Mex or Tex-Mex?

So is that Mexican food you're eating or Tex-Mex? Well, if you just obtained the food from any restaurant within the United States, it's probably Tex-Mex. But if you aren't sure, Tex-Mex has some distinctive differences from Mexican fare that you can watch out for.


Mexican Ingredients
The basic staples of Mexican cuisine are mainly composed of native foods and foods introduced from European influences (mostly Spain).
Prominent native foods include: chili, corn, squashes, beans, tomatoes, avocados.
Prominent European influences: heavy use of cheese and meats such as pork, beef, and chicken.

Mex or Tex-Mex


Wheat flour
Maize: One of the most major differences between the two cuisines is maize, which is a huge part of Mexican food; Tex-Mex is much less corn oriented. A classic example is the tortilla. In Tex-Mex, tortillas are made from ground wheat flour while Mexican tortillas are made from ground corn. While in Tex-Mex there is only one type of tortilla, in Mexican cuisine there are three types depending on the color of maize dough: white, yellow, and blue.

Mexican white cheese
Yellow cheese
Cheese: Both Tex-Mex and Mexican cuisine rely heavily on cheese. However, the types of cheeses used are generally pretty different. Mexican cuisine uses more white cheese, queso blanco, and barely any yellow cheese at all. Tex-Mex, on the other hand, mostly uses yellow cheese (e.g. cheddar), which was integrated into the cuisine because of the availability and cheapness in the U.S. Another distinction is actually the form of cheese used. Tex-Mex uses a considerable amount of shredded cheese (another American influence), which never appears in Mexican dishes. Melted, crumbled, sliced, but never shredded.

More meat, less heat
Quite an accurate maxim for comparing Tex-Mex to Mexican dishes.

ground pork
More meat: Both cuisines contain meat as an integral ingredient in many of their foods. However, Tex-Mex dishes are known to be more meat-packed, a trait that grew from American desire. Both cuisines use meat from domestic farmland animals, such as pork, beef, chicken, or sheep. Other than the quantitative difference, there are some subtle distinctions between how meat is used. Ground pork, ground beef, and really any type of ground meat leans toward the the Tex-Mex side, while it is used significantly less in Mexican dishes.

Chili peppers
"Less heat" Chili and other peppers are a long-standing and defining feature of Mexican cuisine, which has a reputation of being very spicy. However peppers are used not only for heat, but also flavor; Mexico is known for using one of the widest variety of chili. Pepper is added even to fruits and sweets. On the other hand, Tex-Mex takes its peppers a lot less seriously. Tex-Mex mostly only relies on jalapeno peppers, and the food overall is a lot less spicy. On the occasion that peppers are not used in a dish, Mexican cuisine will usually pull out the hot sauce. Gotta have that spice. Though you can also find hot sauce and peppers in Tex-Mex, the spiciness is much more toned down to fit the American taste.

Mole
Sauce: Mexican food sports a great variety of intricate sauces. Many Mexican dishes are identified more on what the sauces are and the peppers in the sauces rather than the meat or food it covers. Mole, adobo, or pipian are an example of such sauces. On the other hand, sauces do not play much of a role in identification of Tex-Mex dishes. In fact, the use of sauces in general is much less, and instead melted cheese is seen more often.

These are examples of some of the large encompassing differences, but Tex-Mex and Mexican food diverge in many other smaller ways. Take squashes. Commonly seen and eaten all over Mexican dishes but comparatively quite rare in Tex-Mex. The list above is by no means an exhaustive list of differences. Keep in mind that the objective of Tex-Mex is a hybrid cuisine purposefully intended to target American stomachs. That is the fundamental difference between the two cuisines, and why we can say that Tex-Mex is not wannabe Mexican food, but its own unique fare.



1 comment:

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