How can you eat a hard shell taco without it crumbling and spilling its guts out?

Eat more tacos. One of them is bound to stay together.

^^ Ah. hope springs eternal but I’m always disappointed – with pico de gallo down my front.

And deprive my rack of all that taco yumminess???

It always breaks for me and then I’m scooping up the innards with the broken pieces of shell. When I eat a taco, I always make sure my mouth is way over the plate and table. I can’t stand getting food stains on my clothes.

@jca2 Yeah, I eat them over my plate too but it is still not ideal. Certainly not something you’d want to eat on a first date!

impossible

@janbb or any date for that matter!

Actually, deep frying is the answer — this softens the shell enough to keep it from crumbling. One of my local places does this and they are also quite delicious for this reason.

I also lean over the plate so that when it inevitably breaks, it falls on the plate. I eat as much as I can from the remains of the broken shell, and I finish with a fork scooping up what has fallen on the plate. Regardless, I still love tacos.

Easy, you need to heat the taco shells before stuffing them. Cold shells fragment, warm shells do not.

@Blackwater_Park I do heat them.

Are you heating them to the point of almost toasting them? You can also use corn tortillas toasted on a griddle then used like taco shells only street taco style. That works too.

Hard shell taco is an American thing, Mexico doesn’t have them, except maybe in places that have a lot of tourists I guess. I usually break up the hard shell in a salad and eat it with a fork. I guess if you are really careful and tip your head back while eating a hard shell taco so whatever breaks apart falls in your mouth you might not drop any of it on your plate, lap, or the floor. Even the hard shell tacos have a little bend in them sometimes.

It’s not possible.

Soft Shell FTW.

@cookieman But they don’t taste the same!

I’m a street taco guy, softy corn tortilla.

Or maybe a fried taquito, a tortilla wrapped around shredded chicken and cheese then fried. I remember going on a field trip in third and again fifth grade to Olvera St., street vendor made the best taquitos !

I would not judge a date for challenges eating her taco, in fact I’d probably find it funny and endearing and respect her more for making the attempt.

I’ve not mastered this, though with enough tacos and dedication, I believe it to be possible.

By delicately eating the stuff on the inside with a fork, and then nibbling on the taco shell after all the innards are gone.

Don’t buy the box kind. If you do, wrap it in a soft shell.
Corn shells fried lightly in oil will break less than the box kind and taste much better.
Yes, there is also a holding technique and eating technique.
I offer classes in both )~

Enough melted cheese would keep the stuff inside from dropping during crumbling.

Some more side information: Mexicans don’t put cheese on a corn tortilla taco, but like I said above their tortilla would be soft corn. The whole crispy shell with cheese thing is Americanized.

When I lived in Tennessee this one Mexican place we used to go to had a sign on the wall saying basically, “we don’t care if you are from TX or CA we are not putting cheese on your taco.” Lol.

@mazinger88 You’re right though, melted cheese would help keep it together.

I, for one, deeply appreciate whichever vile apostate defied tradition and added cheese to tacos.

@chyna: True, but my hands (and shirt) stay clean.

@canidmajor I add cheese sometimes too, but I’m a gringa.

I love cheese on tacos! The more the better!

Seriously? Hard shell taco is an American thing and so is cheese on taco? There you go. The solution is go taco-Americano!

Yes, gotta have shredded cheese.

I found some history about the hard taco. https://www.chowhound.com/1470971/type-tacos-avoid-ordering-mexican-restaurant-hard-shell/#:~:text=Hard%20shell%20tacos%20originate%20from,find%20them%20in%20Mexico%20itself.

Also, Mexicans (in MX) don’t use ground beef in tacos. They use shredded beef usually when using beef if it is not slices of beef.

Flour tortillas were invented/brought by the Sephadic Jews who settled in Mexico. It was their version of a matzah or unleveled bread during times of the year when Jewish food rules forbade eating corn. Cheese on a flour tortilla is typical, like a quesadilla. It won’t be yellow cheese, that’s American.

Street taco/soft corn tortilla is the way to go.

@JLeslie Very interesting info. Thanks for the link.

And yes, I have had more authentic soft tacos at food trucks and tacquerias. Often, less filling and more tasty.

I do enjoy my Old El Paso hard shell Americanized tacos at home though still.

@janbb I like both also. My Mexican husband will eat a hard taco if that is what is being served, he just hates the fake taco seasoning powder. He chooses something that won’t have that flavor.

Probably everyone knows nachos and chili were invented in America.

Fajitas are a US invention too. My husband never saw that on a menu in Mexico City growing up.

I can’t do it either. One bite and it cracks all over the place.
It’s definitely not “date food!”

I would pound the taco shells and eat with a spoon.

Taco Monday in my house. I will pay extra attention to eating technique.
I just know my plate is spotless with zero shell losses.

I know this is a couple of years old, but it seems fitting to mention here. :-)

https://engineering.jhu.edu/news/time-says-tastee-tape-is-a-best-invention-of-2022/

@canidmajor Love this. Funny as heck!

According to Quantum physics, anything is possible.

I’ve been waiting, and watching, but nobody has the answer.

How can you eat a hard taco, without it crumbling it’s guts out?

Put it in a blender.

@MrGrimm888 Monday, I had 2 stuffed to the rim corn shell tacos. cheese, shrimp, salsa, onion, beans, lettuce, tomato, avocado, sour cream.
Plate was spotless. No Runs, No Cracks, No Errors.
It is a skill I mastered as a teen growing up in the very non-Mexican part of Minnesota.

@Forever_Free I think we need video proof of that!

I’m still grasping at why so many have an issue with this. Is the ability to eat tacos properly not being taught anymore? I get not knowing how to read an analog clock, change a tire or use a rotary phone but tacos a lost art?? I weep for our future.

It’s basically like a kiss.
You have to tilt your head, and if you go heavy on the hotsauce or have too much fluid, it can get soft in the middle.
If I don’t personally make the taco, I have to spread it open to apply hot sauce. That can break the damn shell too.

I hate to credit Taco Bell, with much, but their double decker taco thing has a hard shell taco inside a soft shell with refried beans between the two shells.
The soft shell, contains the mess well.

I have said this a number of times ; I think almost all really good food, is messy AF….

@Blackwater_Park I sometimes enjoy playing devil’s advocate. However. I have VERY little hope for the future of humanity.

Giant robot insects, WILL feast on us….

Taco Tales – continues. Tonight, the hard shells were so slender that you could not stuff them and they cracked in any case, pre-stuffing. I ended up using them as the base for the fillings, like a chalupa, and that worked out ok. The kit I bought has soft tortillas too so I will try them tomorrow.

Love the Taco Tales!!!
If you are up for it, try buying fresh corn shells and heat them in light oil using tongs to form the desired shape.