Long before Los Angeles' food truck fetish with Asian-fusion tacos, Pueblans had already traveled down that road.There are many incorrect stories about the Lebanese influence in the taco arabe, or arab tacos, but actually the original creators of these Pueblan curiosities were of Iraqi descent.
It was in 1933, that the Tabe Mena family first served what is now known as the taco arabe, an adaption of the Greek gyros sandwich, which lept from lamb and a yogurt or tahini sauce to pork loin and chipotle. Other families of Iraqi heritage dispute the Tabe Mena family's claim, but the Tabe Mena family maintains that their grandfather Jorge Mena, who had fled the Turkish invasion of Iraq in the late 1800's, was the first to set up shop.
The Tabe family is still behind the spit of one of the largest tacos arabes chains in Puebla, Antigua Taqueria La Oriental. There are currently over 300 taquerias in the city of Puebla that produce this iconic taste of Pueblan cuisine.
Read the entire article and review of Antigua Taqueria La Oriental on Street Gourmet LA
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