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A few years ago, I saw my first "Original French Tacos" place in Valence, France, and thought it was a hilarious concept (A restaurant in France, with English s

A few years ago, I saw my first "Original French Tacos" place in Valence, France, and thought it was a hilarious concept (A restaurant in France, with English signage, advertising a Mexican dish and claiming it as French). But I learned a lot from this article. One interesting aspect of these tacos is that they are essentially "laundering" the food of a minority treated with suspicion (North African / Arab immigrants) by disguising it as a different kind of exotic food. In the US, incentives might be the opposite: In some places, Mexicans might find success selling Burritos as "Döner Kebab".

vladvasiliu 6y ago
> One interesting aspect of these tacos is that they are essentially "laundering" the food of a minority treated with suspicion (North African / Arab immigrants) by disguising it as a different kind of exotic food. In the US, incentives might be the opposite: In some places, Mexicans might find success selling Burritos as "Döner Kebab". I'm not sure I agree with this point, or even understand it actually. There are plenty of fast-food joints selling "the food of a minority treated with suspicion". They're usually called "grec" (greek) for some reason, though they're what the non-French usually call a Kebab. The only "stigma" I can think of applied to those places is that it's "too fatty" / "not very healthy," etc[0]. There also are the "Lebanese" joints that sell wrapped sandwiches. Those are usually called "Lebanese", and don't have any stigma that I'm aware of either. Also, the "tacos" I've had around Paris have absolutely nothing in common with the kebabs or event the Lebanese wraps. They're usually drenched in some liquid, sugar-laden sauce that makes eating them a pain and come in all kinds of... surprising combinations. Usually a kebab is pretty straightforward. Some joints may get fancy with the sauce options; some joints are clearly very good while others are... less so; but you always know what kind of sandwich you'll get. The taco places seem more like the salad bars that have popped up all over the place. You can pick and choose among a bunch of ingredients, and it's usually up to you if you want your combination to "make sense" or not. --- [0] The "health" related skepticism around French kebabs is about their fat content mostly. The "sanitary" skepticism also exists, but it's usually targeted at "Chinese" joints.

vladvasiliu 6y ago

> One interesting aspect of these tacos is that they are essentially "laundering" the food of a minority treated with suspicion (North African / Arab immigrants) by disguising it as a different kind of exotic food. In the US, incentives might be the opposite: In some places, Mexicans might find success selling Burritos as "Döner Kebab". I'm not sure I agree with this point, or even understand it actually. There are plenty of fast-food joints selling "the food of a minority treated with suspicion". They're usually called "grec" (greek) for some reason, though they're what the non-French usually call a Kebab. The only "stigma" I can think of applied to those places is that it's "too fatty" / "not very healthy," etc[0]. There also are the "Lebanese" joints that sell wrapped sandwiches. Those are usually called "Lebanese", and don't have any stigma that I'm aware of either. Also, the "tacos" I've had around Paris have absolutely nothing in common with the kebabs or event the Lebanese wraps. They're usually drenched in some liquid, sugar-laden sauce that makes eating them a pain and come in all kinds of... surprising combinations. Usually a kebab is pretty straightforward. Some joints may get fancy with the sauce options; some joints are clearly very good while others are... less so; but you always know what kind of sandwich you'll get. The taco places seem more like the salad bars that have popped up all over the place. You can pick and choose among a bunch of ingredients, and it's usually up to you if you want your combination to "make sense" or not. --- [0] The "health" related skepticism around French kebabs is about their fat content mostly. The "sanitary" skepticism also exists, but it's usually targeted at "Chinese" joints.