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Think Inside the Bun: How to Make Your Own Taco Bell Cemita
MAX FALKOWITZ
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[Photographs: Vicky Wasik]

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When it comes to understanding corporate America, we're used to reading between the lines. Companies lie. They write inscrutable mission statements to obscure their true intentions. They distract us with flashy PR projects. They communicate in a doublespeak so thick that they rob words of their meaning.

So it's always refreshing when a company bureaucrat talks straight with us commoners. Take Taco Bell's CEO Brian Niccol, who did a marvelous, must-read interview with Grub Street where he shared the company's theory behind its increasingly stonerrific menu:

The reality is: I think millennials have really become more like foodies, and what they are looking for are foodie experiences in fast food. Now, some people may think a foodie experience is some fancy ingredient you can't pronounce. The millennials think that putting Cap'n Crunch into a new form is a foodie experience. Serving a Sriracha Quesarito is a foodie experience.

Stop what you're doing and read the full interview. It's 1,200 words of totally gonzo yet strangely forthright corporate communications.

Done? Okay, let's talk about Taco Bell. You can make fun of a hard-shell taco wrapped in a quesadilla, but if David Chang sold such a thing, people would line up for hours to try it. And when I came into the Serious Eats office with a shopping bag full of Taco Bell food, I had to fight off hungry, handsy coworkers who just couldn't help but sneak away some Crunchwrap Supreme. At 10 a.m.

It's strange, though, how a fast food menu that's inspired parody videos about endlessly recursive foodstuffs and redrawn mealtime taxonomies has never ventured into serving something as simple as a torta. Perhaps sandwiches aren't enough of a foodie experience for Mr. Niccol, or he's worried about venturing too far into McDonald's territory.

But we deserve some Taco Bell sandwiches to call our own. Fortunately, with a quick supply run to the grocery store, you can make that happen with the chain's very own menu.

Meet the Taco Bell Cemita.