"Denny Wheeler" > wrote in message
...
> On Wed, 05 Oct 2005 19:22:43 GMT,
> (S'mee) wrote:
>
> >
> >Aren't soft tacos are usually made with flour tortillas...?
>
> Yup. Corn tortillas would fall apart.
>
Tacos are ONLY made with corn tortillas. There are other similar foods that
can be made with flour tortillas, but not tacos.
Crisp tortillas are almost exclusively an American thing. In Cal-Mex
cooking, only one kind of taco is crisp and that is deep fried East L. A.
style tacos. In Tex-Mex cooking I can't address the crisp taco thing as it
is a cuisine that I am somewhat familiar with, but have not cooked nor
particularly studied.
For those of you not familiar with the subgenera of Mexican cuisine, there
are distinct qualities in the following groups: Mexican ( in all of it's
local versions), Tex-Mex, New Mex-Mex, AZ-Mex and Cal-Mex. Cal-Mex and
AZ-Mex are very similar in some ways, but AZ-Mex is also closely related to
New Mex-Mex. Tex-Mex pretty much stands alone, but influences all _-Mex
foods nowadays -- especially outside the border states.
Just in case you wondered, Cal-Mex is a direct descendant from Spanish
Rancho cooking with no influence from local Indians and a very late
influence from Mexican cooking. The influence of Mexican cooking on Cal-Mex
came mostly in the last half of the 20th century with the arrival of large
numbers of migrant workers from Mexico. Only in California's Imperial County
and farm areas of Southern California and the Central Valley does Cal-Mex
have a relationship to AZ-Mex because the Mexican laborers in these areas
came from the same areas of Mexico for the most part. These are different
than the Mexican influences in New Mexico and Texas. California is similar
to Baja California in that new workers have come mostly from Sonora and
Jalisco.
Charlie