Even before FC Dallas took the field on Monday night for their first-round MLS playoff match — which started late and ended even later with a penalty-kick win — there was a buzz about the match that engaged the MLS community and even beyond.
However, it wasn't Jesus Ferreira, Emanuel Reynoso, or any of the other combatants for the hosts or their Minnesota United FC visitors generating the excitement.
It was a taco.
Specifically, the Monster Taco, an “everything’s bigger in Texas” style concoction that unites more than a pound of barbacoa with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream and hot sauce inside a crispy, fried flour shell.
The taco was first announced in February, when then-Executive Chef Rex Turner and General Manager Kristy Rempel with Legends culinary team at Toyota Stadium rolled it out as part of a set of new food options for fans coming to FC Dallas home games in the 2022 season.
The taco truly came of age Monday, when Fox’s cameras set upon an affable dude in the stands, wearing a hooded sweatshirt, taking a bite from a taco that was clearly larger than your average taco.
Fox Soccer’s tweet of the clip has gone wildly viral since, surpassing the 2 million mark in less than 48 hours after first being shared, and garnering additional attention from pundits and fans around the league, whose reactions ranged from delighted and widespread amusement to MLSSoccer.com’s Matt Doyle giving a flat, simple “no” reaction to the thought of eating such oversized food.
The best way to enjoy a @FCDallas game! 🌮 😃 pic.twitter.com/zd0fDrUlTa
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) October 18, 2022
(The taco later became a topic of debate on the MLS-produced ExtraTime podcast, with host Andrew Wiebe gleefully declared the Monster Taco to be the story of the first round.)
Who is the star of the #MLSCupPlayoffs so far? And why is it a giant taco?
— Andrew Wiebe (@andrew_wiebe) October 19, 2022
All the high-level, top-quality analysis you've come to expect from @Extratime! pic.twitter.com/kqTnqM9o8g
As FC Dallas spokesperson Gina Miller pointed out, the story has transcended the normal soccer bounds of stadium fare into full food curiosity, with TV stations in Los Angeles, Cleveland and Detroit among the media outlets around the nation that sought to feature the taco as Monday’s broadcast gave way to Taco Tuesday.
Miller is aiming for a live follow-up sometime during Sunday’s ESPN-televised match between Austin and Dallas, with visions of the Jon Champion, Taylor Twellman and Jillian Sakovits broadcast team tackling the taco on air during either a pre-game or halftime segment, and is in touch with the production team about bringing Frisco stadium food into Austin’s home stadium.
“They’ve got to eat this on TV,” she asserted, “because food and TV makes for good TV.”
Explained Rempel: “We do a lot of research in the offseason, checking out what all the other fans are eating and and what's new and local to the area. With some of the other venues around Dallas-Fort Worth, they have some of those big features and AT&T Stadium has the Super 16 burger and things like that.”
Said burger adds chopped barbecue to a fully-loaded hamburger that starts with a 16-ounce Black Angus patty.
“So we wanted our own ‘wow’ feature,” Rempel added, “and really got excited when we got to put this together.”
According to current Executive Chef Erika Dabney, the Legends crew makes a little more than 100 of the mammoth $16 tacos for each game, available at two separate food stands in the stadium, though they’re considering doubling the amount made should the stars align for FC Dallas to host at least one more playoff match this season.
Enthusiasm over the taco has Dabney and Rempel thinking about options like carnitas, brisket and more standard chicken and ground beef options for the Monster Taco in 2023.
While it theoretically can be split among and satisfy three to four people, Dabney and I agreed that much of the appeal of the video was that a single person was trying to take the taco down “food challenge-style,” and there are certainly customers — like the still-unknown fan, though the club is curious to know who it is — who aim to go it alone.
“I was super excited and surprised that the person that was actually eating the taco was handling it very well,” Dabney observed. “I have to say that was just a great experience to see it and see it being tweeted — it was super surreal and it was awesome. I mean, I did a happy dance after seeing it.”