Taco

A typical plate of tacos in the Sena'akono region

The Tako, or Taco in Occidental Romanization, is a traditional dish in Loa cuisine, consisting of flatbread typically made with sourdough and wrapped about a filling of meat and vegetables. The filling is very diverse but typically consists of small rehydrated fish, river crab meat or fermented pork, ginger, okra and green onions, and is usually accompanied with a sauce of chilies, citrus and a spice blend consisting of poppy seeds, cinnamon, nutmeg and turmeric. The taco is a central aspect of Loa cuisine, with most Loa eating a variant of the dish weekly or even daily. It has even spread beyond the Vallosian subcontinent via the Loa diaspora, with notable regional variants in Pelaxia, Cartadania, Aciria, and other regions with a large Loa diaspora, like Burgoignesc Equitorial Osteicia and Sudmoll.

History

The taco originated in the 1920s after opening of the country following the events of the Takatta Loa Civil War. The government sought to expand the potential crops of the Loa and secure food safety, and so foreign crops such as wheat, potatoes, barley and lentils were introduced. Loa cuisine as a whole expanded in diversity around this time but was usually built upon older culinary traditions. The taco especially is thought to be derived from an earlier mainland street dish called losu'ihuilalo, or when translated directly "banana leaf stew". It was a mixture of meat and vegetable stew thickened and held together with taro starch and then steamed in banana leaves. These losu'ihuilalo are still regularly eaten everyday, though the connection between it and the taco is often lost.

With the introduction of wheat and flatbread into Takatta Loa, banana and lotus leaves stopped being used to hold food and instead were reserved for steaming. Around 1926, a street vendor named Hako'oa began selling huilalo which came to be a standard name for a food wrap at this time. This was the first recorded instance of a taco like food appearing, as Hako'oa also published a small pamphlet near his retirement in the same year due to illness. He passed away a year later but the pamphlet, and subsequently tacos, became popular around the nation. Tacos themselves are named on the third page, being rehydrated fish and okra (takokara huilalo as he originally called it) and are named tako due to a combination of the first two characters of takokara in the Old Loa Characters. Due to the accessibility of both of these ingredients, tacos in particular became extremely popular on the mainland and eventually in all of Takatta Loa.

In the 1950s, due to the establishment of the republic and constitution, many more Loa began migrating across the Kindreds and subsequently brought the taco with them into these regions. As a result, variations of the taco including new ingredients such as beef, chicken, tomatoes and sour cream began to emerge and eventually make their way back to Takatta Loa. The most popular of these included pork tacos and the inclusion of a chili sauce. These endure to this day and have become traditional in Loa taco cuisine. Further, during the late 20th century, Takatta Loa began to see the emergence of restaurants and restaurant chains, a previously unknown concept. The largest of these today is TakoBel'O, which specializes primarily in tacos.

Regional Variants

There are many regional variants and styles of tacos throughout not only Takatta Loa but also the world. The region with the largest number of styles is Ahoso, the birthplace of tacos. There are nearly half a dozen styles of taco in the city of Disa'adakuo alone. In addition, Takatta Loa recognizes a "national" style of tacos consisting of the original rehydrated fish and kora, which is celebrated every year on the National Taco Day of July 12th.

Insular

The Insular style of tacos is relatively eclectic due to it being far from the origin location and due to the relatively low cultural transmission from mainland cultures to the Loa islands. The huilalo is often a mix of wheat flour, eggs and taro paste, creating a unique flavor and texture. Furthermore, fish is extremely common due to the prevalence of fish near islands. In particular, dolphinfish, tuna, swordfish, jobfish and pomfret are widely used taco ingredients, though tortoise meat is also used fairly often. Seasonings are often lightly applied and typically consist of salt, nutmeg, lemon juice and chili oil. One of the most distinct aspects of Insular tacos is the fact that the huilalo dough is typically uncooked until wrapped around meat and often steamed or baked, producing a bun like product. Despite this difference, these are still called tacos even alongside the common wrap styles that are also present.

Ahoso

The Ahoso style is extremely diverse and is generally divided into four broad categories; Disa'adakuo, Southern, Northern and Eastern. The main unifying features of the Ahoso style is its use of rehydrated featherback fish. The fish is extremely common and often farmed in the mainland. It is typically dried with salt and then rehydrated for use in tacos, lending mainland tacos a briny and umami taste.

The city of Disa'adakuo, with 20 million people and being the birthplace of the taco, is naturally home to more individual styles of taco than all the rest of Takatta Loa combined. Typically each street of Disa'adakuo has its own unique taco style, though all tend to use similar ingredients. Due to the high competition between street vendors, the city as serves as the focal point of culinary innovation, with many street vendors utilizing Occidental or Alshari ingredients and techniques in order to gain an edge. This has been documented to be the primary means of diffusion of non Loa cuisine within Takatta Loa due to the Loa's general apprehension towards foreign cuisine.

The Southern style of the river mouths deviates from the standard Ahoso style with the occasional use of red snapper in its tacos, but these are generally distinguished from the usually rehydrated fish as being red snapper tacos. This style does also notably make use of more seafood ingredients than the other styles. General examples include frying the meat in fish oil, mixing kelp into the 'huilalo', and topping it with crispy deep fried ingredients such as octopus, fish chitlins and deep fried okra.

The Northern style tends to follow the national style, but with the key difference of rehydration the fish in pork broth. The low demographics of Muslims in the northern regions of the Ahoso Basin means that pork becomes a very prominent ingredient in cuisine, where it tends to be less prominent to downright absent in certain regions. In addition, avocados are also used as a topping, typically chopped and sprinkled on top. As are pork chitlins, which are viewed as a defining characteristic of Northern Ahoso tacos.

Eastern tacos are at times regarded as their own style due to the fact that when rehydrated, they are cooked in sugar and served with fruit and candied okra. They are rather uncommon outside of the eastern part of the river basin, due to the historical presence of sugar cane plantations predominantly in the eastern basin. Fruits commonly used are mango, banana and mamey sapote. Guava and cherry are also becoming popular ingredients due to the crops becoming more locally common in Takatta Loa. The eastern basin also coincidentally has the highest rates of tooth decay in the nation.

Masa

The Masa region is dominated by two major influences; Islam and salamanders. The Masa Mountains are especially valuable for their ideal salamander running conditions, and so despite the rocky history of urodeliculture in Takatta Loa, there is an established tradition of salamander consumption. Islam further establishes a set of dietary laws and restrictions, and so while pork is common elsewhere in the nation, it is very rare in the Masa region as the Safa Loa make up a significant portion of the population of the region.

Overseas Variants

The sizable Loa diaspora has spread to every corner of the world except Puertego, with most nations having at least a few thousand Loa. This means that there are many overseas varieties of tacos adapted to local palates. These can vary dramatically between the standard Loa tacos.