The internet is full of fabulous facts about everything from current events to the history basket weaving. Because of this, as we research for our daily content on food trucks, food carts and street food, we stumble upon some items of knowledge that we just did not know. We have decided when these fun facts pop up, that we would share them with our readers in our section titled “Did You Know?”

For today’s DYK fun food facts we will look at Tacos.

The Facts: While the word “taco” literally translates to “plug” or “wad” a small hole, it also translates to “light lunch” in Mexican Spanish.  Tacos may have a bit of an oddly-derived name, but they’ve been around the block. It predates the Europeans in Mexico and was discovered to be the food of choice by the indigenous folk in the Valley of Mexico. Obviously the Spanish wanted to stake their claim on such fine fare, and dubbed them “tacos.”

• Taco Bell started as Bell’s Hamburgers and Hot Dogs in San Bernardino, CA back in 1950 by Glen W. Bell Jr.. Bell’s Hamburgers and Hot Dogs began as a hamburger stand selling fast foods such as burgers, hot dogs, fries, and shakes. Then, taking advantage that his stand was located in a Hispanic neighborhood, Bell started selling crispy-hard-shell tacos at 19 cents each.
• October 3rd is National Taco Day.
• Taco Bell uses at least 600,000 cows’ worth of beef per year. According to Taco Bell’s own website, they serve an average of 295 million pounds of ground beef every year.
• A “Taquería” is a Spanish word meaning taco shop. Originally, the term “taqueria” was used to refer to street vendors, although the term has come to be used more generally to refer to any sort of establishment which serves authentic Mexican food, like ours.