The crispy taco, also known as the crunchy taco or the old-fashioned taco, has for too long been the source of derision. Its reputation has been sullied by industrially prefabricated yellow shells, the kind used by fast-food taco chains and pulled from supermarket shelf boxes. Sometimes it’s crammed with greasy meat, waxy cheese, soggy limp lettuce and chopped tomatoes — an insult to the crispy taco.
Freshly fried crispy tacos have fed generations of Mexican Americans from Southern California eastward across Texas and northward to the Midwest, and up and down the Eastern Seaboard. But the U.S. doesn’t have a monopoly on fried tacos. Mexico has its own fried tortilla-based version: Categorized generally under the name tacos dorados (literally “golden tacos”), fried tacos come in folded and rolled versions, and when freshly fried are nothing short of comforting. Here are the essential fried tacos of Dallas-Fort Worth.
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