Planet Taco Summary

Life on Planet Taco has existed since around 7000 BCE when the first maize plant was born . In Jeffrey Pilcher’s book Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food, he describes the origins of what is known today as Mexican food, the foodstuffs that are associated with Mexican cuisine, the rise and expansion of a what is now a global cuisine, the people who influenced and capitalized upon Mexican food and how through culinary tourism it has evolved over the course of time. While the Mexican food eaten today might have some roots that have survived since it was made by the Aztecs it has long since become “food” with many nationalities to precede the word.
Tacos as the world knows it are a food, understood as Mexican, that consists of a variety

of ingredients. They typically are a folded tortilla and may contain any combination of foods such as: meat, cheese, lettuce, salsa, sour cream, guacamole. In Jeffrey Pilcher’s book, he explains the origins of the word “taco”. Picher mentions that “the Spanish word “taco” is like the English word “tack” is common in most Romantic and Germanic languages.” Furthermore, Pilcher explains that the word “taco” was defined by Spanish dictionaries as a billiard cue, a ramrod, a carpenter’s hammer and a gulp of wine. The book also discusses that the rolled pouches of gunpowder explosives used by silver miners were called “tacos” and perhaps the rolled form of the food taco was lent its namesake from the miner’s gunpowder pouches. It wasn’t until the middle of the 1800’s that the word “taco” came to also be known as food.
Origins of the taco begin with the discovery of maize and the ingenuity of making tortillas. In the beginnings of the Common Era, people discovered nixtamalization, the practice of mixing alkaline ash with the corn. Through the nixtamalized maize, people were able to grind the substance into a dough and cook it, producing a tortilla. Naturally, the dietary staple of corn tortillas was likely mixed with other ingredients likely forming the first tacos.
The immersion of the conquistadors and people from other nations firmly rooted the native people of Mexico and Central America as the lowest of low class citizens and while the Spanish were eating breads made from wheat the native people were eating corn tortillas. However, as time passed the appreciation of food passed from the different social classes and even to different nations. From this point on what was maybe known as Mexican food changes and evolves as it slowly makes its way through countries and time. Modern tacos range from surfer’s fish tacos, to Glen Bell’s adaptation of the fast taco, to a Korean version including kimchi.
Burrito as mentioned in Pilcher’s book literally means “little donkey” and is described as the “single heaviest fast-food item in the world.” Pilcher explains that many foods deemed Mexican are from the borderlands of Northern Mexico, the burrito being one. While the burrito tortilla is defined being of the Northern Mexican style, the rice and bean content is considered to be Caribbean. The burrito differs from the taco in sheer size.
Chili queens of San Antonio were hardworking women that capitalized upon the Mexican street food market of the late nineteenth century.

Jeffrey Pilcher describes the chili queens as both “alluring and contaminating”. The late night vending women offered exotic temptations through their food and sexuality. Pilcher mentions that, “By 1894, city boosters had transformed these ordinary cooks into mythological sirens, ‘bright, bewitching creatures [who] put themselves to much trouble to please their too often rowdy customers’.” The white community of San Antonio view the chili queens and the customers they attracted as a nuisance that crowded the streets and served dirty food in an unclean environment. The racial divide between Caucasian and Hispanic people during the era of the chili queens has endured through time. Although tensions have been relieved significantly there are still many modern issues that continue among the two groups.
According to Pilcher’s book, Norway consumes more Mexican food than the rest of the world. Pilcher mentions that the typical Norwegian taco contains, “a combination of ground beef, lettuce, tomato, and mild salsa, but with white cheese, sour cream, and more vegetables, including cucumber and canned corn.” The sparse availability of Mexican restaurants in Norway combined with the love of the cuisine led to what is known as Fredagstacoen, also known as, Friday Tacos. For Fredagstacoen the people of Norway ritually venture to their local grocery stores and cook homemade

tacos.
The term “culinary tourism” is discussed frequently throughout Jeffrey Pilcher’s Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food. Pilcher defines culinary tourism as “the intentional exploration of the foods of another group”. In essence the motive of this book to explain what Mexican food is; is driven by the culinary tourism. The uncertainty of what authentic Mexican food is has bred curiosity and the desire to define and pinpoint exactly what could be considered Mexican food in its purest form. Culinary tourism drives people to visit places in search of food terrior and contemporary chefs are doing their best to achieve this by serving ancient Aztec dishes.