The story
Lebanese immigrants who arrived in Mexico in the early 1900s brought the vertical spit used for shawarma. In Puebla, their descendants sold spit-roasted meat in wheat flatbreads as tacos árabes from around the 1930s. In Mexico City, taquerías adopted the spit but switched to pork marinated in chillies and achiote, served on small corn tortillas with onion, coriander and a slice of the pineapple roasting on top. The style took off in the 1960s; El Tizoncito, a taquería founded in 1966, says it invented the dish, a claim others dispute. Today it is the capital's signature late-night taco.
Rival claims
Puebla, about 110 km away, has a strong claim to the ancestor dish: Lebanese families there sold spit-roasted tacos árabes from the 1930s, and Wikipedia describes al pastor as originating in Puebla. Most food writers place the switch to adobo-marinated pork, corn tortillas and pineapple in Mexico City by the 1960s.
Also known as al pastor, tacos de trompo, pastor tacos.
On the Meridish menu
Tacos al pastor was the street food course on menu No. 1 on October 1, 2026. Its clue in the game, which hints at the place without naming it:
Pork carved off a vertical spit, a technique brought by Lebanese immigrants, topped with a sliver of pineapple.
In Meridish, every dish is pinned to the town or city most widely credited with creating it. A guess within 25 km scores all 100 points. How scoring works.
Sources
- mexiconewsdaily.com/lifestyle/food/state-by-plate-mexico-city-tacos-al-pastor
- mexiconewsdaily.com/mexico-living/mexicos-favorite-taco-has-immigrant-roots
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_pastor
Food history is often disputed. Think we've pinned it in the wrong place? Tell us at hello@meridish.com, ideally with a source.
