Save the Date! Our First Ever Taco Fest Coming to Beijing May 20-21

Katie Coy, Managing Editor | Apr 19, 2023 5:30 pm | Add a comment | 476 reads

Coming hot on the heels of our 2023 Hot & Spicy Festival, we’re super excited to announce that our next event will be our FIRST EVER Taco Fest coming to the capital May 20-21 at Tiantongyuan Cultural Art Center (天通苑文化艺术中), just north of the Olympic Park and a mere 30 mins by subway from Liangmaqiao.

Tiantongyuan is one of the densest housing communities in all of Beijing, with over 300,000 residents. And our venue, the Tiantongyuan Cultural Art Center, is one of the trendiest social media spots in the city.

As with all our food festivals we’ll have numerous vendors serving up a whole range of delicious taco variations along with plenty of drinks to wash them all down with. The food and drinks will all be served up with a big ol' side of fun entertainment to enjoy throughout the weekend.

In our preparations for the event, we identified no fewer than 37 Beijing restaurants that serve tacos, a whole bunch more than we realized, and showing how trendy these wonderful little folds of deliciousness have become in the capital.

If you’re a purveyor of Mexican food or have some great tacos on your menu and are interested in joining us for the festival, contact Irene Yan via email: ireneyan@truerun.com for booth information, or ask TBJButler (WeChat ID:TBJButler) to connect you with her.

At the festival we will be celebrating one of Mexico’s most famous foods, but first things first what exactly defines a taco?

A taco is a traditional Mexican food that consists of a small wheat or corn based tortilla topped with a filling which is then folded and eaten by hand.

A number of different varieties of fillings are used such as pork, beef, chicken, seafood or vegetables which are then normally topped with condiments like salsa, guacamole, sour cream, and vegetables such chilies, tomatoes, onions lettuce. No matter how they're made, tacos have become one of the most popular forms of antojitos – Mexican street food – around the world.

So where did the taco originally come from?

Well, there are two theories concerning it's creation – the first posits that the taco was invented by Mexican silver miners in the 18th century as a quick meal. The second theory puts the taco's creation way back before the arrival of the Spanish in Mexico, when people were using tortillas to eat food, as a sort of proto-taco.

Whatever the taco’s origins, by the early 20th century tacos had spread throughout Mexico’s working class neighborhoods, soon becoming one of Mexico’s most popular street foods. Tacos were then brought to the US by Mexican migrants who moved to there to work on railroad construction in the southern states.

Then, of course, the taco spread all around the world, with a number of spots serving up tacos in their traditional form -- as well as some not so traditional tacos -- to be found here in Beijing. Filled with all kinds of fixings from beef, chicken, and pork to veggies, guac, beans, and every combination in between.

If you're down to try a whole bunch of tacos, then Taco Fest will be the place to do it! Be sure to save the date, May 20-21 and keep an eye out for more Taco Fest related news coming soon. Of course, the easiest way to make sure you don't miss a thing is to join our dedicated Taco Fans group, to join scan the QR code below.