Tacopedia

Thin beef steak, grilled and chopped onto the tortilla. The everyday carne asada taco.

A beef cut from between the belly and the leg, soft and juicy. It is Mexico City’s taco: street stands cook it slowly and crisp it on the griddle.

Skirt steak. In Mexico it is marinated and grilled; it is the meat in the Tijuana and La Merced tacos.

Two meats in one taco. Here: bistec or suadero, with chorizo.

It says so on the poster in the shop: “hechos al carbón”, made over charcoal. Carne asada is grilled, not pan-fried.

Corn is the street-taco tortilla; flour (wheat) comes from northern Mexico. Nothing to do with a Spanish potato tortilla.

At a taquería you order by the plate: several of the same taco. Here an order is 3 or 2.

What the taquero asks: with onion and coriander? The right answer is usually yes.

Raw chopped tomato, onion, chilli and coriander with lime. Fresh, not a cooked sauce.

The cactus paddle. Eaten grilled or as a salad; it tastes like green beans with a sour edge. It is in the La Merced and vegetarian tacos.

Corn tortilla triangles, fried or toasted. What goes into the guacamole.

Two flour tortillas with melted cheese and meat in between. Here, with chorizo.

A folded tortilla with melted cheese. In Mexico City people argue whether it has to have cheese; here it does, relax.

A “prepared” beer: lime, sauces and heat, with a rimmed glass. Here it has Clamato and chile piquín.

Tomato juice with clam. Sounds odd, works: it is the base of many micheladas.

A tiny dried chilli, ground. Hotter than it looks.

The michelada’s simpler sister: beer with lime and a salt-rimmed glass, no sauces, no Clamato.

Tequila with Coca-Cola and lime. A cantina classic from the town of Tequila, in Jalisco.

A Mexican lucha libre legend, “the man of a thousand masks”. Here it is also a cocktail: tequila, mezcal, lime and tamarind.

Not the Valencian tiger-nut kind: Mexican horchata is rice and cinnamon, served as an agua fresca.

An agua fresca made from hibiscus flowers. Red, tart, ice cold.

A spirit distilled from agave, often smoky. Tequila is a mezcal made from blue agave in one region of Jalisco.

A town in the State of Mexico. Also a cocktail on the menu: Jack Daniel’s, orange liqueur, lime and Sprite.

With your hand. Lime and salsa to taste, fold it a little and tilt your head, not the taco. If the tortilla breaks, ask for another.

Juan is the owner. But the menu says it: todos somos Juan, we are all Juan.