Tex-Mex

Tex-Mex cuisine(derived from the wordsTexasandMexico) is a regionalAmerican cuisinethat originates from the culinary creations ofTejanopeople. It has spread from border states such as Texas and others in theSouthwestern United Statesto the rest of the country. It is a subtype ofSouthwestern cuisinefound in the American Southwest.
Someingredientsin Tex-Mex cuisine are also common inMexican cuisine, but others, not often used in Mexico, are often added, such as the use ofcumin, introduced by Spanish immigrants to Texas from theCanary Islands,but used in only a few central Mexican recipes.
Tex-Mex cuisine is characterized by its heavy use of shreddedcheese,beans,meat(particularlychicken,beef, andpork),chili peppers, andspices, in addition to flourtortillas.
Sometimes various Tex-Mex dishes are made without the use of a tortilla. A common example of this is the "fajita bowl", which is afajitaserved without a soft tortilla.
Generally, cheese plays a much bigger role in Tex-Mex food than in mainstream Mexican cuisine, particularly in the popularity ofchile con queso(often referred to as simply "queso"), which is often eaten with tortilla chips (alongside or in place ofguacamoleandsalsa), or may be served overenchiladas,tamales, orburritos.
Nachos, although invented in the US-Mexico border town ofPiedras Negras, Coahuila, became extremely popular in Texas before spreading across the US. They were named after its inventor,Nacho Anaya.
Tex-Mex circa the 1950s relied on combination platters using American-style cheeses, did not often have margaritas, and involved pecans in desserts.
The cuisine that would come to be called Tex-Mex originated withTejanosas a mix of native Mexican and Spanish foods when Texas was part of New Spain and later Mexico.
From theSouth Texasregion betweenSan Antonio, theRio Grande ValleyandEl 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.
Theranchingculture of South Texas and Northern Mexico straddles both sides of the border, where beef, grilled food, and tortillas have been common and popular foods for more than a century.
A taste forcabrito(kidgoat),barbacoadecabeza(barbecued beef heads),carne seca(dried beef), and other products ofcattleculture is also common on both sides of theRio Grande.
In the 20th century, as goods from the United States became cheap and readily available, Tex-Mex took on suchAmericanizedelements asCheddar,jack, andpimento cheeses.
In much of Texas, the cooking styles on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border were the same until a period after theU.S. Civil War. With the railroads, American ingredients and cooking appliances became common on the U.S. side.
Around the 1970s the composition of dishes popular in Tex Mex changed;Ninfa'spopularized thefajitabeginning in 1973.
A 1968Los Angeles Timesfeature wrote "[i]f the dish is a combination of Old World cooking, hush-my-mouthSouthern cuisineand Tex-Mex, it's from the Texas Hill Country."
InFrance,Paris's first Tex-Mex restaurant opened in March 1983.According to restaurateur Claude Benayoun, business had been slow, but after the 1986 release of the filmBetty Blue, which featured characters drinkingtequilashots and eatingchili con carne, "everything went crazy."According to Benayoun, "Betty Bluewas like ourEasy Rider; it was unbelievably popular in France. And after the movie came out, everybody in Paris wanted a shot of tequila and a bowl of chili."
Tex-Mex became widely introduced in theNordic countriesand theUnited Kingdomin the early 1990s through brands likeOld El PasoandSanta Maria, and very quickly became a staple meal in the Nordics.Minor local variations on Tex-Mex in these areas are to usegouda cheese, or to substitute taco shells with stuffedpitabreads. Previously, Tex-Mex had been sold on a limited scale inStavanger, Norway since the late 1960s.
Tex-Mex has also spread toCanada, where it has become as naturalized as in the United States. The cuisine is also readily found inArgentina,India,Japan,Mexico, theNetherlands,Thailand, and many other countries.
The word "TexMex" (unhyphenated) was first used to abbreviate theTexas Mexican Railway,charteredin southern Texas in 1875.In the 1920s, thehyphenatedform was used in American newspapers to describe Texans of Mexican ancestry.
TheOxford English Dictionarysupplies the first-known uses in print of "Tex-Mex" in reference to food, from a 1963 article inThe New York Times Magazine, and a 1966 item in theGreat Bend(Kansas)Tribune.
However, the term was used in an article in theBinghamton(New York)Pressin May 1960 and a syndicated article appearing in several American newspapers on October 6, 1960, uses the Tex-Mex label to describe a series of recipes, including chili and enchiladas.
The recipes included the suggestion of "cornmeal pancakes" in place of tortillas, which at the time were not reliably available to readers outside of the Southwest.
Diana Kennedy, an influential food authority, explained the distinctions betweenMexican cuisineand Americanized Mexican food in her 1972 bookThe Cuisines of Mexico. Robb Walsh of theHouston Presssaid 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."
The term "Tex-Mex" also saw increasing usage in theLos Angeles Timesfrom the 1970s onward while the Tex-Mex label became a part of U.S. vernacular during the late 1960s, '70s, and '80s.Adán Medrano, a chef who grew up in San Antonio, prefers to call the food "Texas Mexican," which he says was the indigenous cooking of South Texas long before theRio Grandemarked the border between Texas and Mexico.