Is it real, or is it Tex-Mex?

[BettyR]

Betty, your last post highlights another difference in peoples perspective. If your idea of what defines authentic food comes from home kitchens of friends and family who are first and second generation immigrants, you aren't likely to have the same picture as someones whose ideas were formed primarily by authentic restaurant cuisine or a formal culinary education. My favorite Mexican restaurants tend to be the ones where I might be the only gringo in the building.

Yes, you are correct. There is nothing more Texan than a Chicken Fried Steak; but this dish was born of the German fritter.

So I guess you would have to answer the question of what is authentic Ethnic food, the food that is cooked and eaten on a daily basis by the people who live in said country or the food that is prepared in the ethnic restaurant.

I was raised in a French speaking Creole community and when I go into a Cajun restaurant I don’t really see much of anything that I recognize as what I grew up eating. The names are the same but the food is not.

 

[ironchef]

the average eater is not interested in authentic cuisine, but in quick and easy and what's familiar.

I only think the second half of that statement is correct. I further think that if authentic cuisine was familiar to them then they would be just as interested as they are in non-authentic cuisine (with some exceptions). The majority of people only eat what they eat because it is available and easy to access. If authentic places popped up and were easy to get to them more people would be into them.

The word CHEAP also needs to be added into that statement to make it correct. That's the reason why places like Olive Garden are so **** popular. It sure as **** isn't because it's good or authentic.

 

[Andy M.]

...places like Olive Garden are so **** popular. It sure as **** isn't because it's good or authentic.

Golly gee, ironchef, what about Olive Garden's Culinary Institute of Tuscany??

 

[ironchef]

Golly gee, ironchef, what about Olive Garden's Culinary Institute of Tuscany??

You know, I would be interested in going there just to see what it is they do at that place. One of my friends told me a while ago that Olive Garden was now making risotto on their menu. So I checked it out (it's a shrimp and asparagus risotto) and sure enough, they bastardized it by putting in parmesan cheese. If that's the sort of things they are "learning" at their Culinary Institute of Tuscany, they may as well just close up shop. They can just stay home and learn how to make risotto the wrong way.

 

[mitmondol]

[quote.

So I guess you would have to answer the question of what is authentic Ethnic food, the food that is cooked and eaten on a daily basis by the people who live in said country or the food that is prepared in the ethnic restaurant.


Authentic ethnic? What is cooked on a daily bases in the country of origin of a dish.
Whatever is interpreted (or riuned in most cases) is NOT the above.
Still could be good food as I said earlier, but should be called something else.

The names are the same but the food is not.

And that is my problem.

I was once offered a "Chicken paprikas" made with ketchup for cryin' out loud!!

Give them another name and don't call them aithentic and I will be fine. Even enjoy those dishes.

 

[mitmondol]

This is interesting read also:

A crash course in Mexico's varied cuisine - CNN.com

 

[AllenOK]

About a month ago, I purchased a copy of Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen. I've been reading, re-reading, and making some of the recipes as I can. I love them!

We have a growing Hispanic community here in east Tulsa as well. There are a few Mexican grocery stores, and even a Tortilleria just a few miles from here. I've spent time in them, browsing, buying a few things, etc.

I can fully understand the comment about "the only gringo in the house".

 

[Caine]

That's why I hate going into the "authentic" Mexican restaurants in my area. The service is outrageously slow because everyone who works in the kitchen has to come out and see the gringo that's speaking Spanish. I have the same reaction when I go into Pilipino restaurants and grocery stores and start speaking tagalog. What, they think ALL Americans brains are so small, they can only hold one language?

 

[skilletlicker]

We have a growing Hispanic community here in east Tulsa as well. There are a few Mexican grocery stores, and even a Tortilleria just a few miles from here. I've spent time in them, browsing, buying a few things, etc.

I have found developing a relationship with the neighborhood Mexican grocery rewarding and worth while. It has a great dairy case, a fair selection of good Mexican produce, and a good meat counter. The only person working in the store who speaks English is the young girl behind the counter but if they aren't busy she will translate with the butcher, owner, or a customer for me. I've rarely seen another customer speak English; never as their primary language.

Almost all the patrons of this little mercado also occasionally shop at one large, locally owned supermarket. It carries all things Anglo but also goes out of the way to cater to the Hispanic community. Learning my way around that store was another big help. I bet there is a supermarket filling the same niche in Tulsa.

 

[skilletlicker]

That's why I hate going into the "authentic" Mexican restaurants in my area. The service is outrageously slow because everyone who works in the kitchen has to come out and see the gringo that's speaking Spanish. I have the same reaction when I go into Pilipino restaurants and grocery stores and start speaking tagalog. What, they think ALL Americans brains are so small, they can only hold one language?

I doubt if speaking Spanish attracts much attention. Maybe it is what you say or how you say it, instead of the language you say it in.

 

[ironchef]

I doubt if speaking Spanish attracts much attention. Maybe it is what you say or how you say it, instead of the language you say it in.

Yeah, instead of saying, "Dame cerveza, por favor", maybe you're saying, "Dame cabeza, por favor."

 

[mudbug]

My feeling about this is get with reality folks

I am an old person and have seen my most sacred of drinks, the martini, turned into everything it is not. Without a whimper or whine from the general populace.

I accepted it.

I have also seen food that never, ever would be served in China in Chinese restaurants (yep, there was a time I could translate the menus in Chinese restaurants in in NY and SF Chinatowns and order from them). Most Americans have no idea what authentic Chinese food is.

Heck have a second cousin once removed who went to China and compained they could not make a decent pepper steak. Just an example.

If a restaurant wishes to call their food authentic anything, well, it seems to me one can try it and decide if they like it or not. And then go back, or not, or try to find a lawyer who will press a suit for some law I know nothing about.

"Your honor, that place says they serve true Oaxacan cuisine and no self respecting Oazacan would ever eat that slop."

Good luck pressing that case.

Look, once a region's or county's cuisine is up for interpretation it will be, well, interpreted.

Sorry. But that is the way cooks are.

I do feel a bit peckish at the moment, sorry.

auntdot, I always like it when you are feeling peckish (and even when you are feeling peevish). You have a knack for introducing sense into these kinds of discussions.

 

[Caine]

I doubt if speaking Spanish attracts much attention.

It does if you're a white boy, and the only white boy in the place!

 

[skilletlicker]

It does if you're a white boy, and the only white boy in the place!

My Spanish is limited but gets me by in a pinch. I have never had the experience you describe as a customer in a place of business. The fact that you routinely seem to, strongly suggests you are feeling what the shrinks call projection.

 

[AllenOK]

I bet there is a supermarket filling the same niche in Tulsa.

More than one, that's for sure! The Super-Wally-World that I normally shop at also has quite a bit of Hispanic merchandise. Heck, the ASIAN grocery store I also shop at has started carrying Hispanic merchandise! The really nice thing, is the Asian place and the Mexican place are less than a quarter-mile apart. The Tortilleria is next door to the Mexican place.

I think most, if not all, of the Wally-Worlds in town carry a large amount of Latin merchandise. Some of the other big-name stores also carry some stuff. I can find annatto seeds (achiote) at a Reasor's, and no where else, even the Mexican places. Go figure........

 

[jpmcgrew]

The WM in Trinidad,CO and the local grocery store here in Raton also carriy alot of Mexican Products, Mexican Cheeses,Spices,Canned Goods,Mexican sodas etc its great.In the south west its the norm as we have a huge hispanic population which is normal,But again its regional most people have never heard of dried posole (hominy) which is delicious rather than canned or frozen.In other places blue corn meal or blue corn meal tortillas are readily available although I believe its more indian but thats what it is all about, fusion cooking years before that term came out. I dont care where I go in the South West the red chili and green chili is vastly different and I mean restaurant to restaurant house to house.Again Im a fan of North New Mexcico food southern Colorado also pretty much makes the North New Mexico fare.Where I live a poblano chili is hardly heard of as we have the Hatch Green and red chile grown in southern New Mexico we dont do too much with Tomatiilos either.I think alot of these recipes have their roots from Mexico but people had to adapt using what they had turniing it into another wonderful cuisine.
You guys need to make a trip to New Mexico go to Santa Fe and experience a whole different life style.
Corazon help me on this.

 

[skilletlicker]

You guys need to make a trip to New Mexico go to Santa Fe and experience a whole different life style.
Corazon help me on this.

Ma'am, I made many youthful trips through New Mexico. Pulling around a mountain curve and seeing Albuquerque's lights open up below the cliff is one of my favorite memories.

 

[AllenOK]

It's been 15 years since I've been out there. Now you're making me think about a road trip! The drive from Cimmaron to Taos is a great one. If I remember right, that's where a lot of the car manufacturers test-drive their new models under real-world conditions.

 

[skilletlicker]

I think alot of these recipes have their roots from Mexico but people had to adapt using what they had turniing it into another wonderful cuisine.

And although it might have evolved some since, that distinct cuisine existed before Mexico ceded the territory to the US, which is why I have such a hard time understanding the central point of this thread. I guess the style of cooking you describe was authentically Mexican before the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildago, but not after.

Either way it's good eatin in my book.

 

[Lugaru]

I also recomend Mexican food and Mexican recipes at MexGrocer.com for the miscelania you sometimes cant get. But then you might not need it, here in Boston it's very latin but not very Mexican, so most stores dont carry what I need.

Edit: I did a little backwards read...

On being the odd guy out: I basically look like some white guy (some mexicans do) but I dont feel out of place where everyone is of another ethnicity. Maybe it's because I already had to adapt to a new country, but seriosly go to a hole in the wall PHO place and you will see more and more latinos, because there is just something wholesome and old fasioned about it. It's like having grandma's soup if you grew up in parts of the south or in Mexico, only with some extra ingredients.

On the Olive Garden: some movie or comic had a joke once where some mobsters planing a betrayal meet at the Olive Garden because they knew that it was the last place they would run into a fellow italian mobster or their immediate family.