Why Can't People Just Leave the Taco Alone?

If someone were to give me the word "taco" in a word association game, these are words I'd come up with instantly: tortillas, carnitas, barbacoa, lengua, lettuce, potato and egg, chorizo, and fish. Here are words I'd never blurt out: lion, beaver, kangaroo, or gazelle. That I can't make those word connections only proves I lack imagination, because a restaurant in Tampa Florida, Taco Fusion, has gotten all creative and is offering  "Safari Tacos."

It would appear that some folks didn't like the idea of Taco Fusion serving Lion meat and took to social media to express outrage. At 35 bucks per serving, the restaurant sold out, but left a bad taste in some people's mouths. Taco Fusion's owner, Ryan Gougeon, said he's getting scary threats and decided to pull lion tacos off the menu for now. He says it is all legal and responds to the uproar (almost resisted pun) by telling folks not to eat what they don't like. As long as serving lion meat is legal and healthy, the restaurant will consider keeping it on the menu. 

Should I find myself ever eating at Taco Fusion, I'll be the traditionalist nerd ordering the beef or chicken tacos. Boring. I know.

Thanks Gawker for the link

Of New England Latinos, American Racism and Tacos...Cross-Cultural Connecticut Culinary Cockiness!

Link to the related news stories HERE and HERE

Albums and Tacos! A Bizarre Tumblr!

Thanks! I think! to artist David McHank for the headsup
to this trough of Tacomusical delight!

Kosher Tacos! ¡Ay, Caramba, Oy, Gevalt!

Thanks to eagle-eyed webmaven Josh Kun for tipping me to this off my facebook newsfeed.

A Tip of the Sombrero to Izel Vargas

Uncanny, gifted painter, Izel Vargas (of Pocholandia infamy) takes our eyes to this recent dispatch:

"Bill... I thought i'd share this with you. A great friend at UNC, Charlotte, José L.S. Gámez (a fellow Tejano) wrote a piece about the Taco Truck Wars going on in the east-- in this case Charlotte."

This video glosses the incongruities at work as "Mexicans" and other immigrants change the face of the South.

Chicago Chicano Semiotics

David Rodriguez, Tex[t]-Mex Galleryblog reader and South Side Chicago Mexican flaneur, sends in a picture from the Windy City of a window display from one of his fave taquerias! Our friend Speedy Gonzales makes a cameo (shhhhhhh, don't tell Warner Brothers!).

In Tacos We Trust!

Borderlore At it Again

Our various and sundry explorations of XicanOsmosis have us thinking about art a lot these days. That semiotic wanderlust is embodied today by a quick link to University of Arizona Professor Maribel Alvarez's Borderlore extravaganza where she has a cool piece and interview excerpt with Doze Green.

Profe Alvarez's latest take on the marriage of Chinese Fortune Cookies and Mexican Tacos is delicious as well--that's a XicanOsmosis you can sink your teeth into.

Don't forget to tip your waiters.