What an interesting bit of foolishness, the hotter the food, the more
authentically Mexican it is?
I grew up on 'merican food. My mother's idea of Mexican food was a crisp
u-shaped tortilla, ground beef, cheddar cheese. shredded iceberg lettuce
and XLNT or Rosarita taco sauce. Not a bad thing to eat, if you don't
know any better, but essentially unrelated to anything I have ever eaten
in Mexico. Next I learned to love Cal-Mex (which may be NorCal-Mex?), a
very specific genre that still echos in many Mexican restaurants around
here. Then I traveled around the US a bit and discovered that 'Mexican'
food varies enormously regionally.
Then I hooked up with and later married a half Mexican woman born in
Mexico city and did some traveling in Mexico and eating in homes of
family, not just restaurants. Then I did the financial projection work
for a joint venture there (still going strong 20+ years later) and spent
even more time there. Here some personal observations:
Tex-Mex food may have started as the food of the adjoining Northeren
States of Mexico, but long ago went its own separate way.
Like US invented chop suey, many dishes we tend to think of as Mexican
here in the US are of US origin. I had my first nachos in Houston. Very
elegant little appetizers with carefully arranged bits of food on each
separate chip, totally different from the ballpark and bar food of
today. Burritos are likewise of US origin, although I don't know what
part of the SW they originally came from. In both cases, the first time
I could find either in Mexico was in a restaurant that catered to
tourists in Mazatlan. When I asked, they said they had had to learn to
make them to accomodate their foreign customers.
Those big luscious, juicy, runny tacos with gobs of filling in 2
tortillas (still corn so far!) that we can get in many Hispanic
neighborhoods around here are magic food, but vastly different from the
tacos I found in some areas of Mexico, where the tortillas are small and
flat, with modest fillings of only one ingredient per taco on top. And
insead of the same old few possible fillings of meats and beans, they
have lovely things like sauted hongos, grilled rajas, and many other
savory treats. Lots of different little bites (related to Spanish
Tapas?) instead of one big mess. Fortunately, we have a restaurant here
that is closer to that tradition, too. Still don't know where to find
good chillaquilles for breakfast withough travelling too far and the
machaca is not like in Jalisco.
Mexican food is highly regional, although becoming less so recently. The
use of lots of hot chiles is not typical of all, or I suspect, even a
majority, of regional foods. I remember when I took my 10 year old whom
I had just repossesed from my first wife to Mexico. His reaction to the
first course of his first meal in Mexico, "This isn't Mexican food".
This was the food of my wife's grandmother, from a very old Guadalajara
family tradition. Of course, he could be expected to be surprised by a
lovely, delicate squash soup with squash blossoms floating in it. Sure,
a lot of Mexican food in Mexico is hot, but that is far from what it is
all about. Huachinango Veracruzana, Carne Asada Tampiquena, Enchiladas
Suizas and many other classic dishes have either no chiles or only mild
ones. There are so many wonderful flavors in the many varieties of
chiles besides just picante/enchiloso/hot. Ceviche made too hot just
ruins the subtle flavor of the fish.
I was in Mexico many times over many years and the only time I saw a
wheat tortilla was in Enchiladas Suizas. And I was in the supermarket
business, so I saw lots of food businesses and talked endlessly about
food while putting together that joint venture. Suddenly, everywhere I
go in the US, and even in the hotel restaurant in Cabo in Dec., the
tortillas are all wheat. That just ain't Mex-Mex.
End of Rant
Alce
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