Look at that enchilada lunch combo in the large oval platter that the waiter just slid in front of your hungry eyes. Where did it come from? Your dreams? The restaurant kitchen? Neither. I mean where did it really come from. Not the actual physical food, but its soul.
Mexico? Nope. America? Nope. Mexico and America? Closer, but still Nope. Though Tex-Mex may be by name a Mexican-American cuisine, it is more accurately a Mexican-Anglo/American-Spanish-Indian cuisine.
Tex-Mex selects ingredients from each of these food cultures on the condition that they are common and affordable. Tex-Mex is inherently not an "elite" cuisine. No exotic components or expensive additives. Many of the originators of the cuisine were Mexican immigrants or descendants of these immigrants and could only afford lower priced food. Tex-Mex has often been described as a mix of Northern Mexican peasant fare and Texas rancher food. The food just had to fill the stomach and taste decently well. Evidently, this goal was reached as we can see from the wide-spread popularity of the cuisine today.
Mexico? Nope. America? Nope. Mexico and America? Closer, but still Nope. Though Tex-Mex may be by name a Mexican-American cuisine, it is more accurately a Mexican-Anglo/American-Spanish-Indian cuisine.
Tex-Mex selects ingredients from each of these food cultures on the condition that they are common and affordable. Tex-Mex is inherently not an "elite" cuisine. No exotic components or expensive additives. Many of the originators of the cuisine were Mexican immigrants or descendants of these immigrants and could only afford lower priced food. Tex-Mex has often been described as a mix of Northern Mexican peasant fare and Texas rancher food. The food just had to fill the stomach and taste decently well. Evidently, this goal was reached as we can see from the wide-spread popularity of the cuisine today.
The Melting Pot of Tex-Mex:
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| Enchiladas |
This one is quite obvious. Mexican food, of course, is the half of the basic foundation for Tex-Mex. Some dishes may be more Texan than Mexican and others more Mexican than Texan, but every Tex-Mex dish served is somehow based around a traditional Mexican one. A common and very direct example would be our enchilada lunch combo mentioned above. Tex-Mex enchiladas mainly differ from Mexican ones through the use of flour tortillas instead of corn tortillas to wrap the insides. Some more subtle differences may come through the sauces used; Mexican enchiladas rely more heavily on hotter chili pepper sauces. (For more information on differences between Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisine: Mex or Tex-Mex)
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| Chili con carne |
Texan Influences: The other half of the basic Tex-Mex foundation. Many dishes that are more Texan than Mexican add in American ingredients that are not typically used in traditional Mexican fare, such as shredded cheese. Additionally, many of these foods put a heavier emphasis on meat than seen in Mexico, a trait attributed to American influence.
A typical example leaning towards the Texan side of Tex-Mex is Chili con carne (or just known as chili), a spicy stew with chili, meat, beans, tomatoes and various toppings such as shredded cheese, garlic, or onions.
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Quinoa salad with cumin |
Indian Influences: The most prominent influence from Indian cuisine is Tex-Mex's use of cumin, an aromatic plant-grown spice native to India. Cumin appears quite often in Tex-Mex dishes and is used abundantly when it does.
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| Cumin |
Spanish Influences: An interesting note: though native to India, cumin was actually brought over to the Americas by Canary Islander immigrants in the 1700's and later integrated into Tex-Mex. The Canary Islands form a Spanish archipelago off of Morocco.
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| Spanish rice |
Many other Spanish influences are contributed indirectly through the traits of traditional Mexican cuisine that derived from the Spanish. The main examples are the heavy use of cheese and meat, along with the technique of frying in pork fat.
Truly Tex-Mex
Most Tex-Mex dishes closely resemble other traditional dishes that were already in existence. However, there are a few that are completely Tex-Mex creations. These are the concoctions without a specific model dish that were made specifically to cater to American tastes while maintaining Mexican style, image, and use of ingredients.
Another true Tex-Mex dish is a snack that we all know: nachos. The nacho was created around the 1940's by a man named Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya. The story goes that Anaya, working in a restaurant in the city of Piedras Negras, Mexico, was visited by a couple of U.S. army wives who were visiting the city.* However, this was after closing time and Anaya quickly had to make a dish with the only things he had available: tortillas. He cut the corn tortillas into small pieces, heated them, then served with cheese and jalapenos...and the first nachos came to be.
Nachos may have been created in Mexico, but the dish perfectly represents the essence of the Tex-Mex: a totally new, unprecedented breed of food based off Mexican fare and specifically targeting Americans. You don't get much more Tex-Mex than that.
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*Piedras Negras is a town just over the border from Eagle Pass, Texas where many U.S. soldiers were stationed in Fort Duncan.
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