Do you remember your first taco? Perhaps tacos are part of your background, Or, they might have been something your mother whipped up, using a recipe on the box of hard shell tacos.
Maybe it was at Taco Bell, or even something that you discovered on a bar menu.
However you were introduced to tacos, you’ll learn an enormous and entertaining amount about them in the new book, American Tacos: A History And Guide, by Jose R. Ralat.
Editor’s note: This tour of small businesses across the country highlights the imagination, diversity, and resilience of American enterprise.
Come for the cheap gas and tacos. Stay for the livestock and karaoke.
This is a typical Saturday night at Fuel City in Dallas. Two police officers direct traffic as cars line up for unleaded gas at $2.39 a gallon. All three taco windows are mobbed, as are the carts peddling elote en vaso (corn in a cup). Customers wander into the karaoke trailer (complete with disco ball) to belt out Tejana favorites, country classics, and oldies. Out back, longhorn cattle snooze on the ground. The zebra remains standing.
“Our slogan is ‘Where dreams come true,'” says Fuel City founder John Benda. “Maybe that’s a little corny. But that’s what I want this place to be.”
Dispatches From The Front 