Oswald Tacos

Storytelling via Recipe by Neva

When I heard that the theme for this edition was “chaos” I spent about 20 minutes rifling through the catalogues in my brain trying to find something that would fit the bill. I don’t typically think of myself as chaotic. Of course, I’ve had a chaotic moment here and there. For example, there was the night my grandmother flew into town to celebrate my high school graduation, and instead of sitting down to a nice dinner and introducing her to my new boyfriend, I got arrested on the side of a highway in rural Kansas as I attempted to walk home from the lake drunk as a skunk off Natural Ice and Everclear, and my boyfriend almost totaled his car as he drove around trying to find me. There was the time my dad thought I’d been eaten by a bear on a camping trip, but I’d really just gone into the woods to have a secret phone conversation with a boy. There was the time I decided to spend 6 weeks at an eco-community in Hawaii without toilet paper or air conditioning, and abruptly ended my on-and-off-again 10-year relationship for a guy I’d just met about 4 days in. But those are isolated events. 

So here I was in Salina, Kansas at my grandma’s house, and I just couldn’t come up with anything I wanted to submit for this issue. So I thought to myself, “I’m going to let it go and trust that the right thing will come to me if it’s meant to be.” I puttered around for a while until I got hungry, and then took a gander over to her fridge to make myself some lunch. They’d had Oswald Tacos the night before, but I hadn’t had any, and they sounded good.

Now, Oswald Tacos (named after my great-grandma Oswald, who came up with the recipe) aren’t your typical tacos. You deep fry the corn tortillas, and only for a few seconds so they’re still soft and pliable. No salsa or sour cream. You don’t season the meat. And, you put ketchup on them. It is perhaps the most grotesque, glorious example of cross cultural fusion cuisine I can think of. It tastes nothing like tacos. I absolutely adore them.

So there I was, fingers greasy from the tortillas, a dollop of ketchup splattering down onto the plate. And I thought: this is it. This is, in its most perfect and undeniable form, chaos. And it must be shared with the world.

So here is the recipe for Oswald Tacos. It has been cherished by my family for generations. I couldn’t think of a more perfect a place to share it than at The Love Kitchen.

Oswald Tacos

serves 4

Ingredients:

• corn tortillas 

• vegetable oil or canola oil

• 1 pound ground beef

• shredded cheddar cheese

• shredded lettuce

• 1 onion, chopped (whatever type you have)

• ketchup

• Pepsi*

Directions:

For the meat:

Brown the ground beef in a skillet. Season with salt to taste. No taco seasoning allowed!

For the tortillas:

Heat about 1/2 of oil in a skillet over medium heat. Place a tortilla into the oil and cook for about 15 seconds, flipping with tongs. (You can do several at a time if you’re cool.) You want them to be cooked enough that they’re not raw, but still soft. Place on a plate lined with paper towels. 

For other ingredients:

Place onions, lettuce, and cheese into bowls and bring to the table. 

Assembly:

Once all the ingredients are on the table, assemble you tacos in the following order for optimal conditions: Tortilla, ketchup, meat, cheese, onion, lettuce.

Hint: you can use the handy acronym TKMCLO to help you remember!