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The interview featured in this bonus episode of Tacos of Texas originally aired on the Texas Standard in December, 2017.
The following is an excerpt from the original article that was published on the Texas Standard website.
“The words used to describe taco-making techniques, many of them in Spanish, tell the heritage of the people in the kitchen.”
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The full transcript of this episode of Tacos of Texas is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
Mando Rayo: Hey, this is Mando Rayo from the Tacos of Texas. We’re busy cooking up season seis, but in the meantime, here’s a segment from my interview on the Texas Standard and Austin Signal. You can hear me every month talking about tacos and taco culture and get ready for El Seis, premiering on August, 2026. The Tacos Of Texas is produced by Identity Productions in partnership with KUT and KUTX Studios. Listen on KUT.org. Or wherever you get your podcasts.
David Brown: Al dente used in a sentence dad. I like my bisquette al dente Translation father figure please don’t boil my pasta to the point where it’s mushy like my brother likes it al dante Scalding mincing rendering infusing every kitchen has its own terminology But in Texas it helps to know Spanish as taco journalist Mondo Rio Notes he and Jared Nice were cooking up their guide to the tacos of Texas Mondo you almost need a glossary really
Mando Rayo: Yeah, there’s definitely some common terms and then there’s, definitely, this is storytelling, it’s oral storytelling, you know, in the kitchen, you, know, because you have generations of whether it’s grandma passing it down to the mom, passing it out to the children, and you kind of see that, that oral history, with that come stories and with that comes experiences and then these recipes. And actually, it’s funny because for this for the book Like I literally had to sit there with my aunt and my uncle and describing every step because we had to write the recipes for these. And with a lot of these places, we had to like slowly and ask them again and again and like, well, what does that mean? Tease it out of them. Tease is out. So that way, like, yeah, you can open up the book and you actually know. There it is. There it, exactly. So
David Brown: So before the translation, what were some of the words that you were coming across in the course of putting together the Tacos of Texas and talking about the home cook?
Mando Rayo: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly. So we have some terms that we came across that are, you know, instead of like a pan or a Dutch oven, we use a casso, which is a cauldron or a big pot, you know? And so with that, you can do carnitas, you Say, for example, if you’re gonna have a barbecue, like, you know, just a cookout, right? Right, right. So we say carne asada. Hey, let’s do a carne asda. I’m like, okay, that means that’s Q word for barbecue. So whereas a lot of Texans will say, hey, we’re gonna barbecue over at our place, coming over, right, and you’d say? Carne asada, exactly. Right. So it’s literally like you’re gonna grill meats, grill steaks. We’re gonna have a grill. Yeah, grill out, basically, right? Another one is definitely like, you’re familiar with the term tacos and taqueros, but if you do the feast, it’s called a taquiza. A taquize. A taqiza, where you cook up all the meats and you have a minimum 50 tortillas. Yeah, exactly. And then, you know, when you think about cooking, say, bistec or just even warming up some of your meats, there’s the plancha, which is a flat griddle. Okay, plancha. And then when you thing about, say the trompo, like tacos al pastor, that’s a vertical griddle- Okay, like a spit, sort of. Yeah, yeah, a spit. Yeah, like like a gyro, I guess is the way I imagine. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. So and, you know, in along the border, you definitely see, especially El Paso, you see discadas, discadas or a disco, which is basically a Mexican walk. Um, because, and, and so you, you grill a lot of the red meats together and.
David Brown: Now let me ask you about this Mexican walk thing. I’ve heard something about, is this made out of like literal like wheels or from plows or something?
Mando Rayo: Yeah, yeah, basically. Really? Yeah, from the farmlands of northern Mexico and Texas, actually. So you have the plows that are on the tractors and what they did is instead of throwing them away, they removed them, they sealed them, big disks, exactly. And then they would put them down on the fire and then put in their meat. Throw the food right on top of the disk. Exactly. So that’s a discada. Oh, that’s fascinating. Yeah, yeah. So, so, so you have all these, you know, different terms that, you know, for you, you, as a home cook, you can, you can kind of start using it’s like, well, let me think about like, well, if I want to do a big, a big thing of carnitas, how do I do that? Um, then you get the castle out or you do a discada, the castle. Casso. Casso? Casso, see?
David Brown: CASO. And the translation literally is cauldron cauldra. We were talking about that a little bit earlier.
Mando Rayo: Cacheteados? Cacheteados. Cachetiados. Yeah, yeah, cachete is cheek. Yeah. And then cachetado is like a slap. So how does- So when you slap some beans on your taco, it’s kind of like, the way we say refried beans are the Mexican mayonnaise. So you just put a thin layer, and then you put the meats on, you know? Oh, that’s fascinating. Yeah, so like in Laredo, they call them cacheteados, where it’s a thin layer of beans, and whether it’s breakfast taco, or whether you’re doing a bistec or carnitas, it’s with beans. So would you say, for instance, like, I would.
David Brown: You say, with a cacciateato, how would you use the word that is?
Mando Rayo: Well, they usually ask you. They usually like, if you’re at a place, they’re like, you know, they’ll either literally say con frijoles or they’ll say cacheteados, and they’re cacheteado. And they taste better. You know, I feel like it adds a creaminess for sure, you know, if your like the refried beans.
David Brown: That’s the expert talking and you can catch up on all of the words that you need to know to taste the best tacos at tacos of Texas dot com. Mondo Ryo is co-author of the book on Texas tacos, Tacos of Texas. Good to see you again Mondo.
Mando Rayo: All right, we’ll see you next time. You can find tacos of Texas on KUT.org or wherever you get your podcasts.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
