Cinco de Mayo, as celebrated in the United States, shares some similarities to St. Patrick’s Day: a mainstream marketing blitz that evolved out of an authentic celebration of cultural heritage. The typical American Cinco de Mayo is a day of eating tacos and drinking margaritas. But, just as you won’t find corned beef and green beer in Ireland on St. Patrick’s Day, you won’t find ground beef tacos, nachos and frozen margaritas in Mexico on Cinco de Mayo.
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Instead of hard-shell tacos stuffed with ground beef and topped with iceberg lettuce and cheddar cheese — think Taco Bell, mis amigos — you’ll find lamb barbacoa that has been smoked underground in banana leaves, carnitas topped with queso fresco and pickled onions wrapped in a warm homemade corn tortilla or that oh-so-wonderful Mexican street corn.
So how will you celebrate Cinco de Mayo this year? Most likely it will be going to a Mexican restaurant, but if you decide to have a little fiesta of your own, try these soft tacos with pulled pork and pickled onions. You’ll need to pull out your slow cooker, put your sombrero on and get cooking. No need to dig a hole and find banana leaves for this recipe!
Whenever I make these, which is a couple of times a year for different occasions — not just Cinco de Mayo — I serve them with chips and guacamole.