"breakfast tacos" news and stories

Tacos are as synonymous with Austin, Texas, as the South by Southwest Festival. The breakfast taco, the energizing early rising big brother, is to Austin what the bagel is to New York. A breakfast taco is required eating in Austin, available at regional fast-food chains and mom-and-pop shops to mini-empires and trailers. They are Austinites' go-to, on-the-fly morning meal.

Just don't confuse them with breakfast burritos, those bursting-at-the-seams paramours of Californians. They might have similar components, but breakfast burritos are all-in-one leviathans of a tortilla envelope found only in a few Austin restaurants. They are clearly in the minority.

A breakfast taco can include bacon, egg, cheese, potato, refried beans, chorizo, barbacoa and migas, all hugged by a flour tortilla. Of the myriad amalgams, bacon, egg and cheese as well as chorizo and egg are big crowd-pleasers. Migas tacos, fried corn tortilla strips with eggs, chiles, tomatoes and cheese, are also much adored. But eggs aren't sacrosanct. "Our biggest breakfast seller, the Otto, doesn't have eggs in it," says Roberto Espinosa, owner of Tacodeli. It's made with refried black beans, bacon, avocado and Monterey Jack.

Warning: Above video contains some strong language.

Even with the subdued machismo of Emerill's BANG!, Bourdain's wild child, and Ramsay's ever-flowing f-bombs, most cooking shows are beasts of the same feather. Whether soft and pensive or bright and cheery, they cast a narrow sheen on the world of food. And those that don't, like the men listed above, are chefs. It's their job and passion.

But what about the everyman? For me, nothing quite beats Robert Rodriguez's 10-Minute Cooking Schools. If you're a fan of his films, you've surely noticed the cooking segments attached to his DVD releases. If not, check out the clip above, for Sin City Breakfast Tacos. They're easy and incredibly tasty. More importantly -- they showcase what the food world needs more of -- natural shots of men cooking. These aren't guys getting paid to cook, but men who like food and realize the importance of fresh ingredients and the worth of an extra few minutes in the kitchen.

Rodriguez sums it up perfectly: Not knowing how to cook is like not knowing how to f**k.

I'm not talking about the best restaurants in Las Vegas, I mean the cooking of Sin City director Robert Rodriguez.

Rodriguez has created ten short films that tell you how to cook using footage from his movies. Yeah, I know, that sounds a little confusing (if not scary), but it all makes sense after you watch the videos. Rodriguez and his crew are often up late at night (or early in the morning), so they make things like Breakfast Tacos. He even teaches you how to make your own flour tortillas.

For more recipes, check the other videos on the right on that YouTube page.