National Taco Day 2025

Since I started my blog in 2018, I have shared a post related to tacos every October 4, marked as National Taco Day in the US and Canada.  Click on the highlighted year numbers to visit my Taco Day posts  from 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.

This year, I am sharing a few photos from a taco meal during a recent visit to Leamington, Ontario, known amongst other things, for its extensive farming, and its vibrant Hispanic communities, which has supported the establishment of  stores with Hispanic products and services, and more specifically, businesses catering to the Mexican population:

My husband and I decided to have lunch at Taquería Ajúa (25 Erie St S):

They offered authentic salsas and even the salt was in one of those classic plastic shakers, ubiquitous to taco stands and small restaurants in Mexico:

My husband’s order was chicken and carnitas tacos:

My order was way more adventurous, consisting of tripe tacos (left) and tongue (right):

Each portion had a good amount of protein, and a mountain of cilantro and chopped onion, the classic Mexican taco stand way.  We had Jarritos™ and horchata with our meal, and it was all around a very satisfying experience, I think we will be back for sure.

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 Leamington boasts the largest concentration of commercial greenhouses in all of North America (photo below, left), and is amongst the country’s top producers of peppers, cucumbers, flowers, and more recently, cannabis.  This offers plenty of opportunities for seasonal workers to find jobs in the region; for migrant workers, mostly from Central America and Mexico, it is done through the government of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program.  Leamington is a municipality by the Northern shore of Lake Erie, incorporated as a township in 1876, less than a decade after the Canadian Federation formed in 1867; back then, Leamington was a centre for lumbering, and tobacco plantations.  In 1908, Heinz™ opened a processing plant (photo below, centre), and tomato crops started to take over the region.  By the mid 1960s, the company had partially sponsored the construction of a giant tomato booth for tourist information (photo below, right, click on each image to enlarge):

Shortly Leamington became known as the Tomato Capital of Canada.  When Heinz left the town in 2013, Sam Diab formed Highbury Canco with other two partners in the region, managing to negotiate contracts with Heinz, and continuing production of tomato and other local vegetable products.

We went to one great local butcher (Ordoñez Butcher Shop , 128 Erie St. South) for some Mexican style cuts:

I also saw frozen whole beef tongue, so I got a piece. Stay tuned for my experience cooking this unique cut, and my recipe for beef tongue tacos, hopefully as delicious as the one I had in Leamington: 

Happy National Taco Day!