El Tocallo

Heres the first couple of paragraphs of a little something I wrote for the day job, Cowboys & Indians magazine, where I am the food & drink editor. Enjoy and click on to the read the full story. Nothing is perhaps as emblematic of the cross-cultural exchange that occurs at the U.S.-Mexico border as the food. We can thank the border for the creation of Tex-Mex . Getting more specific, we can also thank the border for regional dishes such as the Sonoran hot dog (aka dogo), the use of shredded Muenster cheese on tacos in El Paso, Texas, and fried bacon-wrapped burritos stuffed with carne asada and, if requested, slathered with Philadelphia brand cream cheese (aka queso Philly or Philly cheese). Most recently, though, is the concha burger. We were bored, says chef Adrian Cruz, who along with his brother, Bobby, concocted the concha burger in 2016 because they had downtime while working at the Orchard Lounge in McAllen, in Texas Rio Grande Valley. Get the most out of your taco festival experience. Festival season is here and with it fiestas of every sort. That includes taco festivals, such as the one I curate, Taco Libre in Dallas, Saturday, April 27, 2019. You should go. Itll be fun. Tickets are available here . To increase your chances of a great taco festival experience, I have put together a list of best practices. Consider the crowd. Taco festivals draw large crowds. Lines are given. If youre going to a taco festival, go early. The lines will be shorter and youll be happier. Again, lines are given. Go early. Go with friends. While youre waiting in one line, have a friend in another taco line. Order enough tacos for the group. A third friend should be in the bar line. First get water. Next come the silly drinks. Then get more water. Continue reading This is list is good beyond National Taco Day too. You might not know this but tomorrow, Thursday, October 4, is the silly sad fabricated food holiday known as National Taco Day in the United States. It offers Mexican res