How did a humble folded tortilla end up with a Michelin star? This episode starts at El Califa de León, the standing-room-only Mexico City taco stand honored in 2024, then digs into the surprising roots of the word taco, from Spanish wedges and billiard cues to the paper-wrapped gunpowder charges of 18th-century silver miners and the Nahuatl word tlahco, meaning half or in the middle.

We follow the taco from pre-Columbian fish tortillas in the Valley of Mexico to early mentions in an 1836 cookbook and an 1861 novel, and see how Mexico City’s influence pushed out regional names like codzito. Along the way we cover tacos al pastor and their Lebanese shawarma roots, sweaty basket tacos, the hard shell in the United States, Navajo fry bread tacos, Black tacos, and the Austin versus San Antonio breakfast taco debate.

• Why the word taco may have come from miners’ explosive charges and the Nahuatl word tlahco
• How railroads and migration to Mexico City made taco the standard name across the country
• How Lebanese immigrants’ vertical spits led to tacos al pastor
• The Mexican-American origins of the hard shell taco and Glen Bell’s link to the Mitla Cafe
• How Navajo fry bread and Black tacos grew out of survival, forced relocation, and neighborhoods shared with Latino communities