Французские тако стали самой популярной фастфуд-едой в стране, вытеснив гамбургеры и кебабы

If you walk the streets of any French city or large town, you will likely stumble upon a fast-food restaurant called O'Tacos. But if you are expecting to be able to order a delicious Mexican al pastor taco with salsa verde, you will find yourself disappointed or confused. French tacos (always spelled in the plural) are a popular and distinct fast food in France, often decried by health experts as highly caloric - an average French tacos clocks in at about 1,348 calories, and an XXL can run up to 2,300, above the recommended daily total caloric intake for an adult woman. (Like most horribly calorific foods, they're completely delicious). Pourquoi le french tacos est une bombe calorique et un piège addictif pour nos ados ➡️ https://t.co/Lvzv4F1rRX pic.twitter.com/Y2zu6DaCjI What many imagine when thinking of a taco is the traditional Mexican food which consists of a small corn or wheat tortilla filled with meat, beans and/or vegetables, topped with condiments like salsa or guacamole. In contrast, the French taco is a flour tortilla filled with meat, sauce, and French fries, folded together and grilled to build a panini-burrito-kebab mélange. You can add plenty of other ingredients inside too - from cheese to turkey bacon. Most French tacos are halal-certified to accommodate Muslim customers, so do not contain pork. The biggest chain is the strangely named O'Tacos - France is home to 300 O'Tacos restaurants - an amount that has doubled in the last five years, as French tacos continue to pick up popularity among the youth. But you are not limited to O'Tacos for your French taco needs - plenty of smaller fast-food shops and chains across the country, particularly those selling kebabs and those that remain open late into the night - offer French tacos too. The origins of French tacos There are various claims regarding the origins of French tacos - or whether there is a single inventor of the fast food at all - but many point to the diverse suburbs of France's gastronomy capital, Lyon. In a documentary by Bastien Gens, titled 'Tacos Origins', claimed that French fast food was created toward the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s in Lyon suburbs of Villeurbanne and Vaulx-en-Velin. According to Collins, the "earliest innovators of the French tacos were probably snack proprietors of North African descent in the Lyonnais suburbs. However, some claim that the concept originated in Grenoble first, which is also the site of the first O'Tacos restaurant, opened in 2007 by a former construction worker, Patrick Pelonero, who told Collins he had never visited Mexico but simply enjoyed eating French tacos on his lunch breaks. Lyon is certainly leaning into its claim, with a smaller chain named 'French tacos à la lyonnaise' (Lyon-style French tacos). This caused some trouble when one opened in Saint-Etienne - a town near to Lyon that is engaged in a serious sporting rivalry. Like, Lyon vs Saint-Étienne is one of France's biggest football rivalries, so opening French Tacos, Lyon Style in Saint-Étienne was… a choice, mon ami. Anyway, his windows have been spat on and he's had Death To Lyon stickers stuck on them. [image or embed] Tacos' popularity One thing is certain - French tacos, typically priced around €5.50 are distinctly French. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Loïc Bienassis, a member of the European Institute of Food History and Cultures, said that: "For decades, France has been an inherently urban, industrial, and culturally diverse country. The French taco is a mutant product of this country. It is its own national junk food." In the past few years, French tacos' popularity has spread beyond the l'Hexagone - to Morocco, Belgium and even the United States, while O'Tacos is rapidly spreading through Europe. The sandwich has become so trendy in France that some even refer to traditional Mexican tacos as a "taco mexicain" to differentiate between the two. In 2021, over 80 million French tacos were consumed in France, making it more popular than the hamburger and the kebab. In the same year, French youth also took to social media, joining in an O'Tacos challenge #Gigatacos. The goal was to consume a giant French tacos, weighing in at 2kg. Anyone who succeeded would be automatically refunded. Videos of the challenge coursed through French social media networks, with several million views. While France is known for its classic cuisine, which relies heavily on fresh ingredients, the country also has a history of loving fast food, so it may come as little surprise that it would invent its own highly caloric dish. As of 2019, France was home to the second biggest market for McDonald's per head of population after the United States. READ MORE: Krispy Kreme, Popeyes, Five Guys: the American fast-food chains taking on France