Tacos Fest in Orange Walk: A Culinary Celebration of Belize’s Beloved Delicacy

This weekend, the annual Tacos Fest is being held in Orange Walk Town. The culinary event celebrates one of the municipality’s most popular delicacies. On Sunday, cooks and vendors from across the northern districts will be making various types of tacos to tease tastebuds. We spoke with the event’s organizer, Robert Usher, about the fest and how it has grown over the years. 

Robert Usher, Tacos Fest Organizer: “What happened is, Orange Walk is the place that is known for tacos. You know, we know it as Sugar City as well, right? But it’s for the tacos. So the Tacos Fest, the initiative is to bring out the tacos vendors and get people from all around the district and across the country to come and savor the nice tacos at Orange Walk, because that’s where the nice tacos are there. And it happens this Sunday at the Fort Cairns Market Plaza in Orange Walk. That’s adjacent to the Orange Walk Town Council and from seven o’clock in the morning, and it’s free for all to come in, but not free to eat the tacos, right?”

Reporter: How has it grown over the years since the first fest was held and what has the reception been like over the years? 

Robert Usher, Tacos Fest Organizer: “When the first had the first one it was joined up with a canoe race as well but we had to move it from the previous venue because it has grown so big in the past years. So now it’s so big and I believe it’s a success and it’s something that should be on our calendar because everybody looks forward to it when they know that the Sunday after the 19th it’s the tacos fest and that’s this Sunday. It went all the way up to 30. We still have persons who are seeking space but we’ll try to work that out and see if we can get them. We have of course the chicken tacos, they have beef, they have the pibil, they have seafood tacos, and you know you could get it with pepper, without pepper, you choose who you want, and they kids have the kids style as well. And a highlight in the tacos fest, which is every year, we have a competition as well for the nice tasting tacos, and that’s for the chicken tacos. That’s a prize of $1,000, and that is donated by the honorable Kevin Bernard, which he does every year. We have people from all over the country that sponsor the event, and we want to say thank you to all of them.”

We also spoke to the owner of Taqueria Mi Amor, Gladys Vargas, about the preparations and why taco vendors like her continue to participate. 

Gladys Vargas, Tacos Vendor: “I’ve participated from the very beginning. For me, it’s fun. I love it. I love what I do. So for me, it’s a lot of fun. I get to share with my people. I get to see a lot of people that come from other places. It’s very good. And I get to show and people to taste what I have and after the Tacos Festival I get other new customers come in after they taste my tacos I get new customers and stuff like that. So it’s very good for me.”

Reporter: What are the preparations like I could imagine it’s hard work preparing to feed so many people. 

Gladys Vargas, Tacos Vendor: “Yeah, I mean if it’s something you love it’s gonna be work. But for me it won’t be like you know something that it will kill me It would be something that I love to do and I just do it no matter what.”

Reporter: I had the pleasure of tasting your tacos. They’re quite savory. What would you say makes your tacos stand out from maybe others in Orange Walk? 

Gladys Vargas, Tacos Vendor: “You know if you do something with with love, everything works out nice, but if you do it with bad ways you know it won’t be nice. So you have to do it. No matter if you’re mad at your husband, you gotta do it good. You gotta give it your best. You do it, if I eat it on a daily basis, I wouldn’t want other people to taste something that I don’t like so I try to do the best, the best I can. I have the same ingredients, I never change, the same amount of onions, the cabbage, I put everything. No matter if the price is up, you know, we still try to do our best and keep our standards the same way.”

The event will also feature an array of musical entertainment