What Are “White People Tacos”?

These crunchy fragile tacos loaded with yellow cheese are far from my favorite, but if you set a dozen down in front of me and walk away, you’re coming back to six max. ~ Get 50% off your 1-month trial with Trade at https://drinktrade.com/shaquille ~

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0:00 – Who Cares?
0:55 – The Shell
1:50 – The Filling
2:46 – The Toppings
5:34 – The Takeaway
6:16 – Ad Read for Trade

This video isn’t gonna have any recipes in it, but 
with Cinco de Mayo coming up, I think it’s worth covering even if it saves just one person from 
finding themselves in the “ethnic” aisle of kroger with ortega sauce in hand going “wait a minute, 
am I doing something problematic right now?” First things first: are so-called white 
people tacos “real” tacos? Yes. They’re just a really specific version. It’s like 
asking if a peanut butter jelly sandwich is a real sandwich. It’s pedestrian 
and easy to make and kid-friendly, but it fits within a much much wider umbrella. 
Think of it like a hot dog. That is a type of sausage. It’s not weird to call a hot dog 
a sausage. But if you tell me we’re getting sausage on our pizza and it shows up with oscar 
meyer weiners on it, we might have a problem. Second things second: Some folks have 
only had taco-bell style tacos before and wanna know what separates it from the more 
traditional, Mexican-style tacos that I’m able to get so easily in the desert Southwest. 
So allow me to dissect each major component. Dubya Pee Tees are made with a pre-made “shell”, 
not tortillas. Now, if I take some seasoned beef, put it in a corn tortilla, and shallow fry 
it, that’s not even all that far-out. Mexico has those. The term “tacos dorados” translates 
to “golden tacos”. But these shells are more… specific than just fried corn tortillas. Shells 
are made of coarsely ground, usually yellow, corn and they’re shaped long before you buy them, 
so you get a crumbly, toothsome, dangerously brittle vessel with a unique corn flavor. Similar 
to a store-bought tostada, but folded in half. If you were the type of person who wanted to 
break away from the a middle america style “taco tuesday” as easily as possible, swapping these 
for actual tortillas, be they corn or flour, would get you more than halfway there. The issues 
you’d mostly likely run into is regular grocery store flour tortillas are usually sold in a size 
that’s too big for tacos and regular grocery store corn tortillas are incredibly stale. I 
have a separate video all about the technique required to revive those stale tortillas, but 
for now I’m moving on to the taco filling. This is white people taco filling: a hunk 
of ground beef and a packet of pre-mixed seasoning. The spices in a taco mix are 
delivious: cumin, chili powder, onion powder, et cetera. If all you wanted to do was upgrade 
that component, I’d use a pre-made spice blend labeled “sazon”. My problem with taco seasoning 
packets is their non-spice filler. This one has afirst ingredient of maltodextrin and a lot 
of the other ones will have corn starch or corn meal as the second ingredient. Those aren’t for 
flavor. Rather it’s because a lot of folks like to put water in their beef after browning it so 
that the meat is enveloped in a thick slurry. In mexico, you’re more likely to find tacos 
filled with whole muscle cuts than ground meats. Think skirt steak, chicken thighs, 
whole shrimp, fish filets… braised meats like carnitas and barbacoa are soft in texture 
kinda like ground meat, but they stew and braise as whole cuts before becoming tender guisadas. 
So, even if you ignore the specific seasonings, the the meat served in a household that 
pronounces it tacko is ground beef. Finally we arrive at… the toppings. This is a big 
one. White people tacos are, at times, mostly a vessel for toppings. Shredded yellow cheese, 
diced red tomatoes, sour cream is a big one, shredded lettuce, and sometimes even black olives. 
You know how OG italian pizzas will have nothing but cheese and basil, but American pizzas have 
five toppings? Same difference for tacos. This is part of the taco tuesday value proposition: 
it’s fun to set up a station and let everyone build their own. If that’s how you like to do 
it, there’s no reason to stop now. But if you aim to make yours in a more Mexican manner, you 
oughtta know that shredded cheese isn’t a common contributor of rich creaminess. Avocado would be 
more likely. And even when cheese does come into play, it’s usually cotija or queso fresco. Crumbly 
white and firm, not melty yellow and bagged. Diced red tomatoes are also big on white people taco 
night, and that’s totally acceptable, but you’d be doing yourself a favor by adding jalapeno, 
cilantro, onion, and upgrading those tomatoes into a more flavorful pico de gallo. Sour cream 
does exhibit some caucasity, but Mexican crema is pretty close. It’s just a little runnier so it 
drizzles more easily. Shredded lettuce is fine, but i’d sooner use shredded cabbage, especially 
on my fish tacos, and as for the black olives… I’ve got no swaps for you. The olives and the 
ortega sauce are the most confounding elements to me. As if jarred salsa wasn’t a big enough 
dip in quality, so-called “taco sauce” takes that and becomes less descriptive, less sure 
of itself… I don’t have the lived experience to properly relate to those who purchase it, and 
so my only advice would be to swap it for fresh salsa. I know that’s elitist and biased but 
I won’t be working to change it. Lo siento. I’m always gonna focus my attention, 
not on a big number of varied toppings, but rather a small number of salsas. If you top 
two identical tacos with two different salsas, you’ve got two different tacos. All you really 
need is one good salsa, but that’s about as helpful as saying “all you need for a proper 
sandwich is good bread”. Good cooks know it’s not as simple as that, lest ye put egg salad on 
pannetone. A lean grilled chicken taco benefits from creamy avocado while fatty fried fish 
would benefit from bright acidic tomatillo salsa. There is an art to paring down the number 
of ingredients and balancing them masterfully. And at risk of scaring you off with fears of 
unlimited complexity, there is an infinite number of salsa recipes out there. I covered some 
of them in this video all about salsa. If the notion of experimenting and recipe testing gives 
you los jibigibis, I have good news. The ultimate singular taco topping is also the easiest. You 
dice a white onion as fine as you can, soak it in cold water for ten minutes to take the fiery burn 
out of em, then drain the onion and combine it with chopped cilantro. This adds color, texture, 
herbaciousness, and familiarity to any taco with just two ingredients and no cooking. Any taco 
plus this, and maybe a lime wedge on the side, is gonna replicate the late night taco stand vibe 
fabulously— no styrofoam to-go box necessary. The point of this explainer is this: if you 
enjoy white people tacos, do so with impunity. It’s your God-given right as a red-blooded 
American, and it’s as real of a taco as any other. Just as real as chicken tinga tacos, tacos al 
pastor, fried fish tacos, tacos de cabeza o lengua o longaniza… Surely you see why I’d never 
limit myself to just one style on just one day of the week. Is general tso’s chicken actually 
chinese food? Is a deep fried california roll actually sushi? Where an italian may weep at 
the notion of stuffed crust meat lover’s pizza, it’s been my experience that we of Mexican 
heritage don’t get too bent out of shape, aside from Rachel Ray’s pozole. 
We try not to talk about that one… Trade has paid to be mentioned at the end 
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