Chances are you won’t find one thing in Texas more widely loved and furiously fought over than the taco. With the power to both bring folks together and spark long-lasting rivalries, the taco has crossed into the Lone Star State’s cultural zeitgeist.
With that, of course, comes the flooding of “hot takes” and unpopular opinions meant to raise some eyebrows.
What’s your taco hot take? Tacos of Texas podcast host Mando Rayo wants to know. He spilled a few of his own with host David Brown.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: I hear you’ve been gathering some taco hot takes. So what’s the deal? Why you been doing that?
Mando Rayo: It’s just kind of one of those things where you’re like, it’s maybe an unpopular opinion, and I have some unpopular opinions myself, but let’s embrace those. It’s okay to be yourself and stand out amongst the crowd.
So for season five, we’re actually inviting folks to give us their hot taco takes. And so we’re inviting folks to come to the taco podcast studio and come give us your hot takes. But I got some to warm you all up.
Well, all right. Rubbing my hands together here. Give me your first hot take.
All right. Obviously, you know, living in Austin and proximity to San Antonio and lots of breakfast tacos: Potatoes are a filler on breakfast tacos. That is like, why are you doing that?
For me, I want some good eggs, some good protein. But those potatoes, they’re just not needed. And the second part, there’s a two-parter: If you put mashed potatoes in a taco, I mean, that’s just, I don’t know, man.
Now, is this a hot take from your heart, or is this one of your podcast listeners?
Some of these are my own. Some of these, like, I’ve heard out in the taco verse.
Okay, so when you walk into a restaurant, and maybe I’m old-school about this, but I judge a restaurant when you have to pay for chips and salsa. Man, that stuff should be for free. It’s part of the atmosphere, you know what I mean?
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I do know what you mean, man. It was my understanding that the original idea behind chips and salsa was to get people sort of ordering more cervezas while they’re waiting. for that’s true. You know, I’m talking about
Oh, that’s true. Totally. And then the problem is people get full on the chips and salsa.
Well, let’s hear another. You got a third for us?
I think when you go to Tex-Mex restaurants, I mean, you don’t have to put queso on everything – you know, like queso on this, queso with tortilla.
The first time I actually ate at a Tex-Mex place in Austin, and obviously coming from El Paso, I was like, what is this Tex-Mex watered-down Mexican food? Just put like a corn tortilla with queso on top of it – I’m like, and that’s a dish? No. So that’s that’s my hot take on that one.
Now let me ask you, sort of related to that, what about ranchero sauce on everything?
Ranchero sauce is good for huevo rancheros, you know what I mean? It has its place.
And here’s one for the, the home cooks: If you put like a good piece of pork butt, roast in an instant pot, do not call it carnitas. I mean, carnitas is a very specific dish; it’s cooked in its own fat for a long period of time, not within this like 20-minute window of an instant pot.
I’ve wondered about this very thing, because I often think carnitas is used as a kind of a synonym for pork sometimes, but that’s not okay.
Now, you mentioned you’re hoping to get folks to send in their taco hot takes. Where do they do that?
Look us up on Instagram at United Tacos of America and we have our link in our bio. If you’re in the Austin area or you want to come by the Austin studio and give us your best taco take, you’ll be on season five, and we’ll have a good conversation about it.
