Tex - Mex - wikipedia Tex - Mex For other uses, see Tex - Mex ( disambiguation ). Examples of Tex - Mex dishes and ingredients Tex - Mex ( from Texan and Mexican ) is a fusion of Mexican and American cuisines, deriving from the culinary creations of Tejanos. It has spread from border states such as Texas and others in the Southwestern United States to the rest of the country as well as Canada. Tex - Mex is most popular in Texas and some parts of Mexico. Tex - Mex is often conflated with the Southwestern cuisine found in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. Contents 1 Common dishes 2 History 3 Terminology 4 See also 5 References 6 External links Common dishes A baked beans and tortillas seller at San Antonio, Texas, c. 1939 Some ingredients are common in Mexican cuisine, but other ingredients not typically used in Mexico are often added. Tex - Mex cuisine is characterized by its heavy use of shredded cheese, meat ( particularly beef and pork ), beans, peppers and spices, in addition to flour tortillas. Dishes such as Texas - style chili con carne, nachos, hard tacos and fajitas are all Tex - Mex inventions. Moreover, Tex - Mex has imported flavors from other spicy cuisines, such as the use of cumin, introduced by Spanish immigrants to Texas from the Canary Islands and used in Berber cuisine, but used in only a few central Mexican recipes. History Original Ninfa 's tacos al carbón / fajitas Chili with garnishes and tortilla chips The word `` Tex - Mex '' first entered the English language as a nickname for the Texas Mexican Railway, chartered in southern Texas in 1875. In train schedules published in the newspapers of the 19th century the names of railroads were abbreviated. The Missouri Pacific was called the Mo. Pac. and the Texas - Mexican was abbreviated Tex. Mex. In the 1920s, the hyphenated form was used in American newspapers in reference to the railroad and to describe Texans of Mexican ancestry. In the mission era, Spanish and Mexican cuisines were combined in Texas as in other parts of the northern frontier of New Spain. However, the cuisine that would come to be called Tex - Mex actually originated with Tejanos ( Texans of Mexican descent ) as a mix of native Mexican and Spanish foods when Texas was part of New Spain and later Mexico. Aaron Sanchez is an American Mexican chef and television personality. From the South Texas region between San Antonio, the Rio Grande Valley and El Paso, this cuisine has had little variation, and from earliest times has always been influenced by the cooking in the neighboring northern states of Mexico. The ranching culture of South Texas and Northern Mexico straddles both sides of the border. A taste for cabrito ( kid goat ), barbacoa de cabeza ( barbecued beef heads ), carne seca ( dried beef ), and other products of cattle culture is common on both sides of the Rio Grande. Marcela Valladolid was the host of the Food Network television series Mexican Made Easy, and a co-host of the Food Network television series The Kitchen. In the 20th century, Tex - Mex took on such Americanized elements as yellow cheese, as goods from the United States became cheap and readily available. In much of Texas, the cooking styles on both sides of the U.S. -- Mexico border were the same until a period after the U.S. Civil War. With the railroads, American ingredients and cooking appliances became common on the U.S. side. A 1968 Los Angeles Times feature wrote `` ( i ) f the dish is a combination of Old World cooking, hush - my - mouth Southern cuisine and Tex - Mex, it 's from the Texas Hill Country. '' In France, Paris 's first Tex - Mex restaurant opened in March 1983. After the 1986 release of the film Betty Blue, Tex - Mex cuisine 's popularity in Paris increased. Terminology Mixed beef and chicken fajita ingredients, served on a hot iron skillet The Oxford English Dictionary supplies the first - known uses in print of `` Tex - Mex '' in reference to food, from a 1963 article in The New York Times Magazine, and a 1966 item in the Great Bend ( Kansas ) Tribune. Diana Kennedy, an influential food authority, explained the distinctions between Mexican cuisine and Americanized Mexican food in her 1972 book The Cuisines of Mexico. Robb Walsh of the Houston Press said the book `` was a breakthrough cookbook, one that could have been written only by a non-Mexican. It unified Mexican cooking by transcending the nation 's class divisions and treating the food of the poor with the same respect as the food of the upper classes. '' Another early instance in print appeared in the Mexico City News in 1973. Part of a series on American cuisine Regional cuisines Northeastern New England New Jersey New York City Philadelphia Midwestern Chicago North Dakota Omaha St. Louis Mid-Atlantic Baltimore Pittsburgh Southern ( list ) Cajun Floribbean Kentucky Louisiana Creole Lowcountry New Orleans Soul food ( list ) Texas Tex - Mex Western California California fusion Pacific Northwest Rocky Mountain Southwestern New Mexican Other Hawaiian Military rations Puerto Rican Roadkill Tailgate party History Thirteen Colonies Antebellum America Chuckwagon Culinary Revolution Ingredients and foods List of American foods Blueberry Corn Okra Pecan Potato Pumpkin Sunflower seed Styles Barbecue in the United States Kansas City Memphis North Carolina Oklahoma Santa Maria St. Louis Texas Fast food Fusion New American Pizza in the United States Ethnic and cultural American Chinese Greek - American Italian - American Asian Indian - American Jewish Native American Pennsylvania Dutch Tlingit Scandinavian Holidays and festivals Christmas Thanksgiving United States portal Food portal See also Texas portal Food portal Mexico portal List of Mexican restaurants Cuisine of the United States Mexican cuisine Tex - Mex cuisine in Houston Jane Butel, preeminent author on the cuisine References Jump up ^ Walsh, Robb. The Tex - Mex Cookbook ( XVI ed. ). New York : Broadway Books. Jump up ^ Feniger, Susan ; Siegel, Helene ; Miliken, Mary Sue ( 2002 ). Mexican Cooking for Dummies. Scranton : Courage Books. Jump up ^ Martinez, Etienne. `` Mexicans in the U.S.A : Mexican - American / Tex - Mex Cousine ''. Lightmillennium.org. Retrieved 14 October 2017. Jump up ^ Jennifer Steinhauer ( 10 February 2014 ). `` If It 's Chili, It 's Personal ''. The New York Times. The Times Company. Retrieved 6 January 2015. it was Canary Islanders who brought a taste for it in heavy doses, as used in Berber cuisine Jump up ^ `` Tex - Mex ''. Mexia Evening News. Mexia, Texas. 23 May 1922. Jump up ^ Personal site posting Archived 15 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Jump up ^ Walsh, Robb ( 27 July 2000 ). `` Pralines and Pushcarts ''. Houston Press. Retrieved 11 December 2011. Jump up ^ `` Pedernales Recipes ' Good for What Ails. ' '' Los Angeles Times. 12 September 1968. p. K30 Jump up ^ Walsh, Robb ( 23 November 2000 ). `` The French Connection ''. Houstonpress.com. Retrieved 14 October 2017. Jump up ^ Oxford English Dictionary entry for Tex - Mex : 1963 N.Y. Times Mag. 11 Aug 50 / 1 Star of the evening was her Texas or Tex - Mex chili. 1966 Great Bend ( Kansas ) Daily Tribune 19 Oct 5 / 4 It 's too bad that it has become known as ' chili powder ' because some homemakers may associate it only with the preparation of ' Tex - Mex ' dishes. Jump up ^ Walsh, Robb ( 28 September 2000 ). `` Mama 's Got a Brand - new Bag ''. Houstonpress.com. Retrieved 14 October 2017. External links Wikibooks Cookbook has a recipe / module on Tex - Mex Cuisine `` Tex - Mex Foods. '' Handbook of Texas. Robb Walsh 's Six - Part History of Tex - Mex in the Houston Press : Pralines and Pushcarts, Combination Plates, Mama 's Got a Brand - new Bag, The Authenticity Myth, The French Connection, Brave Nuevo World. Temples of Tex - Mex : A Diner 's Guide to the State 's Oldest Mexican Restaurants Lieberman, Dave. `` Five Ways To Tell You 're Eating Americanized Mexican Food. '' OC Weekly. Monday 14 June 2010. Chicano and Mexican American topics Terms Chicano Hispanic La Raza Hispanic and Latino Americans Mexican American Tejano Pre-Chicano Movement History of Mexican Americans Mexican -- American War Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Mexican Repatriation Sleepy Lagoon trial Zoot Suit Riots Chicano Movement Aztlán Católicos por La Raza Chicanismo Chicana feminism Chicano Blowouts Chicano Moratorium PCUN Plan Espiritual de Aztlán Plan de Santa Bárbara Farm workers rights campaign Land grant struggle Colegio César Chávez Supreme Court cases Botiller v. Dominguez Hernandez v. Texas San Antonio I.S.D. v. Rodriguez Espinoza v. Farah Manufacturing Co. U.S. v. Brignoni - Ponce Plyler v. Doe Medellín v. Texas Flores - Figueroa v. U.S. Leal Garcia v. Texas Mendez v. Westminster Bernal v. 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Mex Commons Cookbook Food portal WikiProject Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tex-Mex&oldid=813204943 '' Categories : Tex - Mex cuisine Texan cuisine American cuisine Cuisine of the Southwestern United States Mexican - American cuisine Mexican cuisine Hidden categories : Webarchive template wayback links Use dmy dates from August 2017 All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from March 2007 Articles with unsourced statements from August 2014 Articles with unsourced statements from September 2010 Articles with unsourced statements from November 2009 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Català Čeština Dansk Deutsch Español Esperanto Français 한국어 Italiano Lietuvių Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Polski Português Русский Suomi Svenska Türkçe Edit links This page was last edited on 2 December 2017, at 11 : 50. 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Question: what is an example of an americanized mexican food created by tex-mex cuisine
Answer: nachos; Texas-style chili con carne; Texas-style chili con carne, nachos, hard tacos and fajitas; chili con carne