In 2019, José R. Ralat declared in a national Eater article what longtime Kansas Citians already knew but maybe weren’t ready to admit: Our city’s very own taco, the so-called KC taco, was on the verge of extinction.
In his piece, Ralat, who is now Texas Monthly’s taco editor, argued that the growing demand for “authentic” Mexican food, particularly street-style tacos, posed the greatest threat to the KC taco. In my latest attempt to track down the taco of my childhood, I don’t have better news. There are even fewer places serving the KC taco than Ralat identified seven years ago. But it’s possible that not all hope is lost. A new, chef-driven taqueria is serving a version that makes me think the KC taco, in all its oily, glorious excess, might not just survive but evolve.
The KC taco, as many of us know it, is a corn tortilla that’s filled with seasoned beef, fried, topped with shredded lettuce, a thin, almost ketchup-like salsa and dusted with parmesan cheese…