Make Tacos Any Damn Way You Want

Photo courtesy of Gabriela Camara.

We know we might upset some purists out there by saying this, but a taco is merely a vehicle for any kind of filling you choose to stuff inside it.

Sure, sure—there’s a place for respecting and honoring region styles and varieties, and we too might look askance at a pile of cochinita pibil layered with sour cream and shredded cheddar.

But hey, maybe it’s damn good all the same.

Gabriela Camara, the chef behind Contramar in Mexico City and the upcoming Cala in San Francisco, agrees with us. Well, to a point.

“Purism in Mexican food is total bullshit,” she wrote on MUNCHIES this week, arguing that rigid fealty to certain styles of Mexican food doesn’t necessarily make them better.

At the same time, Camara doesn’t believe in dumbing down flavors, either. (Fine, maybe cheddar’d cochinita is off the menu.) That’s why she employs the bold flavors of al pastor-style meat—with roasted tomatoes and onions, and the heat of three chili varieties—on her fish tacos.

That kind of dish, she says, would never be considered pure “because you would never have that protein with that marinade,” but it’s delicious all the same. And that’s what really matters in the end, right?

So go wild tonight on your taco game, and eat your bastardized fillings like nobody’s watching.