AILSA CHANG, HOST:
All right. Whether you like them folded in a corn or flour tortilla with green salsa or red, tacos are one of the most iconic foods in Texas. Jose Ralat traveled all over the state - that's 14,000 miles - eating more than 1,200 tacos along the way to come up with Texas Monthly's new list, the 50 best tacos in Texas. Ralat is Texas Monthly's taco editor, a dream job. Am I right? And he's here to talk about how the state's iconic food is evolving in 2024. Welcome back to NPR.
JOSE RALAT: Thank you.
CHANG: So great to have you. And before we begin, you wanted me to note that you have a speech impediment, yeah?
RALAT: Yes.
CHANG: All right. Well, let's dig into your rankings here. Can you tell me about the taco that took first place?
RALAT: Yeah. So Ana Liz Taqueria's chile relleno taco is deceptively simple-looking. It's a corn tortilla with an opened green chile, cheese and then fajita. But when you bite into it, everything comes together, from the fragrant, wonderfully chewy corn tortilla to the salty cheese, the spice of the chile and the smoky beef. It's just wild that something like that could even exist.
CHANG: Oh, my God.
RALAT: And it's also fun.
CHANG: Yeah.
RALAT: You know, there's got to be a little sense of fun in tacos, right?
CHANG: Oh, absolutely. Tell me what was fun about this chile relleno taco.
RALAT: Well, it's pretty-looking. It's creative in that it's deconstructed. And also, to think that in flour-dominating South Texas - that there's this bastion of nixtamalized corn tortillas is wild. Now, for those who don't know, nixtamalization is basically the process that the Aztecs used to cook and soak corn in an alkaline solution...
CHANG: Oh.
RALAT: ...That releases all the nutrients that are inside corn kernels, therefore making it a kind of superfood.
CHANG: So cool. Well, you wrote that throughout the state, you found tacos that weren't just only simple but were also pushing culinary boundaries, right? Like, there was a taco you tasted at El Paso's taqueria El Tiger topped with a smoky kimchi salsa. Tell me about that taco.
RALAT: Yes. So that is the tripe and tembloroso taco, again, on a nixtamalized corn tortilla. Now, tripe and squishly, wiggly chicharron are not uncommon tacos, right?
CHANG: Yeah. Yeah.
RALAT: Yeah. But the fact that he uses onions and this salta-morita-soaked kimchi just takes it over the top. And it's just always a joy.
CHANG: You make it sound like a joy.
RALAT: Yeah, right?
CHANG: Also, tripe brings me back to childhood. I mean, we Asians - we love all parts of pig (laughter).
RALAT: So do us Latinos, right?
CHANG: Yeah. All right. So after you chomped your way through 1,200 different tacos, Jose, what did this journey teach you about how the taco tradition is evolving in Texas?
RALAT: It's clear to me that the taco will do what the taco will do, that it is not willing to be confined to a box. There's absolutely no boundary that it can't overcome.
CHANG: I love that idea. That is Texas Monthly's taco editor Jose Ralat. Thank you so much for speaking with us.
RALAT: Oh, thank you.
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