A taco is a traditional Mexican dish made out of a corn or wheat tortilla folded or rolled around a filling. A taco can be made with a variety of fillings such as beef, pork, chicken, cheese, vegetable and sea food. A toco is garnished by salsa, avocado, cilantro, tomato, onions and lettuce.

The word taco describes a typical Mexican dish of a maize tortilla folded around food. The original sense of the word is of a “plug” or “wad” used to fill a hole.

The Online Etymological Dictionary defines taco as a “tortilla filled with spiced meat” and describes its etymology as derived from Mexican Spanish “light lunch,” literally, “plug, wadding.” The “plug” might have been borrowed from Mexican silver miners, who used explosive charges in plug form consisting of a paper wrapper and gunpowder filling.

In the beginning of the twentieth century, various styles of tacos have become popular in USA and Canada. The style became most common was the hard-shell, U-shaped version. These were sold by restaurants and fast food chains. Even non-Mexican oriented fast food restaurants sold tacos.

Mass production of this type of taco was encouraged by the invention of devices to hold the tortillas in the U-shape as they were deep-fried. Such tacos were crisp-fried corn tortillas filled with seasoned ground beef, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, salsa, sour cream, and avocado or guacamole.

Soft-shell tacos referred to corn tortillas that were cooked to a softer state than a hard taco – usually by grilling or steaming. More recently this term has come to include wheat flour tortilla based tacos filled with the same ingredients as a hard taco.

Since 1978, a variation called the “puffy taco” become popular. Uncooked corn tortillas were quickly fried in hot oil until they expand and become “puffy”. Fillings were similar to the hard-shell versions.

Kits are available at grocery store usually consist of taco shells of corn tortillas already fried in a U-shape, seasoning mix and taco sauce. Commercial vendors for the home market also market soft taco kits with tortillas instead of taco shells.

Navajo tacos are made using fry-bread instead of tortillas. They are commonly served at pow wows, native Indian festivals and other gatherings.