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:39.360 food is good. And it's true, Like I love just 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:42.280 about all food. There's really not a food that I'm like, 0:19:42.359 --> 0:19:45.480 I don't like that wholesale you know, I know, one 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:50.080 of my favorite obbies is eating foods seems so good. 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:53.040 Uh So the taco though, back then, like you said, 0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:56.160 they were using these tortillas spoons and such like that, 0:19:56.840 --> 0:20:02.200 and it was about the late eighteen hundreds that sort 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:06.320 of the Mexican taco that we're familiar with finally kind 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:12.120 of comes on the scene. So the word tacos kind 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:16.520 of up for debate, isn't it. Yeah, I mean, taco 0:20:16.720 --> 0:20:20.080 was a word in Spain, you know, hundreds of years ago, 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:22.680 but it didn't mean the food. It was meant a 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:24.440 lot of different things. But one of the things that 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:27.679 meant that's going to come into play with the food 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:30.680 was it was like a plug or attack stuffed into 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:33.720 the barrel of a musket to keep that ball settled. 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:36.520 It also was like a shot of wine, or a 0:20:37.160 --> 0:20:40.160 hammer or a billiard queue you could call a taco, 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:42.959 But at the time, none of those words had anything 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:46.119 to do with the food. No, so the word taco 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:49.720 predates the food taco. That seems to be the clear, 0:20:50.119 --> 0:20:53.359 the clear aspect of this, the clear upshot, as I 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:57.199 would say, Um, yes, there's also a there's also a 0:20:57.320 --> 0:21:00.200 rival to the Spanish word taco t a c e o, 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:05.800 and that's a not huaddle word taco there with an 0:21:05.920 --> 0:21:08.560 L in there, basically t l a h c o, 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:13.160 and it apparently means middle or half and from everything 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:17.440 I've seen that is an incorrect etymology for the word 0:21:17.440 --> 0:21:19.800 taco as we understand it today, that it is just 0:21:20.080 --> 0:21:23.040 total coincidence. Right. But you might see some people claiming 0:21:23.080 --> 0:21:25.639 that correct, yes, but they are wrong. From what I 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:29.480 can tell, that's right. So to get from the muskeet 0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:33.520 plug to the food. Uh. In Pilter's books, he makes 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:36.760 a a guess that I surmised that other people have 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:39.639 also made that sounds pretty good to me. With his 0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:43.879 story and Hidalgo, it was a silver mining town, uh 0:21:44.000 --> 0:21:48.159 Rial del Monte specifically, and what the guys and the 0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:50.640 mind would do is they would work in the uh 0:21:50.720 --> 0:21:53.920 they're sometimes daughters and wives wuld bring them their lunch, 0:21:54.040 --> 0:21:57.600 which was something a lot like a taco, like beans 0:21:57.680 --> 0:22:00.240 or that stewed meat or maybe some avocado and wrapped 0:22:00.240 --> 0:22:02.480 in a tortilla. They would put it in a towel 0:22:02.480 --> 0:22:05.360 line basket where they get all nice and steamy and 0:22:05.480 --> 0:22:08.600 bring it down there for lunch. So, while they're working 0:22:08.640 --> 0:22:10.960 in the mine, they're blasting holes in the rock, which 0:22:11.000 --> 0:22:13.440 they do by carving out a hole and then stuffing 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:17.520 in an explosive, which they call the taco. So it 0:22:17.600 --> 0:22:21.160 might seem like a tinuous connection, but in Mexico City 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:23.760 in the early twenty century, there was a taco called 0:22:23.800 --> 0:22:27.200