Taco Chronicles

The specialists are just slobs salivating for the next food portion. There are way too many cuts fragmenting the story. And the production team is right, they have way too little material for this series. Low on science, high on superstition.

This 6-episode treatise on the many types of tacos available in Mexico differentiates itself from their producer's efforts like "Street Food" and "Chef's Table", "Taco Chronicles" gives a voice to the food itself, with every episode featuring a narrator as the tacos' "voice". These narrators also follow the specific origins of the tacos themselves, with the Mexico City taco al pastor speaking in typical chilango accent and slang, carne asada following with norteño and so on.

While the gimmick of these voices wears thin at times, they serve for more than just narrative as they emphasize the diversity of cultures and ingredients that have lead to there being so many and wildly different variants of tacos in and out of the country. It's only the Los Angeles Mexican diaspora that's been represented so far and to me said representation seems quite fair and balanced. Another clever trick by the series is its use of animated segments for the more historical background of the tacos, relating them to pre-Columbian cuisine and the changes brought about by Spanish conquest and further Old World immigration.

Overall, the series achieve a good balance between being informational and entertaining, just doesn't offer much to make it stand out. While an initial 6-episode offering makes sense, it does lead to some glaring, noticeable omissions like not featuring a single taco from the South of the country (despite being such a gastronomic force that the name Oaxaca is constant through this first batch) or any featuring seafood from the country's many coasts. I'm sure however, that if there are further episodes, these tacos will eventually be showcased.

The taco, in all its humble glory, is celebrated in this documentary. All the different styles are chronicled, and where they first appeared (some of them really really ancient, and a blend of several cultures). This is enhanced by interesting commentary from experts (subtitled in English when appropriate). You are going to pine for a taco before you're done watching. The series has a certain drama and romance to the way it's presented, which makes it even more cool and entertaining. I hope they make more episodes (maybe traveling to other places around the globe?), just like I hope tacos are always around the next corner. Yummy delicious show!!!

What I knew about tacos before watching this series would have fit inside of one little tortilla. I thought I knew a lot about Mexico and the people there, but now I feel that I know the country and Mexicans much better. We are what we eat, after all.

I was watching the first episode one evening while I was eating a pizza I had made from scratch, a pretty darn good pizza, if I do say so myself. Looking at all of those wonderful images of tacos was making me hungry...while I was stuffing my fat face.

Don't get me wrong, I love the food of Spain and have adopted it completely, but I really miss the food of Mexico. I can make versions of it here. I even have a tortillera, or the press for making tortillas, although I don't make them very well. There are markets here that sell dried chiles, and we even have a stall in my neighborhood market that sells fresh jalapeños and habaneros.

Valencia is famous for its Mercado Central, but the views of Mexico City's Mercado de la Merced is like a revelation.

But what I really need is to take another trip to Mexico and really explore this world of tacos.

Or maybe I can just go to L.A. "Estamos aquí en la ciudad de Los Ángeles, una de las ciudades más mexicanas del mundo."

S02E04 was definitely the low point in the series for me. This was when they went north across the border and all of the food went to hell. At one point, some guy is dumping dehydrated onion into a caldron of meat that didn't look appetizing to begin with. All of the fast-food variations of the taco looked truly disgusting. Drive-in food is one bit of history that really needs to be forgotten, it's like being nostalgic for some diseased that's been cured.

As a Mexican that was waned on street food, I just can tell you the series has a long way to go... It is also absolutely true in everything portrayed.

If you haven't visited Mexico and risked its food, finest points of the series will evade you tho, somehow I find it akin to watching porn; will make lust for and crave what you see but it will never come close to the real thing. :-)