How to eat a crunchy shell taco without having it explode on you

Crunchy shell tacos are delicious, but also challenging. They have a hair-trigger tendency to blow up when you bite them, causing the filling to spill out. Patrick Allan of Lifehacker has discovered the best way to improve your odds of having a happy taco experience.

Take your first bite at the end of the taco. I recommend the classic "taco neck" method. Then follow up with the next two smaller bites labeled above, making your way toward the center. Now, spin it around and repeat the process on the other side. Eventually you'll be left with two big bites in the center, and the shell should still be intact. Enjoy those last few moments of tasty taco bliss. Alternatively, if you take really big bites, you can replace 2 and 3 with just "2," replace 4 with "3," replace 5 and 6 with "4," and replace 7 and 8 with just "5."

We make tacos about once a week. One of our best purchases was a set of stainless steel taco holders.