Tex-Mex is a much-maligned cuisine. All I hear are sneers. “It’s unhealthy.” “It’s inauthentic.” “It’s got too much cheese.”
Well, get over yourselves, Californians.
Seriously, “unhealthy”? Hate you taken a look at those deep-fried tacos you can’t stop wolfing down at Tito’s Tacos? Because those things aren’t just loaded with fat. They’re a disgusting mess.
“Inauthentic.” Huh? It’s regionally authentic. You’re just used to food from a different region. And apparently you don’t realize that authentic food is based on local ingredients–which is funny, considering how obsessed you are with living La Vida Locavore. Hopefully local ingredients explain your own obsession with red onions. (Why are they in everything? Please tell me, and then explain why you’d want them to be.)
“Too much cheese.” Pretty big talk for the state that pays good money to brag about its happy cows.
So cry me a river, and pass the fajitas. Which, by the way, are from Texas.
I’m with you, friend. I was a Mexican food snob when I first moved here, but now I sing the glories of Tomatillo’s and Taco Cabana.
If y’all ever come out to SA, I’ll fix you a fajita feast and a pitcher of margaritas. (Even J. might like one of my margaritas.)
San Antonio restaurants I miss: El Jarro de Arturo, Alamo Cafe, and, most of all, Casarita (love their pico de gallo!)
Those are three of my favorites, too. El Jarro, especially, is always a delight. But my all-time local favorite is Paloma Blanca down on Broadway. Best tomatillo chicken enchiladas in the world.
Some day we’ll get back to San Antonio for a visit–and when we do, we’ll have to eat there!
What I love about Tex-Mex is how there isn’t even one single Tex-Mex–there are variations upon variations. For example, in Austin you get lots more tomatillos and black beans. In Fort Worth, pinto beans are more common, as is lots and lots of cheese.
I miss good Tex-Mex, too. Especially Nuevo Leon in Austin (in its former incarnation, when it was in a small house on the East Side and I used to sit outside on the side patio and drink margaritas while sweating onto the cheap plastic chairs). Guero’s was pretty fabulous, too. Not so many choices here in the Finger Lakes…