Puffy Tacos

The puffy taco is most associated with San Antonio, where the Lopez family popularized it. Ray Lopez opened Ray's Drive Inn in 1956, selling light, deep-fried masa pockets he made by mixing masa with lard, leavening, and salt and frying each round molded over a wooden spoon until it puffed; the family then called them 'crispy tacos.' The name 'puffy taco' came later: Ray's brother Arturo opened Arturo's Puffy Tacos in Southern California in 1977, and a year later Henry Lopez opened Henry's Puffy Tacos in San Antonio in 1978. The term was trademarked in 1992. A family account credits an earlier ancestor who, while frying tostadas, accidentally let a frying stick press the dough into a puff, but that origin tale is undocumented.

The shell shatters thin at first bite, then turns soft and almost pillowy where the masa puffed hollow — crisp shell, tender interior, all at once, with the sweet toasted-corn flavor of fresh masa that a dried shell never has. Eaten warm and fresh, because the shell goes leathery within minutes of frying. The fillings stay cool and bright against the hot shell: the savory cumin-spiced meat, the crunch of lettuce, the acid of tomato, the salt of cheese. It must be eaten at once, the shell at its most fragile.

Fresh masa is masa harina or nixtamalized corn dough mixed with a little fat and leavening; pressed thin and slipped into hot oil at about 190°C, the dough's surface starch sets instantly while the water trapped inside flashes to steam, inflating the shell into a hollow bubble before the crust hardens — the same steam-puff principle behind a puri or a sopaipilla. While the round is still pliable it is folded over a tool or against the side of the pan to set the taco's bent shape. The very fresh, higher-moisture dough is essential; a dry or rested dough will not generate enough steam to puff and will fry flat.