The Truth about Tacos

A talk about Authenticity + Tacos from TacoConf 2012

Transcript

1. the truth about tacos Fucking TacoConf / Oakland 2012 Aaron Quint - @aq
2. By day CTO of Paperless post
3. By Night Obsessive amateur chef
4. of _any_ kind No formal training
5. Graduated with a BA in Art History No computer science degree
6. Well, my wife gifted a knife skills class once. Best. Gift. Ever. No culinary training
7. Thats how I do. 100% Self taught
8. Feel free to call me on my bullshit. In other words
9. The Keynote. JSConf 2010
11. Crafts. Programing & Cooking
12. Similarities are endless
13. Draw your own connections. This is a talk about food & cooking.
14. Bacon WAS JUST THE BEGINNING
15. Pastrami
16. House special chicken
17. Cheese
18. TACOS
19. and possibly make you hungry I’m here to make you think
20. aka what is authentic food What is authenticity in food
21. Authentic?
22. taco authenticity
23. taco authenticity • The maker (Mexican vs. _)
24. taco authenticity • The maker (Mexican vs. _) • The ingredients (Home made vs. Store bought)
25. taco authenticity • The maker (Mexican vs. _) • The ingredients (Home made vs. Store bought) • The venue (24th St. vs Six Flags)
26. taco authenticity • The maker (Mexican vs. _) • The ingredients (Home made vs. Store bought) • The venue (24th St. vs Six Flags) • The style (2 soft tortillas vs 1 hard shell)
28. #71
29. Being the only white person around #71
30. StuffWhitePeopleLike.com [It] is important that you fully understand how white people view authenticity and experience. In most situations, white people are very comforted by seeing their own kind. However, when they are eating at a new ethnic restaurant or traveling to a foreign nation, nothing spoils their fun more than seeing another white person.
33. Not Sagan Sartre
34. Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness ... To be is to be ones own possibilities, that is to make oneself be.
35. Pure truth of self vs Hiding truth from ones self Authenticity vs bad faith
36. But what truth? Authenticity ~ Truth
37. Experience as in being, as in experiences, not expertise We assume truth comes from experience
39. MExicans Make tacos
40. MExicans Make tacos Jews Make Pastrami
41. MExicans Make tacos Jews Make Pastrami Italians Make Pizza
42. MExicans Make tacos Jews Make Pastrami Italians Make Pizza Kansans Make Ribs
43. MExicans Make tacos Jews Make Pastrami Italians Make Pizza Kansans Make Ribs Women Be Shoppin
44. But I love bacon . . . Is it my own experiences as a jew that draw me to pastrami?
45. Do you think jews didn’t want to eat pork?
47. Look at all the fucks I give
48. As in don’t get tricked-into-sick rotten pork in a fucking desert trichinosis
49. Make do. Truth is adaptation.
54. =>
55. =>
56. The culmination of n meals in a specific time and place Cuisine is a story
64. A delicious religion authentic food as an oral tradition
65. we can worship at the altars of authentic food
66. Is my bacon for real? But then are we authentic
67. Yes.
68. Todd Kliman, The Lucky Peach The more I think about it, the more I think authenticity is nothing more than a matter of the angle from which you choose to look. A purely arbitrary, purely subjective surmise of a purely impure thing.
69. AKA The Chipotle Conundrum is every taco authentic?
70. It depends is not a good enough answer.
71. Is it truthful in its self? Is that taco everything it can be?
72. Is it the best taco you’ve ever had? Does it taste good?
73. It is beautiful. Then it is true. It is authentic.
74. http://twitter.com/aq http://github.com/quirkey http://www.quirkey.com http://dev.paperlesspost.com Thanks!