So it started with my friend Maffy, who is from Canuckistan, posting the following plea for help:

Maffy:

Cannot WRAP her head around the mechanics of Mexican food especially the popularized dishes in North America: It falls apart the moment you bite into it, and things just drop into the plate completely scattered into a blob of chaos, but no big bang to bring it back to an orderly form. So um... am I doing this wrong? O_O I mean I always end up deconstructing it, and eating the wrap last.

(This was accompanied by a video illustrating her attempt at constructing a taco, which then got the better of her when she tried to eat it.)

Sam:

‎1) Filling/tortilla ratio is way too high if you want to do this without spillage and have it be easy.
2) You can reduce spillage in this scenario by holding the taco with two hands, keeping the edges clamped shut to keep any meat from escaping between them. Also, think of it as being less like a hot dog (vertically oriented) and more like a burger (horizontally oriented).

Personally, I see nothing wrong with overstuffing a taco, eating it over a plate (expecting that half of it will fall out), and then finishing the remains with a fork. I prefer the higher meat ratio; you just have to accept some messiness as the price of doing business that way.

Maffy: It's SOOOO MESSY! That's the problem

Sam: Don't hold the taco like you're scared of it. It can smell your fear. The next time I go out for street tacos, I'll get whomever I'm with to shoot some video.

And so I did.