When news hit thatTexas Monthly hired food writer José R. Ralat to be Taco Editor, we freaked the eff out. We cook, eat, and write about food all day, and consider ourselves pretty damn lucky. But an entire career centered around eating tacos?! That’s next-level.
As we’ve reported before, José seems extremely qualified for the position. He ran the blog Taco Trail for years, and he’s the co-founder of Taco Libre, Dallas’s annual taco and musical festival. But, in an interview with The New Yorker, the most envied editor in America made a pretty bold and controversial statement that has given us pause: He thinks burritos should be considered tacos.
According to José, it’s not a new opinion, it’s just not something that’s discussed. He claims that two books, Los Tacos de México and La Tacopedia, support his idea.They explain that, yes, burritos are large, folded tortillas, but they are still tacos.” Though personally, he’s not much of a fan. “I don’t understand why you would want to eat something that big in one sitting. That doesn’t make sense to me. But it does make sense to me that they count as tacos.”
Regardless of his skepticism, or what you believe defines a “taco,” José will be covering burritos...along with dishes like Mexican pizza and Mexican burgers, both of which kinda scare him. Don’t worry—in the interview, he doesn’t try to say that they too are tacos.