Tacopedia: The Taco Quiz

The beef is thinly sliced and cooked over a charcoal grill.

The locals were already devouring tacos before settlers arrived.

Salsa quality can totally alter your perception of any taco.

It is most often pork marinated in a red chili sauce.

White corn tortillas were likely the first style used for tacos.

According to NationalTacoDay.com, 4.5 billion tacos would stretch to the moon and back.

Nowadays, many cooks opt instead for oil.

There are newspaper items mentioning migrants and the foods they brought with them.

Miners may have used taco-shaped explosives to help them reach precious metals.

The brain is usually simmered or braised before being chopped for tacos.

No one really knows for sure but in the World War II era there are Mexican cookbooks describing the technique.

Taco Bell's revolution began way back in the 1960s.

The covered baskets hold in steam, which keeps the tacos soft.

The various fillings are simmered in pots.

The meat is placed between two tortillas.

This dry heat style of cooking lends delicious tenderness and flavor to the meat.

Soft shells, especially those with few preservatives, spoil much more quickly.

You can often specify which part of the head you really like, such as the eyes or tongue.

"Bandera" means "flag." The red, white and green ingredients are representative of the Mexican flag.

It means literally "the beak of the rooster." Some say it got that name because people originally ate it by pinching a small piece off, like bird seed.

This meat is often skewered and cooked rotisserie style. ("Pastor" means "shepherd.")

Lebanese immigrants introduced this style, which is now one of the most popular tacos in Mexico.

They are fried bread that has a puffy consistency.

They are fried and reportedly delicious ... but hard to find in the U.S.

It's very popular in parts of Mexico.

The cylindrical taco is also called a taquito or flauta.

It makes sense, of course, that shrimp tacos would come from an area close to the sea.

The shells lasted longer during transportation and gave every state access to the necessary taco ingredients.

Boil the tongue first to make it tender; then it is usually sautéed in oil.