The main attraction for tacos is the filling.
And when it comes to fillings, it pays to be equal opportunity. Who doesn’t love a good carnitas taco with a little onion, cilantro and green salsa? Grilled chicken with a little pico or al pastor with grilled pineapple and green onion. I’m good with all of it. Gringo tacos with ground beef and Alton Brown’s Taco Potion #19? It’s in regular rotation. Even a vegetarian version with lentils and whizzed up cauliflower, yeah, why not? Where I draw the line, and this might surprise you, is at tofu.
Tacos seem like a simple food. A stack of tortillas, a little meat, a little onion, cilantro, a spoonful of salsa. Hit your local taqueria, order 2 or 3 and there’s lunch. At home, tacos quickly spiral out of control. No taco plate is complete without rice and beans. And wouldn’t some escabeche, pickled carrots and jalapenos, be good alongside? And what about guacamole? You’ve gotta have guacamole. Suddenly, your quick and dirty dinner has dirtied every pan in the house.
But what can you do? Summer, right about now, might just be the best time for a taco bar. Tomatillos and tomatoes are just coming in at our market, summer squash is plentiful. Chiles aren't far behind. There was no question we’d wrap the July 4th holiday weekend with tacos – with two different approaches to pork tacos from the Homesick Texan Cookbook and the accompanying sides.
I'm usually a rigorous researcher before a vacation, so at least I have ideas for things to do and places to eat in between chilling out and reading books under swaying palm fronds. But for this trip to Kauai, I was pretty much useless. Although Pat's Taqueria was in the guidebook, I didn't know that until later, so we got lucky. But if there's one guiding light, one truism that I know is actually true it's, "Where there are surfers, good Mexican chow follows." See also: Tacofino.
What is it about surf towns and great Mexican food? I don't know if I'm totally biased by having spent most of my life in California, but Tofino, BC on Vancouver Island, is proving out the connection. Off Pacific Rim Highway in Tofino, there's a little center with a small grocery, a surf shop, a coffee place, and a taco truck at the back of the parking lot, a taco truck which is doing crazy business with locals and tourists alike.
