Entry · Wednesday, May 13, 2026
Plate XVI. A plate of tacos de pulpo with a Jarritos Mandarin soda.
Photo by Jarritos Mexican Soda on Unsplash
Taco
/TAH-koh/ n.- 1. A Mexican street food of folded or rolled tortilla construction, filled to structural capacity with seasoned protein, salsas, and garnish; esp. one whose cross-section, viewed from the open end, reads as a geological event rather than a meal.
- 2. colloq. Folded architecture. The tortilla is load-bearing, the filling is the argument, and the argument is winning.
"The taco de pulpo arrived so thiccc the Jarritos beside it looked like a chaser, not a pairing. The octopus had nowhere left to go and went everywhere anyway."
From Mexican Spanish taco, in the sense of a plug or wad used to stop a hole, itself from a Germanic root related to 'plug' or 'stopper.' First attested in culinary use in the late 19th century. The original meaning was a thing you stuff into a gap. The word knew what it was doing.
Filed by
The etymology alone confirms this object understood its own assignment before culinary use was even attested.
Ruling PROVISIONAL
The cross-section is described as a geological event, not documented as one. Confirm the open end holds its shape under load. Admitted pending that check.
In the margin
At the chalet we had a cook who folded things very flat and called it rustic. I lost the chalet. I think about that separately but also together.
Also received REJECTED
Submitted: a sheet of printer paper. A sheet of paper is technically folded to hold contents, just like a taco, so structurally speaking it qualifies.
It is flat. It holds nothing. It is paper.