Okay, I once thought a bowl of chili was Mexican. This board fought my ignorance long ago and put that bowl firmly into the Tex-Mex category.
However, I am seeing enchiladas represented at Tex-Mex here. I have had enchiladas in numerous Mexican Mexican restaurants. Granted, these restaurants are in the Northern part of Mexico…but they’re in Mexico.
Ask for enchiladas in Southern Mexico and the waiter will look at you like you’re crazy (at least, mine did).
Since then I’ve equated expecting enchiladas in Southern Mexico like expecting grits to be served at breakfast in Seattle.
So fight my ignorance again. Just because a dish is regional within a country does that make it not authentic?
Enchiladas in chili gravy with grated cheddar & chopped onions are Tex-Mex. Many other styles of enchilada may be found in Mexico–& here in the USA. Since you have actually traveled in Mexico, I’d consider your observations pretty worthwhile!
Think about overlapping spheres of influence, not hard & fast borders. I wish people would stop obsessing about what is or is not “authentic.”
On top of that, food is evolving so often that it become more and more difficult to say what is or isn’t authentic. Reading through any of Diane Kennedy’s books, she’s fond of pointing out that “people from such-and-such region would never do such-and-such”. That’s all fine and good if you want to know how people in that region eat.
On the other hand, why is the food that naturally evolved north of the border any less authentic than the food that evolved just south of the border? There is a good reason why Tex-Mex restaurants are insanely popular.
ETA: I don’t see many spots in this thread where people are being pedantic about authentic Mexican. My initial post was in defense of Tex-Mex.
I both agree and disagree. My window to another culture is primarily through their food, so it’s very interesting and exciting to me if I could find restaurants that claim are authentic are truly authentic. It really depends on how the restaurant is selling it to me. Are they trying to recreate the cuisine of their culture faithfully? If so, then authenticity is an important factor to me. If not, then I don’t care. It’s a matter of managing expectations.
Chips and salsa is a custom of Mexican restaurants in the USA. That doesn’t mean restaurants that serve them cannot serve authentic Mexican food. Chips and salsa are not generally served in restaurants in Mexico. You are more likely to find them in restaurants in tourist areas that cater to or serve many foreign tourists who expect them.
Enchiladas are authentic Mexican fare and served throughout the country, southern Mexico included. They belong to a food group known as antojitos, which also includes tacos, taquitos, tostadas, sopes, sopitos, quesadillas etc. These dishes are usually found in a type of restaurant called cenadurías which as the name implies serve cena or the evening meal. Tacos of course are found throughout the day at taquerías, many specializing in certain type of taco. Tacos de cabeza, de barbacoa, al pastor, de canasta, de guisados, al carbón etc.
The basic enchilada, is a tortilla dipped in a chile based sauce and rolled around an infinite number of ingredients. The name in Spanish describes it. En -chil (chile)-ada.
We also have en-frijol (bean)-adas and en- jitomat (tomato)-adas. Enfrijoladas are tortillas dipped in a thin bean paste and rolled and may be served with queso seco o fresco and crema. Usually a breakfast dish.
Many posters mention “taco shells” or hard or soft tacos. The great majority of the tacos served here are merely a fresh corn tortilla wrapped around some type of filling so those would be your “soft taco”. Anything, and I mean anything can be rolled into a taco. We even occasionally eat “tacos de sal” when the tortillas are exceptionally good. Simply a tortilla hot of the comal with a small sprinkle of coarse sea salt wrapped inside.
Then we have our tacos dorados which is a tortilla with a filling and either folded over or rolled and then fried. These would be the hard shell tacos some mention. Sometimes the rolled ones are called flautas.
Thank you for the informative post; I’ve got a perfectly good dinner waiting in the fridge but now I’ve got the urge to go out for Mexican. We’ve got a couple of places here that offer enfrijoladas & enjitomatadas and the taco trucks of Houstonare famous.
There’s a third type of taco that’s definitely Tex-Mex; the corn tortilla is fried into a shell, then filled. Let The Homesick Texan explain:
So she gives the crispy taco recipe at the above link. And many other recipes, too. Chili gravy for Tex-Mex enchiladas, Dr Pepper ribs, dewberry cobbler. (One cannot live on Mexican or Tex-Mex alone.)
