KITCHEN PRACTICE 1 — A Full Build-Your-Own Taco Spread ================================================== Chapter: Mexican Cookery 10 — Capstone: A Build-Your-Own Taco Spread TASK ---- Prepare and serve a full build-your-own taco spread — filling, at least one salsa, garnishes, and lime prepared ahead, with tortillas made fresh and last — and let everyone assemble their own. WHAT TO DO ---------- 1. Prepare a simply seasoned protein filling, or a batch of ceviche (Chapter 9), and keep it warm or chilled as appropriate. 2. Make at least one salsa (Chapter 6's fried style, or a fresh raw one), and keep it ready at the table. 3. Dice onion and chop cilantro for garnish, and cut lime into wedges. 4. Once everything else is ready and guests are seated, press and cook a batch of fresh tortillas (Chapter 4), bringing them straight from the comal to the table while still warm. 5. Let everyone build their own tacos from the shared components. WHAT TO EXPECT -------------- - The tortillas should arrive noticeably warmer and more pliable than anything else on the table, since they were made last. - Different diners are likely to build genuinely different combinations — more or less salsa, different amounts of lime, different garnish choices — with no single "correct" version. - The meal should feel active and participatory in a way none of this Subject's other capstones were. WHY THIS WORKS AS AN ANSWER ---------------------------- This exercise is the direct, hands-on payoff of the entire course — assembling a genuine build-your-own Mexican meal from techniques built across all nine prior chapters, with the composing step itself deliberately left to each individual diner rather than the cook.