How To Pick The Best Taco Stand Every Single Time

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Whether you're sampling new and interesting Mexican foods in your hometown or are traveling in Mexico, you could probably use some insider clues on how to pick the best taco stand. With so many regional styles of Mexican street food you should try, including tostadas, garnachas, burros, and of course numerous popular taco varieties, how can you select the best stand at which to eat? Hank Shaw, chef and author of "Borderlands: Recipes and Stories from the Rio Grande to the Pacific," shared exclusive insight on how to spot the telltale signs that help you decide which taco stands will serve you the best quality, authentic tacos.

One way to gauge which taco stands are good to visit is to ask the people you talk to for recommendations. If you're traveling, ask the person who serves you coffee, the bartender who served you at the cantina, or the hotel door person where they get tacos, and what they order. Whether you are eating locally or in Mexico, Shaw said what you hear people saying about the food being served is key, sharing that, " ... word of mouth is king, even in Mexico." 

If you visit a particular stand, observe whether people eating there appear to be locals, speak the language, and are chatty with the taquero. The idea behind this is that if the food is high quality or full of the traditional flavors that people tend to crave in their heritage cuisines, the location's clientele may reflect that. If the clientele appears to be made up of mostly tourists snapping pictures, they might not know the best stand to grab tacos at. 

There are many popular Mexican taco styles to choose from, many of them regional specialties, such as tacos al pastor made from shaved meat roasted on a vertical spit, tacos de carnitas, and many more. If you're looking for more ways to figure out the quality of a taco stand's food, check out some of their signature ingredients. Hank Shaw cited tortillas as a good example, explaining that you may be able to get a good taco made with mass-produced tortillas, but "for a great [taco], someone — not necessarily the stand, but someone locally — should be making their tortillas each day." You should consider a stand's salsa, too. It should be thick enough to stick to the chip. "That's the true tell," Shaw said, adding, "This is often what comes out first in word-of-mouth conversations about taco places."

Of course, you may wonder how to discern the quality of the meat in your taco. Tacos are often made with beef (with some of the best steak cuts for satisfying tacos being skirt and flank steaks), pork, chicken, and even fish. According to Shaw, this isn't the main consideration when judging a taco stand. "Meat quality is not a thing in most taco places," he explained, opining that stands advertising specialty meats target eaters who can spend extra money. "That said, there is one key thing to look for: variety. So in the case of carnitas, carne asada, and barbacoa, for example, each of those tacos really ought to be made with a variety of parts of the animal, " Shaw said