Here in the Lone Star State we’ve developed a tradition around arguing which city or region offers the best breakfast taco.
You can say San Antonio or the RGV if you want to give a conventional answer. You might pick Austin if you want to start a fight. Or you can make the argument go nuclear.
José Ralat is Texas Monthly’s taco editor with a new piece out making the case for another contender — outside of Texas. He joined the Standard to discuss.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: Right up top in your story, you make the claim: The title for the area with the best breakfast tacos goes to…?
José Ralat: That would be Monterrey.
How do you defend those fighting words?
Well, Northern Mexico is where we get the foundations of Tex-Mex. So it’s not surprising that we have childhood roots there when it comes to our morning munchers.
But they don’t call them breakfast tacos, right? They call them mañaneros?
Tacos mañaneros, and then you have the subsets tacos de guisados and al valpor.
Lot more diversity in their tacos it seems. Tell us about some of the options that you might find.
Well, my favorite would be asado de puerco, which is a red chili stew and you have to order it on a flour tortilla. This is important. I made the mistake of ordering it on corn and I was immediately chastised for it.
And then you have familiar dishes like picadillo and eggs with ham or chorizo, but they’re slightly different. The picadillo is juicy. It’s a true stew.
And you also have the quebrada, which we find here on lunch menus and they’re freshly made that morning. And that’s it. Once they’re out, they are out.
I was reading your article, I was struck by how often you mentioned tacos al vapor, which I’m presuming we’re talking about steamed tacos that gives them a sort of an ultra-soft, really tender texture, right?
Yes, almost greasy for some. They’re small and cheap. They’re served rounded with one filling. You have refried beans, you have chicharron, a few others.
They are quick to eat, hot as they all get out. So, you’ll have to be careful.
Let’s name some names if someone is thinking about taking a trip to Monterrey to sample some of these special tacos in the near future. Where should you head out to and what would be your top order?
The most famous ones would be Doña Mary and Tacos Compadre, which is known as Del Muerto because it’s across the street from a cemetery. Then you have smaller ones like Tacos Pancho and Tacos Baby.
I prefer picadillo and also asado de puerco. I just love the smokiness of the dried chilies.
You published this piece last week. Given how defensive people can be when it comes to breakfast tacos, what’s been the response so far?
People have reacted predictably, ‘you don’t know güey’, blah, blah blah, because we take this stuff to heart, right? But then you have the jokesters that say “Tulsa.” “Hendersonville, Tennessee.” I love that. I love that so much.
There was this one person that said, well, it makes sense that the best breakfast tacos are in Mexico. Yes. Yes, it does.
If you found the reporting above valuable, please consider making a donation to support it here. Your gift helps pay for everything you find on texasstandard.org and KUT.org. Thanks for donating today.