When did you have your first ...?

Hi,

Just after Christmas, Rene G and I visited Hammond, IN to sample circa 1963 tacos at Town Club. Ever since then I have been inquiring when did people have their first taco.

I clearly remember not having tacos until I was a teen in the early 1970's. These were those hard tacos in a box with hot sauce and hamburger seasoning. While the meat cooked, I sliced up the iceberg lettuce and grated Velveeta cheese on a box grater. There were only ten shells in a box, so everyone received their ration of two taco shells each.

My very first homemade taco was in December, 1979 in Capetown, South Africa. My Grandfather's Mexican wife Pompeya was shaping tacos between her two hands. She had no choice because there were no tacos to buy.

While tacos have comfortably settled into our regular rotation of food choices. There was a time when it was foreign, exotic and not so long ago.

When did you have your first taco?

Regards,

Great survey, C2. I'll go several generations back for us ask my grandmother (born 1915), who has been a foodie since before that term evolved, and who vividly remembers both pizza and Chinese (in separate waves, which she can describe) as novel food items in the south and west suburbs. She stayed in California while my grandfather was in WWII and then they vacationed in Arizona starting in the 60s, though, so her first taco may have been out there. I'll try to find out her first experience up here.

An analagous query for me would be the first taste of fancy maki, Ethiopian, Korean BBQ, or molecular gastronomy, since I don't think my first taco memory from Taco Bell in 1985 is going to shed much light on the question. Interestingly, TB dates from 1962 in California and 1974 in Chicagoland, and Glen Bell, the founder, already had a small chain before TB in the early 1950s, so commercial tacos in the States go back aways.

Santander wrote:For my generation, I think the question would be first taste of fancy maki, Ethiopian, Korean BBQ, or molecular gastronomy, since I don't think my first taco memory from Taco Bell in 1985 is going to shed much light on the question.

We are always going off in tangents around here, so why not share your firsts whatever they may be.

I know my first Korean was in the early 1970's at Cho Sun Ok after my Grandmother bought the building. My Grandfather's company resided in the building. My Dad was the only employee who regularly lunched there. Everyone else could not get past the odor of the kim chee.

Regards,

My father regularly made tacos for dinner when I was wee -- late '70s, early '80s. They inhabited some odd space that was neither Ortega nor authentic (at least as far as I know). He'd saute up ground beef, predominantly seasoned with oregano and cumin, fry up his own hard shells and serve them with crumbled farmer's cheese and shredded iceberg lettuce.

Now that I think about it, I wonder where the hell that recipe came from?

Like Cathy, I remember hard-shell tacos at home as a child, long, long before visiting a Taco Bell, and certainly a decade before visiting a decent Mexican restaurant. I think we weren't brand-concious, probably switched between El Paso, Lawry's and others.

It was a communal affair -- browned spiced ground beef, lettuce, shredded cheese, diced onion, diced tomatoes, salsa and sour cream -- sometimes sliced black olives. Each item in its own bowl on the table, using most of the spoons in the silverware drawer.

I may be misremembering, but I don't remember visiting a Mexican restaurant before going to college at NU in 1980 (probably my mother's fault -- she won't go in any place that "looks dirty"). Los Magueyes on Chicago Ave, which was previously and since "The Firehouse", was probably my first introduction to cilantro, salsa cruda, chorizo, and flour tortillas.

[edit: I was right, I was misremembering. Spanish class in Jr High went to the long-gone La Margarita in Morton Grove once every year. It usually involved a pool of cash to some bozo who would drink the cut of "hot sauce". I have no memory of the menu, though. Looking through notes below, I may have had a taco from the also-gone Jack in the Box on Golf near Waukegan (now Popeye's), but that was certainly no better than the home hard-shell variety]

What kind of tacos do I serve now? When I first got married in 1983 we'd make old fashioned hard-shell tacos, upgraded to fresh tortillas but still used the spice packet until we got MSG-concious, now I will sometimes brown ground beef or pork for tacos with onions and garlic and my own spice mixtures, other times marinate chicken or steak for tacos al carbon (which I used to just call fajitas like everybody else in the 90s). Sometimes I get wacky, use flour tortillas with a grilled pork tenderloin, onions, bell peppers and hoisin sauce and make mu shu fajitas.

First TexMex hardshell? Early-70's.

First taqueria (soft/corn) taco? Mid-80's

both in Houston

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first Korean, besides my friend Kimberly(one of the mass-adopted Koreans) doing the Korean squat on the kitchen linoleum smoking cigarettes and reminiscing over homemade kimchee

...the hilariously-deadpan Korean Restaurant (RIP) in a tiny storefront in Athens, OH---

---I would venture there for bulgoki, etc and plethora panchan...eventually, one meal I was reluctantly-chided by the waitress for not mixing my ricebowl and entree together("you eat all at once!!!...yes???")...I carried on as I preferred... ca. 1992...

I grew up eating taco's my whole life. I think the first ones were probably made by mom with a seasoning packet and hard shells. First dining out experience was most likely Taco Bell.

However the first time I ever had a taco and thought "Sooo this is a taco" was at Casa Del Rio in Waukesha, WI. This was only about 5 years ago.

In about 1963, when I was 8, we were living on a Navy base in Alameda. (Prior to that, we were in Minnesota.) My parents were, luckily, 'those' kind who thought that vacations should be educational/enriching as well as fun. Since we moved there in the summer, our vacation that year was a little tour of California.

Since we were living right there, we went to San Francisco's Chinatown for a day trip first. Had my first Chinese--some kind of duck dish. I wanted it because the picture on the menu showed it had almonds on it. Almonds on meat?? Come on! That's crazy talk to a kid whose usual diet was hot dogs and my mom's not very Italian spaghetti. The duck must have been barbecued/sauced in some way, because I do remember telling everyone it was like eating a Hershey bar, it was so sweet.

Then, down to Tijuana. We got street tacos. I *know* my mom had never served tacos at home. I thought they tasted spicy and greasy. But, all the noise and people trying to get us to buy things freaked me out. Of course, when I was little, everything--clowns, worms, thunderstorms---freaked me out. So, while I remember the experience, I don't quite recall the taste.

We ended up at Disneyland for a couple of days and went to Casa de Fritos in Frontierland. We got a free bag of Fritos with our lunch!! I thought THAT 'Mexican' food was really really good. We later lived in So California when I was in high school, and I still would get the tamales at Disneyland and think they were great. Ha. (Although I'd sure like to have one again for comparison. The cornmeal was much more coarsely ground and softer than authentic tamales.)

We had Chinese a lot more after that...Mexican not so much.

My parents made all kinds of food at home, and hosted "gourmet" food parties all the time back in the late 70's/early 80's from what I recall. Trying new foods was mandatory where I grew up - no exceptions. Tacos were a bi-weekly dinner staple as far back as I can remember - hard shells, ground beef w/ seasoning packet, tray with lettuce, tomato, cheese, glass bottle of standard taco sauce, sour cream. Funny story - we collectively lost our minds at the dinner table as a family when after a neighbor told us, we realized that toasting those hard shells in the oven made tacos 300 to 400% better! Few years after taco nights, we started going out to mex places, and tacos at home were generally replaced by fajitas with homemade salsa, guacamole, and flour tortillas.

Now, in my own household, I am armed with a gas grill, several charcoal grills, and my own kitchen. Haven't had a hard shell taco in probably 15 years minus one or two "taco bellgrandes" for nostalgic purposes. Tacos at home either come from a VERY LIMITED SELECTION OF TAQUERIAS, or I do carne asada at home on the grill with dry rubbed skirt steak and dry rubbed boneless skinless thighs with homemade salsa, and homemade guac. Jarred salsa is an unforgivable offense in my house.

Side story - Worst taco ever - Upper Peninsula. There's a chain up there with a few stores. Not Taco Bell, not Taco John's - MUCH smaller. Some of you are familiar, I have seen the posts. Rhymes with "Shmorder Brill." Anyway, I ordered a "Mexico City Taco" which was described as grilled steak or chicken breast, on a soft corn tortilla served with cilantro, onion, and cheese. harmless, right? What they forgot to mention was that it was served on two cold corn tortillas. Ever eat a cold corn tortilla right out of the package? You know - the ones you gotta carefully peel apart? Everyone probably has...ONCE!

I know that my mom ate a lot of Chinese food while I was in utero. She probably ate more Chinese than almost anything else in fact. My godmother loves to tell me the story of the night my mom went into labor with me. They were having dinner at my mom's favorite Chinese restaurant on boulevard Thimens in Montreal. (The restaurant no longer exists; in its place is a Chinese souvenir shop. I still visit the spot on almost every trip to my home city.) My mother's water broke in the middle of dinner. Once she realized what had happened, she asked my godmother if she could finish her dinner--probably involving chicken feet, knowing my mom--before they left the restaurant for the hospital. Needless to say, I was exposed to Chinese food very early on in life. It was also a tradition to go to dim sum after church every Sunday when I was a kid.

In the Montreal neighborhood in which I grew up (in the '80s), it was very easy to find food from many different part of the world, so I know that as soon as my mom or godmother or a family friend could portion off some souvlaki or pho for my two- or three-year-old self, I had it. My introduction to many cuisines was in the form of pastry (and my family wonders why as an adult I can eat my weight in cake!@#!). I knew French pastry before I could talk, and I must have still been a toddler when I had my first Portuguese custard tart. My sister's godmother is Jamaican, and she made us Jamaican food all of the time. My sister and I just called it "spicy food," and we loved it, especially the curry chicken. We were also introduced to Cuban food at a very young age by our Tito Alex.

I'm pretty sure I didn't have a taco until we moved to the US. When I saw this thread, my first thought was that my first taco must have been from Taco Bell, circa fifth grade with friends from school. Then I thought more carefully, and while I don't remember my parents cooking much apart from Filipino food when I was growing up, they did make tacos! I don't know what the impetus would have been, where they would have gotten the recipe--it would have been from someone at one of the small Mexican markets where they shopped in Melrose Park and thereabouts, where we lived...or possibly from a Mexican family we befriended, who lived in the apartment above us. Regardless of the source, my sister and I loved those tacos. They were chicken, and we ate them in corn tortillas, and I don't remember our kitchen table every looking so small with all of the fresh garnishes and, my favorite, the big tub of sour cream... I was probably in fourth grade the first time my dad made those tacos.

Other firsts I can think of this morning:
Japanese: Probably mainly rice on a quick stop in Tokyo with my family at about age 11
Indian: I think I had my first mutter paneer at about age 13 through a school friend
Ethiopian and Nigerian: I know I was introduced to these cuisines as a sophomore in college, so circa 1998-99, oddly enough on two separate occasions by two different TAs I had
Korean: Not until 2001 and not even BBQ, it was Hangawi on 32nd St. in Manhattan, I remember what I ate but more important was the tranquility of the space--more than I had found anywhere in that time not long after 9/11
Molecular gastronomy: Technically, maybe Trio, but I didn't get there until almost everyone had left...otherwise my 26th birthday at Alinea

It's fun to think about these firsts...thanks, Cathy!

I've been eating tacos since I was young enough to form memories.

However, I can say that my first Indian was at Indian Garden on Devon. This was, sadly, about four years AFTER I graduated from Loyola (but, ironically, with a friend from LUC who had also never ventured up Devon), and we spent the whole meal kicking ourselves for missing it all those years. I remember the first samosa, and the mix of the hot and spicy food with cool raita. Then we went across the street to Sukhadia Sweets and I learned that Indian desserts are not necessarily my cup of tea.

I also remember my first Ethiopian was Ras Dashen on Broadway. Similar to my Indian experience, I kicked myself through the meal for being so unadventurous the whole time I was living in Rogers Park.

Oddly, of all the snips, snails and oxtails I've eaten, the thing that really sticks out is my first fresh fig - I don't remember the particulars of where and when (though it was within the last ten years...sad to think of all those springs wasted) but I remember trepidation, as dried figs were my only frame of reference. It was a perfect green one, and I'll never forget how the first bite past that leathery exterior exploded in my mouth...

My first Indian food experience was in New York in the early '70's. I was visiting my former boyfriend, a native New Yorker that I met when we were both living in Israel. He did all the ordering and to be honest, I have no idea what we ate, except that it was all good. I needed to use the rest room and the waiter pointed me toward a curtain. When I parted the curtain, I found myself in the kitchen, which was about the size of a closet. The cook pointed me toward a door, which led to the alley of the building. I had to walk some way down the alley until I found the bathroom. I'm not even sure it was in the same building as the restaurant. Kind of a weird and creepy experience.

Suzy

My first experience with Mexican food was with my high school Spanish Club at Dundee High in 1963. We came in to Chicago for some cultural exhibit and afterwards our teacher took us to a Mexican restaurant that was very popular at the time but the name escapes me right now. I don't have a clue what we had but we all failed miserably at speaking in Spanish to the waiters. Afew years after that, I had a Mexican friend who would cook for me and I really developed a liking for good home made Mexican. My mom found out I enjoyed mexican food but she didn't have a clue what it was or anything about it. When my birthday came around she invited me home for dinner and surprised me with an enchilada caserole that she found the recipe for in a magazine. It was wonderful and it became a regular part of her rotation of meals. She never did pronouce enchilada right though, always called it encheelala. She was a great cook but unfortunately passed away 30 years ago and left very few recipes written down.

My parents ate spicy, but very-Americanized Mexican food all of the time when we were young. We went probably once a month and it was practically the only time we went out for food. The first thing I started with was the taco - hard corn shell, seasoned beef, iceberg, tomatoes, cheese and sour cream. They had incendiary hot sauce (especially when you're only 5) that was practically all chiles and seeds, and, of course, I had to slowly get used to the pickled carrots and jalapenos. I soon abandoned the taco in favor of the famous West Michigan wet burrito (see: http://spicyfoodguy.blogspot.com/2008/01/best-wet-burrito-in-unexpected-place.html)

The restaurant closed down about 5 years ago and I'm still upset that I'll never get to take figjustin there.

I have distinct memories of two--no make that three-- firsts.

My first Chinese: I was 10, in Oberlin, Ohio for a family wedding. An uncle and aunt who had lived in Taiwan took us to a Chinese restaurant in Cleveland. I have no memory of what I had, but I remember a round red leather banquette and learning to use chopsticks. Very exotic.

My first bagel: I was 18, a freshman at the University of Michigan. There was a small deli over by the hospital. A friend took me, astonished to realize that I was such a small town girl that I'd never had a bagel. I liked it just fine.

Wait, I thought of another. My first raw oyster. Age 23 or so. The Union Oyster House in Boston. I was a little squeamish, but suspected, correctly as it turned out, that I'd get over that.

I distinctly remember my first taco! It was at the officers club in Fort Meade, Maryland in 1972. My sisters and I probably drank 2 whole pitcher of water to help us get some relief from the heat on the salsa we put on our tacos (imitating our stepdad who opt not to warn us about the heat). The bartender gave us milk to drink instead to tame down the heat. The other kind we had was the one kit you assemble at home (El Paso).

This one really got me thinking. I don't remember a time when tacos weren't in my mother's regular dinner rotation (and my food memories go back to about 1963). Mom might have had some trouble finding tortillas in the near north suburbs but she always fried corn ones lightly in oil and filled them with homemade seasoned ground beef. I don't remember ever eating them in restaurants and have never eaten at Taco Bell. I did go out for Mexican food, just not tacos.

We also ate a Kamehachi regularly in the late 60's or very early 70s...so much so that my sister and I were old hands with hashi by 1972 and our first trip to Japan. No one else I knew ate either squid or raw fish. Probably because it was traif.

My parents were regular customers of Wing Yee on Clark in the late '50s so I grew up eating there, too. I really miss their egg rolls.

I do remember my first pizza, however. The quintessential American kid food was alien to me until 1969 and then it was one I ate in Paris. It was topped with cheese and onions and I loved it. Until that minute visits to Barnaby's meant pizza for my sister and something else for me... but I can't remember what!

I was introduced to Ethopian food at Mama Destas on Clark in the mid to late-80s. My parents had eaten at Mama Destas in Washington DC a few years earlier but didn't like it much. I loved it.

In 1976 we visited Turkey and I ate many things I had never tried before. Fortunately they were similar to many Middle Eastern foods I did know. Street vendors sold some sort of yogurt drink that I refused to try but now regret not sampling. Oh well.

My first taco was I think at Jack in the Box. There was one in Rogers Park, can't remember quite where it was...maybe on Ridge or near Sheridan and Devon? This was way back in the late sixties, or maybe l970. I don' t think Jack in the Box is around here anymore.

No, I don't think there are any Jack-in-the-Box restaurants in the Chicago area any more, but if you thought those tacos were delicious at 3 a.m., I have great news for you. The Burger King taco is as close as I've found to that fried Jack taco.

Suzy

sdritz wrote: The Burger King taco is as close as I've found to that fried Jack taco.

Suzy

Is it just me, or is a BK taco half of a hamburger patty and a slice of american "cheese" in a taco shell?

Hi,

I haven't had the BK taco in a long while. I never got the impression there was a hamburger patty though it is ground seasoned meat. My feeling it is frozen assembled, then dropped into a deep fryer to finish.

Regards,

Dmnkly wrote:They inhabited some odd space that was neither Ortega nor authentic (at least as far as I know). He'd saute up ground beef, predominantly seasoned with oregano and cumin, fry up his own hard shells and serve them with crumbled farmer's cheese and shredded iceberg lettuce.

Yes, my dad's friend Skip made these too and continues to do so. Similar recipe, but he lightly dresses the lettuce with vinegar. This may be my first taco memory as well. Beyond that, other early ones were at home Ortega and eaten out at some fairly authentic spots in SW suburban Hickory Hills, Bridgeport, Summit, and especially Blue Island. Most likely my absolute first eat out tacos were soft corn with ground beef from Pepe's, early eighties, where I have not been since but have fond memories of.

My early taco experiences were a hodge-podge of authentic and inauthentic, but they came at an age when that didn't matter—I liked it all. These experiences include all-day cooking parties, where the adults (my parents and their friends) prepared food while we kids played, then we all went home and changed for dinner (gives you some idea how long ago this was!), and returned to eat their culinary efforts. The primary friends with whom these parties were held were friends who had a winter home in Santa Barbara, CA, so we did lots of Mexi-Cali foods, including most memorably chiles rellenos and tacos. Then, as dad had started working for United Airlines, we started traveling to California ourselves. A vivid culinary memory from when I was not quite yet a teen was stopping at the Frito-Lay stand in Frontier Land at Disneyland, where they offered tacups -- corn tortillas fried in the shape of muffin-sized cups and then filled with taco fillings -- ideal for folks with small children who might not be tidy with ordinary tacos. Of course, once the packaged taco shells became available, we jumped on that bandwagon, and started having taco nights at home. And when Su Casa opened in Chicago in 1963, we must have been there the first week, as my dad was always pursuing new ethnic restaurants. I don't guess, however, it was until I went to college in California that I started really making distinctions between authetnic and in-authentic tacos.

For other first:
First Greek food was at Diana's Grocery, back when that was the only place to eat in Greektown.

First Cuban was at Columbia Restaurant in Tampa. My dad was born and raised in St. Petersburg, FL, so I was introduced to local specialties (smoked mullet, as well as Cuban food) on our first (and every subsequent) trip to visit his family (long time ago).

First Indian was when I was living in England as a student (1972). Towns too small for a post office would usually still have a good Indian restaurant.

First Indonesian was on a long weekend in Amsterdam, having escaped my studies in England for a couple of days.

My first falafel was that same year, in the market of the Arab quarter of Jerusalem.

My first really great bottle of wine was when I was 16. My dad was (among other things) a wine taster for the Mid-America Club, and he'd brought home a bottle of Chateau Haut Brion Blanc. He made us popcorn, sat us down, and explained what we'd be drinking. Up till then, all I'd had was sips of bad wine, usually at parties where kids were invited or at sampling at the liquor store, and I had not formed a favorable opinion of the beverage. I may have just been a kid, but I knew instantly that this was better, that this was why people fell in love with wine. Now, this knowledge didn't save me from drinking some Spañada and a bit of Annie Greensprings while I was in college, but once I had a career and my own income, I knew what I wanted to spend some of it on.

I guess it's an indication of being a foodie that I remember so vividly so many food firsts. I won't bore you with the first whole cooked fish, the first reuben sandwich, the first montecristo sandwich, the first snails—but suffice it to say that they have all come back to me as I've sat her reminiscing. Lots of fun. Thanks, Cathy2.

First Greek food for me was also at Dianna's Grocery in 1972, I think. They would serve alcohol to anyone who could pay the bill, which suited us high school kids just fine. I'll never forget when my best friend cut a piece off his octopus and shoved his fork in my face, saying, "Here. Have a tentacle." I was drunk enough to try it and ordered it on my next visit. Dianna's was also where I first learned to eat and love fried calamari.

Suzy

I vividly remember our family's first taco experience.
Our family of 7 was invited over to another large family's house in Rochester, MN to watch the first man land on the moon. It was 1969 and we listened to "Hair" on a record while we waited for the big event. Tacos were the menu. Because it was an exotic meal at the time, the whole night's experience was heightened.

There was a big Lazy Susan in the center of the round table. We spun the toppings as we took turns customizing our "foreign" creations. The meal left an impression because it was a new experience to us all. I find myself telling my kids about "the early days" when ethnic dining meant spaghetti or a Greek salad. Things have changed for the better.

sdritz wrote:First Greek food for me was also at Dianna's Grocery in 1972, I think. They would serve alcohol to anyone who could pay the bill.

Suzy

And when the lines got really long, they handed out free ouzo to everyone waiting to get into the restaurant. Made certain no one left.

Cathy2 wrote:While tacos have comfortably settled into our regular rotation of food choices. There was a time when it was foreign, exotic and not so long ago.

When did you have your first taco?

Very true, indeed. Growing up on the East Coast (NJ/NY), there was no Mexican presence whatsoever and though the Americanised sorts of hard-shell tacos were around and I perhaps ate one at some point, I have no recollection of having done so. From the 1980's, when I was in grad school, I have some vague recollection of hippy-esque tacos appearing at places round about Ithaca, NY, places such as the Rongovian Embassy and Moosewood, and though I suspect I may have eaten one or more, I again have no specific memory of having done so.

For me, exposure to and interest in Mexican food is something that dates to my move to Chicago. My first year here in the late 1980s, I had a student who was much older and more widely travelled than his fellow students -- an experienced merchant mariner he had been -- and, seeing as we were more or less the same age and both had a certain fondness for beer, we ended up becoming drinking buddies (after he was no longer in any classes of mine, mind you). Anyway, he was a big fan of Mexican food and introduced me to the virtues of the genuine barrio taqueria, taking me to joints in Pilsen, up on Chicago Ave. and out on west 63rd. I do not remember precisely which place was the first one we went to, in part because of the beer and in part because we went to so many, but I do remember the sense of having this new culinary world opening up in the late winter and spring of that first year in Chicago, getting on toward 20 years ago now. That's a fairly long time ago from one perspective but from another, it seems like the blink of an eye.

Antonius