Tex-Mex:
What's the best inducement to clerking in Texas? The food. As an exile from the great state of Texas (a Texile?), I can honestly say that I miss the Tex-Mex food more than anything else. I have never found authentic Tex-Mex outside of Texas, and certainly not in the Northeast. And, as the linked article explains, it really is an authentic American cuisine, not a corrupt form of Mexican food. (Hat tip to another law school blogger from Texas, Divine Angst.)
Once outside of Marsailles I found a purported Tex Mex restaraunt that offered "Tex Mex Spaggeti".
And in Amsterdam there was a horrific attempt at a combination Tex Mex/Cajun restaraunt.
Hint, nachos aren't made with Fetta cheese.
http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/
For those of you who travel, a couple more Mexican restaurant recommendations: (1) Javier's in Ogden, Utah -- the owner's son went to high school with me and is now a Big Law associate in NYC, great guy and great food; and (2) Rosa's in Tucson, AZ.
If any other Texans get wind of this thread, there will be 300 commenters here arguing about where the best BBQ is in Texas. The only other guaranteed mass traffic subject is Ron Paul.
ronnie dobbs
Just agree with whatever your wife says. It's all about peace and harmony. However, Texans know better than that.
Meh. Rosa's is just so-so, by my palate. You can get better Mexican food in joints on Prince Road.
However, I would say that the Rick Bayless restaurants in Chicago top any place I have ever been in Texas.
Here in DC there's basically no good Tex-Mex anywhere. Anita's, originally of Vienna VA and now with a couple more branches in the area, does New Mexican style, and I rather like them. The style is of course a little different from 'real' Tex-Mex, and having never been to New Mexico, I don't know how authentic it is to the 'original'.
Also, there's the Austin Grill chain.. it's passable though not great, but it's about the best you can get around here that I've found. I'm definitely open to suggestions if anyone knows of something good, though.
However, not a good enough reason to live there.
I've been there. Decent steak for London (which is like saying decent knish for Ohio or something) and edible food. Real Texas beer. Real Texas chefs even, but really not good Tex Mex when compared to Texas.
Tex-Mex has now gone upscale. You can pay $30 per head at some places. Traditional Tex-Mex is cheap, fast and tasty. Don't eat it for lunch or you will fight to stay awake all afternoon.
From lthforum.com, if you want Cochinita Pibil, you can get it at Xni-Pec in Cicero "any time you are interested on deal whit truly Yucatan food we invited to come to our place, we not read recipe from books or ask how to cook because we know how to do it. we cook really Yucatan food we do it from several generation, we respect the traditional way to prepare the condiments, the way to cook, and the passion to prepare it because we know what it’s the meaning of our food, our people our history" as well as Sol de Mexico, Ixcapulzalco, Xel-Ha, etc. etc.
What's the difference? Compare "Queso" (melted velveeta with ground beef and salsa mixed in....pure Tex-mex), to freshly made salsa and guacamole for your tortilla dip of choice. Both are good, but they are different.
Best BBQ in Texas: Clark's Outpost in Tioga.
http://clarksoutpost.com Worth the detour if you are driving towards Dallas from the Oklahoma border.
You are kidding, right? If not, you have never played taco roulette in the Zona Rosa.
Tony: X2 on the comidas Yucatan. You gotta love those papadzules!
Viva OPM!
http://www.opm.gov/oca/07tables/pdf/saltbl.pdf
As for fast food BBQ, it is tough to beat Rudy's in Brownsville, TX. I know it is a chain, but a very nice brisket sandwhich and the pork is good too. As for the Mexicans that don't speak Spanish, or Mexican as I call, count me in too. I just blame it on my Irish mother.:)
Be ahead of the crowds, and read their posts for yourself.
In DC, they only decent place to get New Mexican cuisine is from Anita's, in Virginia. In London, don't even think about the Texas Embassy. There used to be a genuine New Mexican restaurant in Islington, with a chef from Santa Fe, but it closed down and is now a churrascaria. Damn the Brazilians!
If you don't like Almita's, you can go a couple doors down and try Dixie Bones BBQ.
Anyway, Hanah, I recommend the El Paso Cafe in the Ballston neighborhood of Arlington. No, it's not genuine Tex-Mex, but it's passable fajitas.
Baja Mex is superb, and is as different from CalMex as Provencal food is from Parisian. I'm talklking Puerto Neuvo Lobsters pulled straight out of the ocean, split in half, and grilled, served with a big bowl of chopped avocados and lime and cilantro and a pile of tortillas. Baja Frijoles, however, might be the worst on the planet.
Its all good, unless you call it all Mexican - cause if you do, you will always be getting something else, and it will never meet expectations.
Santa Cruz, Alcopolco, Monterrey, and Mexico City are quite different cuisnes as well.
Just looking for Mexican food always make me think of that sad resort food, called "Continental cuisine", it is from nowhere in Europe, but evocative of some European foods, and generally without any character. And if you want German Food, and call it Continental, and wander into a French restuarant, you will be just as unhappy as if you wanted French and wandered into a Bulgarian Restuarant.
The problem is, outside of each area, you get all the rough edges and character knocked off...
Degenerate, I doubt. Different, probably. Some of them are even forming mini-chains, such as Tequila's, El Jimador, Tres Margaritas (sensing a theme here) and the Armadillo. The Armadillo is probably the least authentic but also appeals to the broadest taste. The others are amazing (albeit Tres Margaritas serves ordinary cole slaw, rather than the jalapeno cabbage mix), but sometimes give in to the temptation to appeal to American palates with an excess of shredded cheese on dishes that don't call for it.
I've had good and bad Mexican, worked in a Venezuelan joint, am in walking distance of authentic and gringo Mexican places,
but don't know what defines Tex-Mex so I'll know it if I eat it. And does it come in vegan?
I'll take a nice, clean Texas taco any day over those street taco in Mexico. The best that can be said of them is that this one weight-loss diet that works every time.
I'd also like to note that Tex-Mex, in its most banal, tourist-friendly form, is quite mild, but once you wander into an authentic taqueria in San Antonio (or Corpus Christi, or the Rio Grande Valley in Texas), you can and will find very spicy options, indeed. Perhaps one difference is that the caliente is often added after cooking, in the form of salsas and sauces (yes, I know salsa = sauce, but I'm using the word salsa idiomatically) rather than being cooked right in. Maybe that's a result of Tex-Mex's origins as food for ranchers and cowboys (you know, folk herding cattle--this is also why beef is so much more prevalent in Tex-Mex than in Cal-Mex or New Mexican-Mex).
One of the things I miss about living in Chicago is the corner Mexican grocery store with its air-dried beef.
Hanah, what are your views on the second amendment? How about Israel? On second thought, maybe you should stick to food when posting on issues other than your legal interests.
Man doth not live on Tex-mex alone: but it's a good start. One could draw a tangent, beginning at Trudy's Texas Star Cafe, just North of U.T. Law School, heading South, South West, to the Law School, then to "The Iron Works," down-town Austin, then on to "The Salt Lick." One could spend the remainder of one's life, blissfully, travelling between the termini of said tangent. The travels may end in cardiac arrest, but it's a good kind of cardiac arrest.
This is a good summary of why I gained 20 pounds in law school. Add in Enchiladas y Mas, which used to be at 26th and I-35, and Guero's on South Congress, and you get the whole picture.
Now that I live in Michigan, where the best Mexican restaurants are still several tiers below Taco Cabana, I am slowly losing that weight.
"Are you a member, sir?"
- "A member, what do you mean?"
"We can sell beer only to members of our private club."
-(By now, I'm quite surprised) Well, what does it take to become a member of your taqueria?"
"For one dollar, you get a lifetime membership card."
I might still have my membership card in a drawer somewhere. Unfortunately, I've never been back to Dallas to use it. The food was pretty good, as I recall, but no better than what I had been eating in Chicago.
Some here complain that they can't get "good" enchiladas in their city. I also don't buy it for a second. Maybe you can't get great seafood, the freshest produce and herbs, good chorizo, or whatever, but anyone living in an urban area with 10,000 Mexicans can find a restuarant with decent beef, chicken, cheese, or pork enchiladas. I mean, there's not that much to them, right? If anything, Tex-Mex (tacos, enchiladas, etc.) has got to be one of the easiest cuisines to half-ass and still end up with a decent product. Arrange a corn tortilla, a spiced meat, beans, and cheese in any combination you can think of, add a canned sauce, and you've got tacos, enchiladas, tostadas, flautas, or whatever else Taco Cabana sells.
I also find it funny that someone up-thread used "tripe" to disparagingly refer to inauthentic Tex-Mex. I mean... hello... menudo anyone? Don't get me wrong, I think tripe soup/stew tastes like a crap no matter the country of origin, but isn't tripe being on the menu of the signals that you're in an authentic Mexican restaurant?
Are you sure "delicacy" isn't just a euphamism for "the crap we have to trick people into eating through clever marketing"?
I cannot claim that every single Mexican restaurant in Michigan is awful--I'm just speaking to ones I've been to. I live in central Michigan, where the Mexican restaurant all the locals speak of as being so great (El Azteco), is embarrassingly bad. I have been to a few in Detroit and have not had any better luck.
There are 2 specific areas that can elucidate my problems here.
1) Tortilla Chips. Believe it or not, I have yet to have a single good tortilla chip at a Michigan Mexican restaurant. The chips are almost always stale and/or over-fried. It's amazing that everyone so consistently ruins such a basic staple, but that is the case.
2) Spices. Michigan Mexican comes in 2 levels of spiciness. 95% of the food has almost no spice whatsoever. I actually have overheard people complain about how spicy some Mexican food is, when I can barely tell it has spices at all. The remaining 5% is so hot that very few, in Texas or here, would eat it. There is nothing in between.
My problems have been mainly confined to Michigan. I have been to some good Mexican places in Chicago, particularly near Midway Airport. The problem of Mexican food in Michigan is just part of the larger problem with all restaurants in Michigan--there just aren't any good non-chain ones out there. The blandness of Mich-Mex extends to the general blandness of the food here.
If you have a recommendation for a good Mexican place in Michigan, I'd love to hear it. If not, your abstract reasoning on the issue is absolutely meaningless.
Alas the lack of good Tex-Mex here in the DC area. I'm as surprised as the rest of you folks, but maybe it's because few of the Latinos in this area are Mexicans, and those that are, aren't from Texas.
The Salt Lick in Driftwood, southwest of Austin, gets my vote for BBQ place. That's where I got one of my favorite T-shirts, which says on the back, "I didn't get to the top of the food chain to become a vegetarian."
TexMex also claims nachos, chips and salsa, and fajitas as its inventions. (And anything other than beef strip steak has no business being called "fajitas".)
Maggie's Kitchen in GR
Liitle Mexico Café in GR
Las Cazuelas in GR is primarily a takeout place but it has good tacos and menudo, but I've also had their burritos that I didn't care for them.
I wouldn't make the drive to any of those from mid-Michigan, though.
Holland has large Mexican population and I've eaten at some good and cheap joints there, but with the exception of Taco Fiesta I don't remember the names
A few years ago I ate at a place in Fennville that I really liked. I don't remember the name, but after Googling "Mexican restaurant fennville michigan" and looking at the results, it must have been Su Casa.
The closest thing to a Mexican restaurant that I've eaten at in mid-Michigan is Panchero's in East Lansing, which satisfies your post-last-call urges for 2 lb. burritos, but probably wouldn't appeal to someone looking for the perfectly seasoned fish tacos and a side of chili rellenos.
I guess my main point wasn't that the Mexican food in Michigan is great, it was more along the lines of "how good can an enchilada get?" Phelps described Tex-Mex pretty much as I envision it. I just never imagined raving about that cuisine. Frontera Grill, on the other hand, is great. I wouldn't call what I ate there "Tex-Mex" though.
BTW, if you want good bagged tortilla chips (is that an oxymoron?), try El Matador brand. Their packaging states that they have "Unique Taste and Flavor." Their plant is in Grand Rapids but I bet they're sold throughout much of Michigan.
As for the BBQ, my experience is the opposite of yours. I also like the sour-style of BBQ over the syrupy, sweet variety, but my experience is that Texas BBQ tends towards the sour, while that of Carolina and Tennessee goes towards the sweet.
If I were you, I'd skip the Tex-Mex and eat at San Chez (Spanish tapas-style), Mezze (Mediteranian place next door), 1913 Room (staid, jacket required place with excellent food/service), Bombay Cuisine, Wei Wei Palace, or Bistro Bella Vita. The Schnitz Deli has good soup and sandwiches (get a half), but I'm sure a New Yorker would complain about it. While I agree that the food here is on the bland side, there are some exceptions. If you ask ten random people for recommendations, you're also apt to get ten bland restaurants (unless you consider Chili's exciting). Since those seem to be the preferences of people here, that's what they get, at least for the most part. However, I still haven't eaten in too many places anywhere I like better than San Chez.
As for the geographic origins of sauces, I'm sure you're right, as I'm not very experienced. I've eaten it in Memphis at Corky's (blech), but the stuff I had in Texas was pork, so it probably wasn't true Texas BBQ anyway. Never eaten BBQ in the Carolinas or KC. Of the stuff I've had in upper the Midwest, guess I couldn't tell you the geographic origins, but the best I've had is BBQ pork that's nice and smokey with a spicy vinegar-based sauce.
Be that as it may, my son, who was weaned on a jalapeno, recommends the taqueria inside the El Rey grocery store here. Similarly, in Chicago, there was a highly rated taqueria inside a grocery away from the Tourista-Mex areas. Probably something to look for wherever you are.
In Cambridge, MA, try Jose's, on Sherman Street in North Cambridge.
This is demonstrably false on many more levels than Lauriol Plaza has, and a slur on the name of Tex-Mex.