Q 01/05

Traditionally, a taco tortilla is made from which grain?

A) Sorghum

B) Rice

C) Corn

D) Barley

Answer · why

C) Corn

Corn: tortillas were traditionally made from nixtamalized maize ground into masa; wheat-flour tortillas are a later, Spanish-introduced habit.

Q 02/05

Aside from food, what does the Spanish word 'taco' also mean?

A) A folk song

B) A rowing boat

C) A wide-brimmed hat

D) A plug or wedge

Answer · why

D) A plug or wedge

The Real Academia Española lists wedge, wad, billiard cue, ramrod and even 'short, stocky person'.

Q 03/05

One popular theory says the culinary word 'taco' was coined by which Mexican workers?

A) Cattle drovers

B) Fishermen

C) Silver miners

D) Railway builders

Answer · why

C) Silver miners

Silver miners: the popular theory holds that 18th-century Mexican silver miners called their paper-wrapped gunpowder charges tacos, and the name passe...

Q 04/05

Before the Spanish arrived, what did people of the Valley of Mexico reportedly fill their tacos with?

A) Small fish

B) Turkey

C) Grasshoppers

D) Beans

Answer · why

A) Small fish

Small fish: anthropological evidence shows lake-region people of the Valley of Mexico folded tortillas around tiny fish; Bernal Díaz del Castillo late...

Q 05/05

Which region's local name for the taco was 'codzito'?

A) Yucatán and Quintana Roo

B) Sonora and Chihuahua

C) Jalisco and Michoacán

D) Oaxaca and Chiapas

Answer · why

A) Yucatán and Quintana Roo

Yucatán and Quintana Roo knew the rolled taco as a codzito; in Guanajuato and Michoacán the same snack was once called a burrito before 'taco' became ...