365 Days of Tacos: The Man Behind the Tex-Mex Challenge

What are your New Year’s food resolutions? Maybe it’s to get on a post-holiday healthy kick, or to give it a go at a whole month without alcohol. While most are thinking on the healthier side, one Texas-based reporter is thinking tacos, and nothing else.

Mike Sutter has bravely vowed to have taco-tunnel vision all year long. The food critic, who also runs a personal website, has taken on a challenge with the San Antonio Express News, where he’ll hit seven different Mexican hotspots per week – that’s one new and delicious taco per day, just to be exact. 

Sutter will be evaluating each and every bite along his tortilla journey. But a taco isn’t just a taco, especially when eating one every day for a year. We talked to Sutter on the three most important, cannot-eat-without qualities of a taco. “First,” he said, “The tortilla is the make-or-break point. If you’re not starting with handmade flour or corn, you’re already doing it wrong. Whether it’s the fluffy, dusty flour tortilla San Antonio loves or doubled-up corn from an Austin taco truck, if the tortilla’s wrong, the taco’s never right.”

Read more on page 2 >>> [pagebreak]

Next up is something he refers to as “faithfulness to the form”. He explains, “Eggs cooked to order for a breakfast taco. Bean and cheese in the right ratio, melting together so they don’t squish out the sides. Al pastor bristling with achiote and tropical twang from the trompo or caramelized crunch from the plancha. It’s all fine and good if you like fried chicken and queso and lettuce and ranch dressing and bacon jam, but folding that stuff in a tortilla doesn’t make it a taco.”  And last but not least, value. “It might sound like a small point for a commodity that costs around $2,” he says, “but the feeling you get from a $1.85 machacado a la Mexicana taco as heavy as a foil-wrapped hand grenade? That’s the power of a good breakfast taco.”

The location of Sutter’s project is important, too. “Taco trucks on every corner? Forget that,” he said, nodding to recent political events. “San Antonio isn’t riding on the back of a food-truck fad. We’re talking more like taquerías on every block — real, family-run joints with some history in the bricks. I could do a month’s worth of reports on San Pedro Avenue alone.” So far, he’s hit hotspots including Teka Molino, El Mirador, and Patty’s Taco House. 

Those hopping on the healthy bandwagon this year may be quick to judge Sutter’s taco streak, but the critic will defend his choices – especially since he claims he lost weight on a similar taco-binge in years past. “The potential to drop or hold steady is there. Tacos are protein delivery systems wrapped in a thin layer of carbs. They’re the right mixture of lean and rich, like two-stroke motor fuel,” he explained. “But a good flour tortilla is my weakness, and San Antonio pride abides in a good flour tortilla. We’re gonna need a bigger vest.”

Be sure to follow Mr. Taco’s full journey – only after lunchtime, of course.