I went north yesterday to the Tacos Festival in Orange Walk to find out about the magic ingredient that makes tacos in the northern town so sought after:..

Monica Bodden reporting
On Sunday the atmosphere at Banquitas was buzzing with activities - as these tacos vendors lined off and prepared some of the most finger licking tacos for the crowd.

It was all competition and everyone brought out their best tacos recipes for the 2nd annual Tacos Festival.

Orange Walk Tacos Vendor
"The beef and the pork is separated but if you want it together you can get it because there are some people who want it mix; beef and pork together - no problem."

"I have my place at the central park in Orange Walk. In the day my son works and in the night I work. When I prepare my meat I take a day; from morning about 2-3am I am finishing preparing all my meats."

Orange Walk Tacos Vendor
"This takes from 8 o' clock in the morning until today. This is cooked underground."

Reporter
"This goes in the ground from 8 o' clock yesterday morning and what time it was ready?"

Orange Walk Tacos Vendor
"At 6am."

Reporter
"How do people respond to this kind of tacos?"

Orange Walk Tacos Vendor
"I haven't got any negative comment. Everything is positive; I am doing this for one year. Thank God for that and thank the public that supports me."

Orange Walk Tacos Vendor
"It's chicken tacos that we are preparing right here."

Reporter
"Tell us a little bit about the preparation of this - to get the meat together and all the seasonings and everything?"

Orange Walk Tacos Vendor
"It goes through the process of the work right here."

Reporter
"Where can they find you in Orange Walk?"

Orange Walk Tacos Vendor
"We are located Chitos. Last year we didn't come, but this year we came."

Orange Walk Tacos Vendor
"It's a very unique recipe. My mom has been selling tacos from since I was in Standard one. It's more than 20 years serving the community. She is a person that although she has helpers home, she is always involved in the process. She doesn't let anyone do her meat - she does it with a lot of love. She puts a lot of interest into her meat process - it's a very tedious process because it is cook more than 3 times; the first time they put it to cook with its ingredients and then they would separate the juice from the meat and they would take out all the bones and as you would imagine she cooks about 100 pounds a day - so it's a lot of work."

"After that, they bring it down and they separate the juice, they take out the bones and they cook it with other ingredients and then in the morning they would heat it again so that it's nice and warm for the morning breakfast."

Orange Walk Tacos Vendor
"It's a lot of work. They have to make the hole in the ground and then they bury the pig with fire under the ground."

Reporter
"How long does the process take after you put down the meat in the ground?"

Orange Walk Tacos Vendor
"We take about 6 hours approximately."

Reporter
"I see that you are making tortillas as well. Is that a special way of serving the pibil as well?"

Orange Walk Tacos Vendor
"It tastes much better with that."

Orange Walk Tacos Vendor
"First we take the corn, then we cook it for an hour, then we grind it until it is smooth, then it is ready to make corn tortillas."

"This is a pot of sweet pumpkin. Two day before we put it in the pot we put a lot of brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla for taste. When it is this color, it is ready to eat."

"This is deer meat; we make it like that so that it would last for a long time - the smoke and the salt make it lasts for one year."

In the end there could only be one winner who took home the title of Best Tacos of the Year 2012-2013.

Dillon Jones - Coordinator
"Excellent, I must say. We can't complain. The tacos people came out - the pibil tacos - everything sold out. I must say to my surprise I was happy to see people from all over the country here. I observed some license plates from Dangriga, San Ignacio, Belize City came out big time to support this event."

"We had the canoe race on the river. We are about to have the greasy pole in just a few. The other people you see out here are just artisans - we try to include everybody in this and we have artisans doing their little sale on the art product that they make. We have sack race for the kids, lime and spoon, we had the tacos eating competition; a good friend my Main Street won the best tasting tacos in the chicken section for the year 2012/2013, so the best tasting tacos - you could check him out right by the stop light on the Main Street near Scotia Bank. I am just so overwhelm with the support that we have gotten out here today. A lot of people enjoy themselves - everybody sold out. I think the objective has been met."

And while the Annual Tacos Festival aims at keeping culture alive, it also highlights the tacos business as an industry in Orange Walk Town.

Dillon Jones - Coordinator
"Basically the whole idea behind this is to; one, keep culture alive, it's a part of the Mestizo culture and most importantly what we want the rest of the country to know that this tacos business is an industry; so we are highlighting the people who are moving this industry. We are talking about the amount of chicken that is being used for the week, Habanero pepper that they make the sauce; onions, tortillas, corn and to forget the amount of people that are employed under this banner. More important is that we want people to recognize this as a serious industry in our country."

Monica Bodden
"You could tell us how many pounds of tacos are made in Orange Walk daily?"

Dillon Jones - Coordinator
"Honestly I wouldn't know, all I could say it's a whole lot."

Monica Bodden
"You could tell us how many tacos vendors are in Orange Walk?"

Dillon Jones - Coordinator
"I was asked that question before. All I can say that there are tacos vendors coming into Orange Walk and out of Orange Walk. There is a tacos vendor almost every two blocks in Orange Walk."

Monica Bodden
"I am sure you have your favorite tacos vendor Is she out here today?"

Dillon Jones - Coordinator
"Done gone already."

The Tacos Festival is an annual event at the Banquitas House of Culture.