Your Birria Taco Is Ancient History—Here’s Why | Beyond the Menu

We’re at peak birria these days, where every taqueria in town seems to have adopted its own version. Though this food trend is new to the U.S., birria itself has been around for quite some time. In fact, birria is a perfect collection of some of humanity’s oldest cooking techniques and ingredients merged together into one perfect hand-held treat. It’s a dish that owes its existence to the perseverence of ancient traditions that span thousands of years, across all sides of the globe.

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#foodhistory #birria #tacos #beyondthemenu #mexico

Thanks to El Garage in Richmond, California for showing us how to make their family’s version of birria tacos.

📖 Chapters:
0:00 What is birria?
0:51 El Garage, one of the Bay Area’s best places for birra tacos
1:35 The legend of Guadalupe Zarate, the father of modern birria
2:19 Birria de chivo and the importance of goats
3:17 Goats, Wikipedia, and a common misconception
4:34 What makes birria, birria?
5:59 Chilies - the powerhouse of Mesoamerican cuisine
7:00 How birria became popular in the U.S.
7:59 How religious expulsion led to cilantro being in Mexican food
8:50 Keeping traditions alive generation after generation

Read More:
🍖The Great Birria Boom, by Bill Esparza https://www.eater.com/22215718/how-bi...
🍖The Food System During The Formative Period in West Mesoamerica: https://www.researchgate.net/publicat...
🍖The Birria Boom Is Complicated, but Simply Delicious
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/08/di...

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About Beyond The Menu:
The story of the food on your plate is more than just the recipe. Each ingredient and every cooking technique goes back hundreds if not thousands of years, traversing the globe on a wildly delicious cross-cultural adventure. In KQED’s new digital food series Beyond The Menu, host Cecilia Phillips interviews chefs, authors, and other experts to dig up surprising facts on the cultural pathways of today’s trendiest dishes. It’s a history show, it’s a mystery series, it’s a celebration of multicultural cuisine, sometimes it’s even a science program, all set against the backdrop of mouth-watering food cinematography.

Beyond the Menu is produced by KQED. Check out all episodes here and learn how to support your local station at https://www.kqed.org/beyondthemenu