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Tacos al Carbon

Started by bleachboy , Jul 19 2004 02:38 PM
Mexican

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#1 bleachboy

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Posted 19 July 2004 - 02:38 PM

I grew up in Houston, and one of my favorite dishes of all time was Tacos al Carbon at Las Alamedas. Somewhere I read that this dish was actually "invented" by the person who founded Ninfa's. Is that true? It seems like such a straightforward dish, I can hardly believe it would have been invented in the 20th century by a Texan.

What do you know about Tacos al Carbon?
Don Moore
Nashville, TN
Peace on Earth

#2 Robb Walsh

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Posted 19 July 2004 - 03:02 PM

As I explain the chapter of the book titled Sizzling Fajitas, Mama Ninfa of Houston originally called her fajita tacos, tacos al carbon. Carbon means charcoal, so tacos al carbon just means tacos of charcoal-grilled meat. After the word fajitas became popular, Ninfa's revealed that their tacos al carbon had been made with fajita meat all along.

Nobody invented tacos al carbon in this millenium.

But Ninfa popularized fajita tacos under that name in the 1980s.
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