Puffy tacos make their comeback in Fort Worth, along with a spicy controversy
Puffy tacos have made their comeback in Fort Worth, and a historic restaurant family wants to join in.
The Original Mexican Eats Cafe, 4713 Camp Bowie Blvd., sent shock waves through the city’s Tex-Mex fans this week by adding puffy tacos, in the familiar pillowy masa shells popularized here by two now-gone Fort Worth locations of Caro’s Restaurant, still open in Rio Grande City.
The new Lupe Tortilla, 9409 North Freeway, also serves puffy tacos, using a recipe from that restaurant’s Houston home base.
The Original’s version is a creation of 21-year kitchen manager Berta Miranda. She says she made them growing up in Villahermosa.
The tacos and chopped-jalapeno salsa verde are familiar to diners who remember them from the Fort Worth Caro’s, which was open from 1954 to 2011 on the Blue Bonnet Circle and also at a second location on Curzon Avenue.
The owner of the Original, Robert Self, said he has missed puffy tacos and found out Miranda could make them.
“One bite is like going back in time,” he said.
The tacos start with a ball of fried corn masa, fried and then bent slightly to hold beef or chicken.
“It’s a little bit hard to make, but I like making them,” Miranda said.
But the tacos are so familiar that Mary Margaret Whitten Moseley, a descendant of the Caro family, took umbrage on Facebook.
““The Whitten/Caro family brought puffy tacos to Fort Worth from Rio Grande City more then 60 years ago ... You are blatantly serving the green sauce we were famous for now as well. Caro’s will be back, and we will be serving our puffy chips and tacos and our delicious nachos as well!”
Depending whom you believe, puffy tacos were originated either by the Caro family in Rio Grande City or by Ray’s Drive Inn in San Antonio.
(These are not the same as the bowl-like “puffed tacos” sold by some Tex-Mex restaurants.)
The Original is open daily except Mondays at 4713 Camp Bowie Blvd.; 817-738-6226, originalmexicaneatscafe.com.
