[HN Gopher] The Unlikely Rise of French Tacos
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The Unlikely Rise of French Tacos
Author : revolucien
Score : 61 points
Date : 2021-04-12 11:00 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.newyorker.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.newyorker.com)
| baud147258 wrote:
| interesting, when searching for mukhala'a, which is supposed to
| be a North African dish, I only get pictures of muskets.
|
| Though for the rest, for an article written in an American
| publication, it's not too off-base (surely helped by how the
| author is living in France).
| [deleted]
| 1996 wrote:
| It seems tasty.
|
| Can you get that in the US?
| itronitron wrote:
| Breakfast tacos in Austin and San Antonio will be similar but
| smaller and with more options.
| BugsJustFindMe wrote:
| Get a meat and cheese burrito with fries. Then unwrap the
| burrito and put the fries inside.
| baud147258 wrote:
| Add some more cheese sauce too.
| simtel20 wrote:
| In the LA area, isn't that just a potato burrito?
| 0xffff2 wrote:
| LA as in Louisiana or LA as in Los Angeles? Anywhere in
| California this is called a "California burrito".
| 0xffff2 wrote:
| Are "California burrito"s only a thing in California? They're
| quite common there and are exactly this. Since moving to
| southern Oregon I've only found one place with it on the menu
| and they don't get the details quite right.
| selimthegrim wrote:
| The California burrito called?
| spaceflunky wrote:
| WTF?
| javier10e6 wrote:
| Well, In the US a taco salad comes housed on a crunchy flour
| shell that looks like coffee filter so let us not judge.
| HeyLaughingBoy wrote:
| And is often pretty damned delicious :-)
| titoasty wrote:
| YMMV very vastly, and it's only my experience, but here is my
| opinion on this food (I'm french).
|
| Having tried a lot of french tacos in Paris, Lille & Lyon
| (approximately one per week), famous brands and local ones, I can
| definitely tell you that: I found that most taste like sh _t. By
| most, I mean 95%. Most taste like bricks of "food", without any
| distinctive taste, are very dry (the different sauces are sucked
| by french fries) BUT you will feel completely full. Not fast-food
| full, I used the word brick and it's the most appropriate IMHO. I
| tried a lot of restaurants, a lot of combinations, and I just
| gave up of this kind of food. And if you really like this kind of
| food, please try the best burrito of Lyon from Taco Taco. Das
| good sh_t.
|
| I hope you'll prove me wrong and you'll point me to good french
| tacos. I'm fed up trying to find a good one :)
| BugsJustFindMe wrote:
| I mean if you're in Lyon you should just eat pied de porc and
| quenelles 24/7.
| titoasty wrote:
| You're a man of culture. This is the way now.
| BugsJustFindMe wrote:
| I feel strongly also about eating cassoulet 24/7 in the
| south. It makes one feel like they are sitting next to a
| tavern fireplace in a fantasy novel about to go on an epic
| adventure.
|
| It's weird though because I do _not_ feel the same way
| about regional sweets. Marrons glaces (disgusting),
| calissons (yuck), and macarons d'amiens (not even
| macarons!) can light themselves on fire. If they were any
| good, they wouldn't be only regional!
| Zababa wrote:
| The trick is to find the ones with chackchouka (cooked
| tomatoes, onions and bell peppers) and take them without fries,
| they're way better this way. Tacos World in Lyon is usually
| pretty decent this way, although it's still just street food.
| carpedimebagjoe wrote:
| They sound absolutely horrid. I'll try almost anything once,
| but freeganing in a Whole Foods' dumpster sounds better.
|
| I'm half-French ancestry living in Austin (ATX), arguably the
| taco capital of the US except maybe East LA. Apparently, KCK is
| now an upstart rival. Mexico city is probably the capital of
| the world.
|
| PS: What's up with French disdain for peanut butter? Is it just
| something else to feel artificially-superior about?
| fmajid wrote:
| You get peanut butter, Dakatine brand, and it's actually
| quite good, not overly oily or sweetened, just honest roasted
| and ground peanuts. It's mostly bought by African immigrants,
| however, not locals.
| carpedimebagjoe wrote:
| Real peanut butter with just peanuts has lots of peanut oil
| and needs it to flow better. So if it's only peanuts, is it
| very dry and difficult to take out and spread?
| lprd wrote:
| My girlfriend is French and she, along with her family,
| despise peanut butter. It makes me laugh! They say its 'too
| fat', and they don't like the taste. To each their own I
| guess.
| titoasty wrote:
| Try to compare it with Nutella, just to see where it's
| going ;) I hope your couch is comfortable.
| davidivadavid wrote:
| It's just not commonly part of the French diet, and since
| it's got a very pronounced flavor it makes for really
| unusual combinations to a French palate. Like most things,
| it's an acquired taste. (I'm French and peanut butter is
| okay with me.)
| kergonath wrote:
| They have nothing to do with what you would call "tacos" in
| the US.
|
| Also, there is nothing wrong with peanut butter. It's just
| not very common, in the same way as Roquefort might not be
| very common in the US. Nobody ever spends time not eating
| something just to feel superior, and French people are
| perfectly happy to copy foreign street food.
| wdb wrote:
| Peanut butter is nice. Sadly, it's not easy to get peanut
| better in the UK anymore now that they have left EU. Can't
| bring the peanut butter back from NL.
| fmajid wrote:
| You have plenty of peanut butter, e.g. Whole Earth brand at
| Waitrose, and it's quite a bit better than Calve pindakaas
| IMO.
|
| Now if I could find a good source for bokkenpootjes,
| bitterkoekjes, weespermoppen or mosterdsoep, that would be
| a major step forward.
| SuchAnonMuchWow wrote:
| You probably are not the target audience, and neither are the
| readers of the newyorker.
|
| They are eaten mostly by student, because its cheap, full of
| calories, and goes well with an evening at a bar drinking
| beers with other students.
|
| At least that's what they are in Grenoble, which is a melting
| pot and has a very high number of students: I think there is
| about 70,000 students in the city (not including high school
| or below) for around 400,000 inhabitants. So any bar/pub
| where the beer is cheap is always full.
| carpedimebagjoe wrote:
| Peanuts and beer is almost as good as pizza and beer.
|
| In Texas, there was a bar with unshelled spicy peanuts in
| an oak barrel where the peanut shells were thrown on the
| floor. I believe there are still bars and BBQ restaurants
| that do this.
| yardie wrote:
| > What's up with French disdain for peanut butter? Is it just
| something else to feel artificially-superior about?
|
| You can find giant jars of it in the Western African
| neighborhoods. I'm not even french and I also don't like it
| but my nephews will eat platefuls. And they are also French,
| the brown kind.
| kergonath wrote:
| Can't have mafe without peanut butter, ergo peanut butter
| is essential.
| carpedimebagjoe wrote:
| Ah cool. They know what's good. :-)
|
| I actually never liked PB&J (peanut butter and jelly)
| sandwiches, only PB sandwiches. My grandmother would buy
| the pure kind that had to have the peanut oil stirred back
| in.
|
| https://www.laurascudderspeanutbutter.com (that domain name
| is not long enough)
|
| Many healthy and luxury grocery stores have coffee-type
| grinders for making your own fresh peanut butter directly
| from bulk peanuts.
|
| I don't eat PB these days because it's a million calories,
| only a few unsalted roasted peanuts for a snack rarely.
| Some deserts have peanuts in them but not usually very
| much.
| simonh wrote:
| I'm not a fan of PB&J, but drizzle maple syrup on toast
| and cover in Sun-Pat and it's irresistible.
| jean_tta wrote:
| French tacos are only "tacos" in their name; the two
| foodstuff have basically nothing in common.
| carpedimebagjoe wrote:
| "French" fries
| jccalhoun wrote:
| I don't think it is just the French. I have Polish friends
| that aren't into it either. I think most of Europe isn't
| really into peanut butter.
| faster wrote:
| Funny; I have a Polish friend who lives in France and LOVES
| peanut butter. When she travels to the US she always maxes
| out her luggage weight with peanut butter on the return
| trip. I'm sure there are outliers everywhere.
|
| An Italian friend said his mom would say "who puts peanuts
| on bread?", but she'd slather hazelnuts and chocolate
| (Nutella) on bread all day long. I think it's just what
| people get used to.
| morsch wrote:
| In France and Germany the per capita consumption is about
| 1 kg, in the US it's about 4 pounds. So twice as much.
| Not as big a difference as I'd have expected going by
| this thread. If the sources and my interpretation of them
| are correct, anyway.
|
| Fwiw it's available in every supermarket in Germany and
| for me it's a pantry staple.
|
| https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-
| gallery/gallery...
|
| https://www.globaltrademag.com/the-european-peanut-
| butter-ma...
| titoasty wrote:
| Oh they are! Tacos is their name, brick is their taste. Be
| proud of mexican-american tacos, they are the real deal.
|
| Peanut butter is just non-existent because there are an
| amazingly huge number of jams, marmelades, local honeys. Ok
| this is theory and what people tell you. In fact, everyone is
| just totally addicted to Nutella. The one and only.
| lc9er wrote:
| That's interesting - those are all sweet. Most peanut
| butters (except natural) are slightly sweetened, but are
| often used as the savory counterpart to jams, jellies,
| and/or honey. I've (an American) only ever had Nutella on
| whitebread or added into a dessert.
| titoasty wrote:
| Yes those are all sweet. And it goes with the
| french(continental) breakfast which is awfully saturated
| in sugar (for kids mostly): chocolate milk, bread with
| jam/Nutella, orange juice, viennoiseries, even biscuits.
| Same for the "gouter", 4pm meal for kids. A lot of
| sugar...
|
| Imagine that: there were riots in supermarkets because of
| a huge discount on Nutella, a few years ago. (try
| "emeutes Nutella" on youtube)
| carpedimebagjoe wrote:
| That's just a normal American Black Friday at Walmart
| minus the guns and boxing fights.
| Scoundreller wrote:
| Or Speculoos!
|
| US Walmart carries the real stuff but Canadian Walmart
| doesn't. Can't cross the border and I refuse to pay the
| extortionist Amazon.Ca prices...
| citrusybread wrote:
| the President's Choice stores seem to carry the good
| stuff!! :)
| Scoundreller wrote:
| Haven't found the Lotus/Biscoff stuff there. Everything
| else isn't the same!
| carpedimebagjoe wrote:
| Nearly every store around here in the US caries Nutella.
| Costco has enormous multipacks: 1890 g for 11.30 EUR (167
| g / EUR).
| carpedimebagjoe wrote:
| Nutella is great chocolate, hazelnut, and palm oil, but
| peanut butter (peanuts) has its own umami that adds
| something other than desert. Peanuts in pad thai, for
| example. How can you have Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
| without peanut butter? Blasphemy! Or Snickers, the vaguely
| almost food, emergency post-workout energy bar? Don't even
| touch my Peanut M&M's unless you want to lose a hand or an
| arm.
|
| Anything tastes better than crisp bread or lutefisk.
| sanedigital wrote:
| I suspect a decent amount of the European disdain for peanut
| butter comes from the majority of it being god-awful here,
| with decent quantities of sugar, palm oil, and salt added in.
| Until recently it was very difficult to find "pure" peanut
| butter (at least in Spain and Portugal).
| UncleSlacky wrote:
| We just make our own, it's cheaper and no added crap.
| carpedimebagjoe wrote:
| Yeap. In the US, there's been commercial of natural kinds
| and grocery store PB peanut grinders for decades. Could
| grind it at home too.
|
| My grandparents used to make their own beef hamburger
| from sirloin beef and trimmings because the junk in
| regular hamburger, even from an excellent Italian-
| American supermarket's butcher counter, was disgusting,
| to say the least.
| geoduck14 wrote:
| >And if you really like this kind of food, please try the best
| burrito of Lyon from Taco Taco. Das good sht
|
| BRB. Going to get passport, see you for dinner.
| quattrofan wrote:
| Tldr;
| lprd wrote:
| I don't know how I feel about calling tacos "French". I mean, yah
| you can only find them in France, but the dish itself is anything
| but French. Kebab joints have them and their cuisine is typically
| halal. I'm not sure how/when kebabs grew in popularity here in
| France, but they are everywhere now!
|
| I've been living in France for the past 8 years and I first
| noticed the word "taco" about 4 years ago. My first thought was:
| "Sweet, Mexican food it's making its debut in France!"...nope, it
| wasn't anything like a the tacos I'm familiar with!
|
| Tacos themselves are pretty interesting, and highly customizable.
| Want a taco with sausage and cordon bleu? You got it. Want to
| stuff it with more meat? How about donor kebab with a hamburger
| patty and nuggets? Your options are endless. Its standard to have
| fries inside them (with some sort of white sauce). I have had
| some that are quite tasty. But make no mistake, it's pure junk
| food. I'd love to know why they call them "tacos".
|
| One thing I will note, kebabs are always open. I equate them to
| your typical Mexican joint you go to with your friends for a
| midnight snack. Seriously, I have never seen a kebab restaurant
| closed. You gotta be careful, though. There's little to no health
| inspection at these places and I've heard some bad kebab stories.
| notdang wrote:
| The funny thing is that in Mexico the kebab is called "taco
| arabe"
| mothinx wrote:
| I lived in Lyon (France) for a long time, where the french tacos
| is born. Mister Tacos is one of the famous place to try it. I
| don't know why people get mad about it, because guys, trust me
| it's only fat, french fries with sugar . You can mix 4 kind of
| meat, 4 kind of sauces in one piece of tortilla full of french
| fries. I'm so sad because Lyon is one of the most important
| french city for gastronomy
| twobitshifter wrote:
| Wait until they try a Crunchwrap supreme.
| [deleted]
| BugsJustFindMe wrote:
| There are sadly no Taco Bells in France. They do have a couple
| of Chipotles though.
| dariusj18 wrote:
| It is a crime against humanity if they don't have access to
| Cheesy Gordita Crunches.
| nonamenoslogan wrote:
| Agreed, this is Taco Bell's crowning achievement of the last
| decade.
| rozab wrote:
| This seems a lot like the hoagie from Glasgow, a kebab shop
| staple. Chips, cheese, sauce and doner meat (or chicken), all
| wrapped up like a burrito.
| zwieback wrote:
| What?? A hoagie is a sub! You can't just appropriate that.
| krlx wrote:
| It is really funny to see so many people disagreeing in the
| comments over the suitability of this meal. Are you sure you're
| not talking about spaces and tabs?
|
| Jokes asides, if you get the chance to taste some French Tacos,
| the "Gratine" option, if available, adds grilled cheese on top
| and that's amazing.
|
| Until today, my fav is the "Indy" option from Hamamet in Lyon
| (Charpennes) , that comes with additional slices of goat cheese
| and black olives. The absolute best to ruin the benefits of the
| running you did just before.
| cassepipe wrote:
| As someone who has tried tacos in Mexico and what we call Tacos
| in France, I find the latter to be an insult to the former. One
| offers a burst of flavors while the other is just "regressive"
| food in the sense where it's mostly unsavory carbs and low
| quality meat that have the gross taste of any of the industrial
| sweet sauce that it contains. Mexico is good at street food,
| France just isn't.
|
| Also real tacos are "scalable" : Not really hungry? Get one or
| two. Really hungry? Get four or five.
|
| (I call it regressive food because it is generally the type of
| food that your body craves after a stressor and generally bad for
| your health in the long term. Massive energy intakes and
| sedentary lives don't go well together)
| rjsw wrote:
| > Mexico is good at street food, France just isn't.
|
| Do pancakes (Breton galettes and crepes) count as street food ?
| kergonath wrote:
| The crepes eaten as street food have nothing Breton about
| them. But yes, that counts as street food. Waffles as well.
|
| Breton galettes are meant to be eaten sitting with a bowl of
| cider, though, completely different beasts. You need a plate
| to eat a complete or a decent dessert crepe.
| ASalazarMX wrote:
| > real tacos are "scalable" : Not really hungry? Get one or
| two. Really hungry? Get four or five.
|
| I'm Mexican, and this is a new way of thinking about tacos for
| me. It's very true for street tacos, you pay by the taco, so
| you order exactly how many you want.
|
| There are places where you ask for one, eat it, then ask for
| another, and so on until you're full. JIT tacos.
| jasonwatkinspdx wrote:
| Yeah, another thing I loved about the better carnitas places
| in Mexico City is you can pick your exact cut of meat. I
| forget the name of the place but my favorite was near where I
| was staying in Condesa. It's been in some movies and stuff
| over the years. No seating at all. You just stand around
| holding your plate and getting JIT tacos lol. Very convenient
| to just grab a bite on the way somewhere quick.
| zwieback wrote:
| I read that article and I thought it sounded absolutely
| delicious. All those customization options, some of the cheese
| sauces sound incredible. And putting fries inside a sandwich has
| been proven a good idea by our English friends already.
|
| Not only do I want to try one, I think Taco Bell should
| immediately adopt it.
|
| People who can't get over that it's called Tacos: chill out. Plus
| apparently it's always spelled with an s, whether it's singular
| or not. So it's not like anyone is going to mistake it for a Taco
| Al Pastor or whatever.
| microtherion wrote:
| A few years ago, I saw my first "Original French Tacos" place in
| Valence, France, and thought it was a hilarious concept (A
| restaurant in France, with English signage, advertising a Mexican
| dish and claiming it as French). But I learned a lot from this
| article.
|
| One interesting aspect of these tacos is that they are
| essentially "laundering" the food of a minority treated with
| suspicion (North African / Arab immigrants) by disguising it as a
| _different_ kind of exotic food. In the US, incentives might be
| the opposite: In some places, Mexicans might find success selling
| Burritos as "Doner Kebab".
| vladvasiliu wrote:
| > One interesting aspect of these tacos is that they are
| essentially "laundering" the food of a minority treated with
| suspicion (North African / Arab immigrants) by disguising it as
| a different kind of exotic food. In the US, incentives might be
| the opposite: In some places, Mexicans might find success
| selling Burritos as "Doner Kebab".
|
| I'm not sure I agree with this point, or even understand it
| actually.
|
| There are plenty of fast-food joints selling "the food of a
| minority treated with suspicion". They're usually called "grec"
| (greek) for some reason, though they're what the non-French
| usually call a Kebab. The only "stigma" I can think of applied
| to those places is that it's "too fatty" / "not very healthy,"
| etc[0]. There also are the "Lebanese" joints that sell wrapped
| sandwiches. Those are usually called "Lebanese", and don't have
| any stigma that I'm aware of either.
|
| Also, the "tacos" I've had around Paris have absolutely nothing
| in common with the kebabs or event the Lebanese wraps. They're
| usually drenched in some liquid, sugar-laden sauce that makes
| eating them a pain and come in all kinds of... surprising
| combinations.
|
| Usually a kebab is pretty straightforward. Some joints may get
| fancy with the sauce options; some joints are clearly very good
| while others are... less so; but you always know what kind of
| sandwich you'll get.
|
| The taco places seem more like the salad bars that have popped
| up all over the place. You can pick and choose among a bunch of
| ingredients, and it's usually up to you if you want your
| combination to "make sense" or not.
|
| ---
|
| [0] The "health" related skepticism around French kebabs is
| about their fat content mostly. The "sanitary" skepticism also
| exists, but it's usually targeted at "Chinese" joints.
| sjg007 wrote:
| This is awesome, they look like the grilled cheese burrito.
| French fries inside the burrito is definitely an improvement to
| rice. First time I ever had one was in Los Angeles. I wonder if
| the French are into guacamole and sour cream.
|
| I also like Banh Mi as an improvement over ham a cheese on a
| baguette.
| snug wrote:
| Had to look up what these French Tacos look like, for those that
| live in SF, and especially lived or worked in SoMa, these look
| just like the Zapatos at Garaje!
|
| https://www.garaje475.com/
|
| https://www.instagram.com/p/Bly9VpelW4B/
| BugsJustFindMe wrote:
| I lived in France for a long time, and tacos is my definitely
| favorite French food. You have to understand that the fantasy of
| food in France being all fancy shit is extremely wrong. In accord
| with the vast European street food tradition, the most French of
| French foods is a ham and butter sandwich on white bread with
| nothing else on it. And French people go nuts for stuff like
| that, because the other thing that France is exceptionally good
| at is saying "Get the fuck outta here. We're closed because it's
| 3pm and humans don't eat between 2pm and 6. Bye, good afternoon,
| see you later." So when you can get a meat, cheese, and french
| fries (on the inside!) burrito by a wrong-but-hilariously-
| adjacent name that's as big as your face for a few euros, it's a
| real blessing that instills one with great national pride.
| inglor_cz wrote:
| ""Get the fuck outta here. We're closed because it's 3pm and
| humans don't eat between 2pm and 6. Bye, good afternoon, see
| you later.""
|
| So true! As a tourist in France, it was a great time to
| practise some intermittent fasting skills.
| julienchastang wrote:
| Except for the "quatre-heures", of course -- a small snack
| enjoyed at 4PM. My grandmother would have a brioche, and I
| would have a croissant or something. If hungry, go inside a
| boulangerie and get yourself a baguette bien cuite (well
| cooked) -- nothing is as divine as that.
| sheepdestroyer wrote:
| I respectfully disagree, bread is best enjoyed "pas trop
| cuit"
| hnick wrote:
| When did they start appearing? I can't remember seeing them at
| all from my visits which I think were around 2005.
| BugsJustFindMe wrote:
| I don't know when they started exactly, but Wikipedia says
| that the founders of the O'Tacos chain started their first
| tacos restaurant in Grenoble in 2007.
| mtphil wrote:
| I only first started noticing them around Lyon/Grenoble in
| 2014, on the menus of various kebab places in Paris maybe a
| year or two later.
| jakub_g wrote:
| > the most French of French foods is a ham and butter sandwich
| on white bread with nothing else on it
|
| 100% correct. It's not even any fancy bread with grains etc
| like you'd get in most of EU; just a poor piece of (often so-
| so) baguette.
|
| Something I found amusing is that it's been almost impossible
| to find typical "international" quick foods like hot dogs where
| I live (south-east); however, since restaurants can't function
| normally due to pandemic, suddenly takeaway hot dogs started
| appearing in recent months in many places.
| conradev wrote:
| I feel like a so-so French baguette would be miles better
| than any baguette in the US
| BugsJustFindMe wrote:
| Eh, it's not. The US also has good bakeries, just not on
| every street corner. In Paris, walk 5 blocks and you'll
| pass at least one bakery and 37 pharmacies[1]. Cities in
| the US just aren't built that way.
|
| [1] - No joke, standing in the street outside my apartment
| in Paris I could see green cross signs from 7(!) different
| pharmacies without moving just by looking in different
| directions.
| harperlee wrote:
| With the corresponding 37 real estate agencies.
| jakub_g wrote:
| Yep pharmacies are everywhere in FR just behind a corner
| (as well as _immobiliers_ ). I was in shock when I went
| to Amsterdam and after walking around for half an hour
| didn't come across any and had to look up on Google Maps.
|
| Unlike other countries, in FR only pharmacies can sell
| drugs, no regular shops / supermarkets (even basic stuff
| like paracetamol), and I guess that's the reason why
| there are so many of them.
| alcover wrote:
| But the rare canonical jambon-beurre sandwich, made of
| quality fresh baguette, normandy salted butter and good ham
| is really _really_ good.
| baud147258 wrote:
| well, currently most option for fancy food in France are closed
| because of Covid-19. Though having tried French tacos once, I
| think I'll still choose McDo/Burger King if I'm hungry and on
| the move at an odd hour
| throwaway0a5e wrote:
| >I lived in France for a long time, and tacos is my definitely
| favorite French food. You have to understand that the fantasy
| of food in France being all fancy shit is extremely wrong. In
| accord with the vast European street food tradition,
|
| French tacos are being written about in the New Yorker and
| discussed positively on HN. If that doesn't make them
| pretentious yuppie food then nothing does.
| pjc50 wrote:
| One culture's working class food is another culture's
| insufferably fancy food. It's all relative.
| BugsJustFindMe wrote:
| > _If that doesn 't make them pretentious yuppie food then
| nothing does._
|
| So maybe nothing does.
| dr_dshiv wrote:
| The best french tacos are served at a place in the upper upper
| west side NYC called "Bombay Frankies." They have the best
| Americanized french-mex rotirolls. Can't be beat.
| http://bombayfrankie.com/
| lhenault wrote:
| As a French person who's been lucky enough to visit Mexico and
| taste amazing tacos there, I just want to apologize to every
| Mexican for this. "French" "tacos" are closer to the cursed child
| of a burrito and a kebab than a taco.
|
| It doesn't have much in common with Mexican culture (nor French
| gastronomy) and is borderline cultural appropriation. If you want
| a taco-shaped kebab, rather try an Al Pastor.
|
| > Pelonero had never been to Mexico, still hasn't. "But I've
| watched a lot of series about tacos on Netflix,"
|
| I guess he hasn't watched this one, or he wouldn't dare naming
| his things "tacos" :
|
| https://www.netflix.com/title/81040704
|
| And the "GigaTacos challenge" is just disgusting.
| yellowapple wrote:
| > It doesn't have much in common with Mexican culture (nor
| French gastronomy) and is borderline cultural appropriation.
|
| Coming from an American perspective, I'd say this is a good
| thing.
|
| What y'all are seeing is exactly what we've been seeing (and
| what Europe as a whole - and the world as a whole - has been
| seeing for thousands of years): the proliferation of new
| cuisines. Calling them "tacos" is of course a bit of a
| sacrilege, but there's more than enough precedent for
| similarly-named food to have wildly different forms (see also:
| Spanish tortillas v. Mexican tortillas). And aside from that,
| this seems like your bog standard fusion cuisine - and given
| enough time, it'll have its own distinct identity, just like
| how Mexican food now has a distinct identity instead of being
| "merely" an amalgamation of Spanish and Aztec cuisines.
|
| More broadly speaking, this is the same mechanism by which
| cultures proliferate and evolve into new cultures. Cuisine is
| one aspect of this, and here in the US at least it even helps
| drive that process; food is communication, and being the
| fatasses we are, we sure do a heck of a lot of it :)
| jayd16 wrote:
| >child of a burrito and a kebab than a taco
|
| Isn't that a gyro?
| lprd wrote:
| My thoughts exactly! Have you seen what french kebabs are doing
| to Indian food now? You can get 'naan wraps'. Seriously, a
| cheese naan that's layered with mayo/lettuce and whatever meat
| you want inside. I don't mean to come off as a food snob, but
| what kebabs are doing now is pure bastardization of indian,
| french, moroccan, and greek gastronomy.
|
| I miss my Mexican tacos...
| adolph wrote:
| The result of food bastardization is often delicious. In
| Houston the M&M Grill is an _Arabic and Mexican fusion
| restaurant. . . . We hope you 'll stop by soon to try our
| Hamburgers, Kabobs, Enchiladas or Chimichangas._
|
| https://www.yelp.com/biz/m-and-m-grill-houston
| alcover wrote:
| They're an abomination. Especially the 'sauce' they put in it,
| which will decrement your life expectancy by a full month.
| Nihilartikel wrote:
| Garaje in San Francisco's SOMA neighborhood has very similar
| looking (and delicious, IMHO) things they called zapatos.
| edhelas wrote:
| You have plenty of nice places to eat cheap and good in France,
| better than those "French tacos" places. Just go to a decent
| boulangerie, you'll find good sandwiches, quiches or other things
| for a few euros, healthier and with decent ingredients :)
| benjohnson wrote:
| If you don't speak French and are introverted, a boulangerie
| can seem intimidating. Here's how to go for it:
|
| Upon entering, say "Bonjour" - that will alert them that you a
| polite and also don't speak French. Point to what you want that
| looks tasty as say "Un (Un)" for one "Deux (Duh)" for two and
| put a "Merci (Mer-si)" after each order. Pay and say "Merci
| Bien! (Mer-si Bee-en" at the end.
|
| Presto, it will go smoothly and the proprietor will actually
| like you because you made an attempt. Don't worry if the
| proprietor switches to darn-good-English - they're happy you
| made the attempt and are just trying to hurry the order along
| so they can get to the next customer.
| bitwize wrote:
| Showing a modicum of effort gets you far abroad. The Japanese
| gave me full marks for effort when I spoke to them in my very
| rusty Japanese language I'd mainly acquired by university
| classes and college-age weeabooism. Getting drunk and
| proactively looking up unfamiliar words/phrases in Aedict
| helped matters -- and I think I'd learned more Japanese in
| those two weeks than I did in three semesters of college. I
| can confirm: swallowing your introversion, just for a bit,
| and engaging the locals in their local tongue, pays
| dividends, regardless of how shitty you think your skill in
| the language is.
| galettesaucisse wrote:
| >Technically, the French tacos is a sandwich: a flour tortilla,
| slathered with condiments, piled with meat (usually halal)
|
| "Usually halal". Yes, so it's as much stereotypical French food
| as a kebab then /s
|
| Typical French street food is jambon-beurre (ham and butter
| sandwich, in a baguette) or in Brittany a galette saucisse (pork
| sausage in a galette, which is a savory type of crepe).
| carpedimebagjoe wrote:
| All I want in France is a steady mainline IV of pain au
| chocolat warmed-up so the chocolate is just melting without
| making the croissantness soggy or oily from the butter melting.
| morsch wrote:
| I doubt anybody claims that it's the most traditional snack in
| France, but how many portions of galette saucisse are sold vs
| French tacos? I have no idea, but I'm sure in Germany doner
| kebab is sold more often than the more hereditary Bratwurst (in
| terms of street food).
|
| The word typical has the connotation of traditional, but it's
| hardly a stretch to call kebab a -- and possibly even _the_ --
| typical German street food. And it 's usually halal!
| DoreenMichele wrote:
| Hilarious article, though perhaps overly long:
|
| _Eventually, he joined up with a pair of childhood friends to
| create O'Tacos, which now has two hundred and thirty locations in
| France. Pelonero had never been to Mexico, still hasn't. "But
| I've watched a lot of series about tacos on Netflix," he said,
| speaking from Dubai, where he currently lives._
| chihuahua wrote:
| By the standards of The New Yorker, this was mercifully short.
| Usually they go on and on about the childhood experiences of
| the main subject's parents, both biological and adopted.
| Sometimes it feels as if the writers are paid by the word, with
| no upper limit. Some people treasure this "long-form" writing,
| but not everyone does.
| legerdemain wrote:
| Ugh, print magazines can't die fast enough. Gimme Axios
| style, French tacos, five bullet points, no polysyllabic
| words, bam-bam-bam, done!
| [deleted]
| prepend wrote:
| These sound great. I'm trying to find the first good good that
| can be made automatically in a machine the size of a coke vending
| machine. This seems like a good candidate.
|
| Ideally, I'd want a burrito machine that just spit out a perfect
| burrito without any human involvement (besides stocking it once a
| day or something). But cooking the meats seems like too much of
| an issue.
|
| French tacos seems good because the meat can be cooked as it is
| Panini pressed.
| calvano915 wrote:
| Utilizing sous vide may solve the meat issue.
| prepend wrote:
| Good point, I'll try that out in burritos. The burritos I
| like have a bit of char, but maybe can get around that.
| [deleted]
| BugsJustFindMe wrote:
| Just add bags of char to the machine and sprinkle some in
| during assembly.
|
| > _French tacos seems good because the meat can be cooked
| as it is Panini pressed._
|
| I don't think I've ever seen a panini press capable of
| cooking raw meat inside of a panino without basically
| destroying everything else. Tacos is made with already
| cooked meat.
| mycall wrote:
| Perhaps something like liquid smoke will do the trick.
| pomian wrote:
| I have heard that there are burrito vending machines at Warsaw
| Polytechnic University. You select the ingredients, the machine
| wraps it and delivers- in a soft drink dispensing sized
| machine. Not sure if the burrito is heated, prior to delivery.
| [deleted]
| itronitron wrote:
| I think you would need to pre-cook and freeze the meat in
| individual servings beforehand (in glass jars) When an order is
| placed the meat gets microwaved in the jar, then emptied out
| onto the tortilla and the jar is stored by the machine for
| collection and reuse.
| froggysnail wrote:
| Just to balance the article, I'm french, living in Paris, working
| near Champs Elysees and never heard about tacos. It seems to be
| very specific to teenagers or ghettos.
| cassepipe wrote:
| Hardly a surprise because it's cheap street food for the lower
| classes as french Kebab is which they are really just a
| variation of, meat, fries and industrial sweet sauce that is.
| The Champs are not really the kind of place where those classes
| live. Ghetto food seems a bit strong though, you can easily
| find them outside the rich neighborhoods of the West which
| suggests me you might find instructive to get out of some time.
| maattdd wrote:
| Maybe get out of your place sometimes?
| conradfr wrote:
| You got the demographics right but there are many O'Tacos in
| Paris, just not much in the Champs-Elysees area.
|
| I've never tried it myself, they look disgusting. I probably
| would have, if I was younger...
| jean_tta wrote:
| Which is quite ironic, because to locals the Champs Elysees
| is known to be a hang-out place for banlieusards, a place
| where companies have flashy flagship stores, and clueless
| tourists who do not expect either of those things. If there
| is a place to have O'Tacos restaurants in Paris, the Champs
| are far from the worst place.
| ohgodplsno wrote:
| Paf, en plein dans le stereotype du petit bourgeois du 16e qui
| bosse sur les champs.
| BugsJustFindMe wrote:
| > _It seems to be very specific to teenagers or ghettos._
|
| You know, this kind of attitude is what makes people dislike
| Parisians.
| bsaul wrote:
| he is right though. Just look at people queuing for oTacos
| inside paris and i doubt you'll find anyone older than 18 yo.
| BugsJustFindMe wrote:
| And here I am a world traveler at 40 loving French tacos. I
| guess perspective is everything. Maybe one just has to
| break out of their protective shell and not be a snob about
| "lower class" things.
| conradfr wrote:
| I think the rent are insane, and the fast-food chains
| there have a broader clientele and international
| recognition.
| BugsJustFindMe wrote:
| Rent has been insane for a long time relative to median
| income in practically every major city across the world.
| I actually don't think that the rent in Paris is any
| worse than in Boston, and Paris is nicer to live in.
| conradfr wrote:
| Sorry I meant a commercial lease on the Champs-Elysees.
| ohgodplsno wrote:
| Move back 15 years, replace tacos with kebabs and whoop,
| it's still the same. A few older dudes who know the right
| places to go to, and the chef salade-tomates-oignons-chef-
| ing mostly young people.
|
| Tossing "and from the ghettos" in there just lands him
| absurdly right in the middle of the shitty parisian that
| everyone hates.
| zem wrote:
| > First of all, through some mistranslation or misapprehension of
| its Mexican namesake, the French tacos is always plural, even
| when there's only one, pronounced with a voiced "S."
|
| reminds me of indian patties, a popular snack of meat or
| vegetables in a puff pastry shell, which through a similar loss-
| in-translation often get called "pattice" in the singular,
| "pattices" plural.
| dragonwriter wrote:
| > Technically, the French tacos is a sandwich: a flour tortilla,
| slathered with condiments,
|
| That is either a taco, as the name suggests, or possibly sushi,
| but it's not, in any case, a sandwich.
|
| EDIT: Actually, given the packet description from the article,
| its a calzone.
|
| https://cuberule.com/
| carpedimebagjoe wrote:
| That makes Totino's pizza rolls "mini tacos" too rather than
| "mini calzones."
| BugsJustFindMe wrote:
| It's actually a burrito. I guess _some_ might call a burrito a
| sandwich, but only if they've never had a burrito before. It's
| weird that the article uses the word sandwich at all because it
| really doesn't communicate the right idea at all.
| Taylor_OD wrote:
| This has to be one of the most new yorkerie articles of all time.
| It's an interesting article but man this could be an Onion
| article.
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