Before I moved out to California I had a very different impression of Mexican food, specifically tacos, a family favorite when I was growing up. We often had tacos for dinner, but we were eating what I later learned was the “Americanized taco”, U-shaped crispy corn shells filled with ground beef (seasoned with a packet of taco seasoning) and topped with cheese, salsa, black olives, tomatoes, cheese and sometimes sour cream: essentially a homemade “supreme” taco from Taco Bell. They were/are delicious. But my wife (then girlfriend) tried to convince me that my idea of tacos was completely wrong. She told me that “traditional” tacos were only meat, onions and cilantro. It was the one and only time she’s ever been right.

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