MEXICO CITY (CN) — The sunrise gilded the volcanic stone of the colonial buildings of the Historic Center as an early morning fog dense enough to ground planes at the Mexico City airport began to lift. Few people milled about as street vendors laid out their wares on the sidewalks around the main square people call the zócalo.
In this calm before the storm of residents and tourists that throng the downtown streets at the end of a long work week, employees at Los Especiales prepared for another busy day of selling tacos.
This taquería specializes in what is traditionally a street snack sold by vendors on bicycles: tacos de canasta, or basket tacos. And they sell a lot of them, 40,000 per day, according to manager Marcos Torres Amador.
“You can see the volume we sell here,” he said as the first customers of the day began to trickle in. By early afternoon, the line will stretch down the pedestrian Francisco I. Madero street almost to the zócalo. “That’s how we’re able to sell them cheaper than other places.”
Originally from the tiny central Mexican state of Tlaxcala, the owners have been selling their Quiroz family recipe to hungry working class folks in the neighborhood for over four decades, but the taquería moved into this prime location in the heart of the capital 15 years ago. And while many Mexicans will profess to prefer the more traditional style of tacos de canasta sold out of wicker baskets on the back of bicycles, taco fanatics can be sure that the Los Especiales recipe is authentic.
Tlaxcala is the considered the origin of tacos de canasta, according to Chef Lalo Plascencia, founder of the Center for Gastronomical Innovation in Mexico.
What exactly are basket tacos, and how are they different from the plethora of other tortilla-wrapped delicacies on just about every street corner in the city? The expert said it best.
“Tacos de canasta as we know them in Tlaxcala and Mexico City are made in a wicker or palm basket, in which you place a plastic lining, then stack tacos with different stuffings and toss in a hot oil spiced with achiote or a chile paste,” he said.
They are as greasy and delicious as they sound. Some Mexicans joke that it’s impossible to get the smell off of your fingers for the rest of the day after a meal of basket tacos.
As for the basket taco’s history, it is merely an iteration of a longstanding culinary tradition in Mexico.
“Mexican gastronomy has always wrapped things up in order to transport them,” he said.
The basket is not merely a convenient mode of taco transportation, it is also an integral part of the recipe.
“Once you cover the basket, the tacos finish cooking in it,” he said.
That’s not to say that the ingredients are raw when they’re put in the basket, but that the time they spend packed in together allows the oil to permeate the tacos and infuse the flavors throughout.
The most common stuffings in Mexico City are refried beans, potatoes, fried pigskins called chicharrones, and red meat or chicken in a rich red sauce called adobo. However, diligent taco treasure hunters are bound to find tacos de canasta filled with eggs and chile peppers, chorizo, and other tasty bites. There is even a stand on Mexico City’s Eje Central thoroughfare that sells “gourmet” tacos de canasta, with fillings like cochinita pibil, a savory pulled pork dish made with achiote from the state of Yucatán.
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