The Mystery of the Taco Placero
The name "placero" is more pragmatic than ontological; it serves to identify something that doesn't resemble anything else, even if we don't know exactly what it is.
By Jajo Crespo
Made from pork cracklings, also from pork cheese and panela cheese. Equally from avocado and, why not? From ham or beans and salt. Definitely yes to salsa and yes to cottage cheese and yes to dried fish or crayfish. Maybe also with cactus paddles, but definitely not with pastor, suadero, or steak.
According to the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Mexican Gastronomy by Larousse, tacos placeros are tacos (sic., linguists, sic., don't kill me) made from corn tortillas and can be filled with various ingredients, but what identifies them is the ritual: "All the ingredients are placed on the table separately, and each diner fills their tortilla with whatever they desire." According to the same dictionary, they are also called "tacos de plaza".
The latter makes sense when contrasted with what Wikipedia adds, stating that the taco placero gets its name because it consists of ingredients that can be found in the market or tianguis and do not need to be cooked. In other words, the taco placero is the simple taco by definition: you buy half a kilo of tortillas, something to fill them with, and it goes inside; that's why the taco placero cannot be chicken or steak. Thus, it is customary for taco placero fillings to be cold, although not exclusively, because the Dictionary includes barbacoa and Wikipedia mentions carnitas.
However, this definition leaves some loose ends. For example, technically, a taco with serrano ham (because they do sell it at the San Juan market) would be a taco placero; and if you buy a sope at the market and put it on a tortilla, that would also be a taco placero; or even better, Borges' dream and the infinites: a taco placero made with a steak taco bought at the market.
I think both definitions have some truth. "Taco placero" is a utilitarian category more than a descriptive one; it serves to name a phenomenon that cannot be delimited: thus, tacos de carnitas fit if you buy a kilo and take it away, but those eaten at the stand do not. Ultimately, the taco placero represents the friends we made along the way. No, that's not true. What is true is that the "taco placero" is the ritual of sharing what we have at hand; it is the pleasure of the freedom of a Sunday market.
