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Not like in Texas, factory made salsa and store bought tortillas are found mostly in ABQ restaurants, just not good enough. El Patio and Sadie's are why ABQ gets its reputation for mediocre mexican food. Taco Sal is decent, but they do have the best sopapillas.
El Patio and Sadie's, though popular with tourists, are why ABQ gets its reputation for mediocre Mexican food. And I said that Padilla's and Taco Sal are decent, but both places have the best sopapillas generally.
The other issue for Texans is that there is a greater menu of Mexican food styles in the Lone Star state. South Texas fare is different than what one will find in Dallas, say. Also, in Texas there are Mexican restaurants that have menus that are directed to those immigrants from Mexico (not Tex-Mex at all.) Now my favorite New Mexico American-Mexican food is what you find in Southern cities, like San Panco in Roswell and La Posta in Mesilla.
I'll be visiting Dallas in November. Any recommendations for a Tex Mex restaurant that I should try and what to order other than fajitas and chimichangas? I'd be interested in tasting the differences and how Tex Mex is less bland. On your list, I love Mary & Titos and Padillas but have never been impressed by La Posta.
Better, IMO, is Chope's or Delicias when in the Las Cruces area. The latter has recently completed an expansion and complete redecorating and the tables and chairs are like nothing I've encountered before - relief sculpted wood in typically bright colors.
Better, IMO, is Chope's or Delicias when in the Las Cruces area. The latter has recently completed an expansion and complete redecorating and the tables and chairs are like nothing I've encountered before - relief sculpted wood in typically bright colors.
Delicias has a cafe in Albuquerque, 6001 San Mateo NE, according to their website.
Gee, maybe I should wander over to the Houston forum and post a rant about how disgusting, rude and nasty I found parts of Houston to be when I lived there.
Oh, and don't get me started on the filthy air in Houston. Only place I've ever lived where it hurt to breathe in the summer. Literally.
There is no reason for the Duke City to accept mediocre Mexican food. Heck, I can find pretty good Chinese in the NE Heights. And I assure everyone, there is horrible Mexican food in Texas, especially in Houston and Dallas (you take your chances outside of San Antonio and Austin.)
In Texas, also sometimes found in ABQ restaurants:
Breakfast tacos, and Eggs Migas, invented in Austin, freely given to the world. Every Texas restaurant has its own in-house recipe for table salsa, many restaurants offer red and green, with the green made from tomatillos rather than from hatch chiles. Texas corn chips are specially made thinner than what is found in New Mexico restaurants. Sopapillas don't exist in Texas east of the Pecos, except but one restaurant in each city that does them for some reason (never gets them right either).
Patronize restaurants that make flour tortillas in-house in wherever state. Also, in Texas recipes one finds ancho, guajillo, and jalapeno chiles cooked into many sauces, much spicier than the New Mexico red and green, if not as hot. Real Texas Chile con Carne: frankly get the recipe from the Texas Chili Parlor on Lavaca Street in Austin, or make it at home. Real chile con queso, try a Texas style recipe once and you'll never again eat any made differently.
Other dishes to consider seen in Texas restaurants are tortilla soup, and carne guisada, one measures a kitchen with either. The side dishes of Spanish rice and pinto beans are much better in Texas than anywhere else. Chicken enchiladas Texas style, the chicken has to be stewed, not just boiled, prior to being wrapped in corn tortillas, one can taste the difference. Cabrito, very Hill Country and Austin, had in Santa Fe once. Carnitas, to die for when made well in either Texas or New Mexico, look for in restaurants that cater to Mexicans. No restaurant does beef fajitas correctly outside of Austin, invented there.
Prailenes. Mmmm.
Last edited by Danbo1957; 10-31-2016 at 06:21 PM..
Not like in Texas, factory made salsa and store bought tortillas are found mostly in ABQ restaurants, just not good enough. El Patio and Sadie's are why ABQ gets its reputation for mediocre mexican food. Taco Sal is decent, but they do have the best sopapillas.
El Patio and Sadie's, though popular with tourists, are why ABQ gets its reputation for mediocre Mexican food.
I am pretty sure you're thinking of El Pinto, not El Patio. 99% sure, in fact. El Patio is not a tourist joint. I would agree that El Pinto is mediocre, or perhaps even bad.
Store bought tortillas? Garcia's makes their own in-house, and it's immediately obvious. So does Barelas Coffee House. Perhaps you're not as knowledgeable about New Mexican food as you like to think?
There is no reason for the Duke City to accept mediocre Mexican food. Heck, I can find pretty good Chinese in the NE Heights. And I assure everyone, there is horrible Mexican food in Texas, especially in Houston and Dallas (you take your chances outside of San Antonio and Austin.)
In Texas, also sometimes found in ABQ restaurants:
Breakfast tacos, and Eggs Migas, invented in Austin, freely given to the world. Every Texas restaurant has its own in-house recipe for table salsa, many restaurants offer red and green, with the green made from tomatillos rather than from hatch chiles. Texas corn chips are specially made thinner than what is found in New Mexico restaurants. Sopapillas don't exist in Texas east of the Pecos, except but one restaurant in each city that does them for some reason (never gets them right either).
Patronize restaurants that make flour tortillas in-house in wherever state. Also, in Texas recipes one finds ancho, guajillo, and jalapeno chiles cooked into many sauces, much spicier than the New Mexico red and green, if not as hot. Real Texas Chile con Carne: frankly get the recipe from the Texas Chili Parlor on Lavaca Street in Austin, or make it at home. Real chile con queso, try a Texas style recipe once and you'll never again eat any made differently.
Other dishes to consider seen in Texas restaurants are tortilla soup, and carne guisada, one measures a kitchen with either. The side dishes of Spanish rice and pinto beans are much better in Texas than anywhere else. Chicken enchiladas Texas style, the chicken has to be stewed, not just boiled, prior to being wrapped in corn tortillas, one can taste the difference. Cabrito, very Hill Country and Austin, had in Santa Fe once. Carnitas, to die for when made well in either Texas or New Mexico, look for in restaurants that cater to Mexicans. No restaurant does beef fajitas correctly outside of Austin, invented there.
Prailenes. Mmmm.
What your post basically boils down to is that you prefer Texas-style Mexican food to New Mexican-style, and don't really like to patronize restaurants serving traditional New Mexican-style fare. Fair enough. To each their own. Just please try to refrain from lecturing those of us who feel differently (and there are many of us) about the innate inferiority of our tastes.
You say you like "Chinese food": good example. There are about a thousand different varieties of Chinese food from China's many regions. Some prefer Szechwan or Hunan, some prefer Cantonese or Beijing-style. Others may prefer the versions of Chinese food served up elsewhere in the world: Indo-Chinese, Americanized Chinese. While I'm sure there are endless debates about which region's food is the best, is this something that can be settled empirically? People like what they like...and I'm sure it's just as annoying for fans of one Chinese variety to get lectures from fans of another variety as your hymn to the superiority of the breakfast taco is for those of us that love New Mexican food. (And we must be on to something, despite our tiny population...is there another chile variety in the US as celebrated as the NM green at the height of harvest season?)
Last edited by Cactus Hibs; 11-01-2016 at 10:52 AM..
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