Arizona Taco Festival Archives

It’s Taco Tuesday! Chances are, your Facebook feed is filled with memes celebrating this unofficial but extremely well-observed holiday. Few culinary cultural appropriations are more beloved than tacos (except maybe pizza – maybe). Not only do tacos get their own day of the week, but they get feted in festivals perhaps more than any other food. There are three taco fests in the Valley in the next month alone. In the East Valley this Saturday, September 17, the Rockin’ Taco Street Fest hits Dr. A.J. Chandler Park; the Tequila, Taco and Cerveza Festival rides into Rawhide Western Town on October 1; and the biggest taco party, the Arizona Taco Festival , takes over Salt River Fields on October 15 and 16.

Why do we love tacos so much? What is it about these tortillas rolled around fillings that makes them so irresistible? We’ll leave the real pondering to the food psychologists (yes, that’s a thing), but here’s a handful of hypotheses:

#1: Tacos are completely customizable.

Want fries with that? Seriously, you could put your fries in that. Or you could go with ingredients llike crumbled beef, carne asada steak, fish, shrimp, pork or veggies. You can choose from hard- or soft-shell tacos, flour or corn tortillas, and tons of topping options – lettuce, cheese, sour cream, tomatoes, onions, a plethora of peppers, etc. There’s pretty much nothing you can’t do to a taco. It’s the most accommodating and friendliest of foods.