"Never judge a taco by its price"

It was Hunter Thompson who once said, "never judge a taco by its price," and how true it is. And why shouldn't he be right? He did after all speak some spanish, resided in California and several Latin countries, and generally followed the beat tradition of traveling for the purpose of experience. A smart dude, he knew what a good taco is, and so his words hold true to this day from here to Mexico city and beyond.

Too often the more expensive taco ends up being a disappointment, but not always, that is for certain, so how can this be? What are the factors involved? If we compare a few spots we can perhaps recon out the pricing of this town. To start with, two spots on Hawthorne that i recently went to for the sake of this project, La Palapa and ?Por que no?, both offer 3$ tacos, the most expensive around. That would still be a tolerable price if they served up something special, but sadly neither are anything nearing special.

La Palapa has the for-mentioned al pastor rotisserie, many folks made me aware of this as I have mentioned it so often . Sadly though the rotisserie must be utilised correctly, the meat was larger than if it had not been on the rotator, the pasilla marinade was weak, the salsa was tomato sauce, the asada was even kind of under salted.

Por que no? I will tell you porque no, i had to wait almost a damn hour for food which was cold when it arrived, nothing was worth the wait or the price, and the salsa sucked, that is porque no!There is always a line when i go by, which i found after going is due to slow service rather than popularity; There were at least 9 people working and only 5 people in front of me and it felt like even the line took forever. I thought a line was for in front of the club, but whatever, I'm just saying that they could do more business is all; perhaps at three dollars a taco they are doing alright either way.

These two spots are over priced as they are on Hawthorne. Rent is simply higher and so prices are also. More traffic simply means more business and therefore less incentive to be competitive through pricing, quality or service alike, same as any tourist destination; location is key and nothing else. If you have enough new comers every day despite high prices/bad service, why not raise them? Why treat them well if you don't rely on them coming back? or if they can't tell the difference and return regaurdless? The quality and the service go the same way, caught in a downward spiral. Only personal standards of the owner/chef will keep a place on the level, being that social standards have failed food here and now.

Moving on to another expensive taqueria, 4 caminos in Vancouver, one of my favorites that I have mentioned before. Tacos cost between 2.35-2.75$ but in this case they are worth the expenditure, and further more location is not a factor of high price over on 4th plain to say the least. I spoke with the owner one day and he told me that they get their beef from local farms and that it is the best around. He also mentioned that the main chef was from Mexico city, that he himself didn't know how to make tacos and had specially hired this chef for this paticular reason. Two more factors which affect price are at work here, quality ingredients and a better chef, and i for one am perfectly willing to pay the price for such things. The prices are a bit higher in price but calculated out in an honest fashion, well worth the price in comparison with others around. (The salsa is also good and picante. It would help if you spoke some Spanish.)

Another example is one of my favorite al pastor+ places in Cordoba, Veracruz which charges about 1.20$ for an order of five of the greatest tacos known to man, amazing! Other places around may charge two or three times this for the same reasons of location or the quality, and once again quality does not always correlate with price, the more expensive sometimes great and other times not, though they are all top notch down there. Greater fluctuation in real estate prices down there cause prices to do the same; i wouldn't expect to find a taco for less than 1-1.25 in Portland.

Location is a main difference in this case, but there are several factors involved still. In Mexico, poverty is reason for quite a number of things including competitive pricing. People are simply more aware of prices and what things can be acquired for right around the corner. An element of haggling still exists in some local "mercados", and where it doesn't, prices are fixed by all those selling the same product, thus creating a price which is the lowest and therefore the local standard of what things "should" cost. Naturally there are large modern stores which sell the same products for hugely inflated prices, though many upper and middle class people still shop at the open air markets as the prices are so noticeable. Labor is cheap and so a person rich enough will still send a servant to the market and save a great deal against the wage paid, keeping prices down for people and product alike. Cheap labor also means higher work ethic due to more competition for jobs and customers, you can't afford to slip as an employee or a business; you can be fired and rehired as a worker, and customers can easily go elsewhere. Intensive for everyone alike.To be a substandard taqueria in mexico city is not to go far and this ties in with the cultural strength of a region or epicenter itself. Your traditional dish had better be something if it is to stand out amongst so many others of the same kind, so more motivation is found still to raise the bar. Factors which are not found so much here, perhaps one could make an occasional argument but there are few which are definitive.

So anyway the point is to try all the tacos and don't get to hung up on price alone. Good luck with your adventures!