Mexican vs. New Mexican Food? (Hatch: university, brick, sold)
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It is very different, let me assure you. This doesn't mean it is better or worse than CA, Ar or Texas, but many of the meals are different. Of course some is the same, enchaladas are exactly that and tacos are tacos but there is more to Mexican food than the standard entree we have all grown up with. If nothing else just the red or green chili makes it different..Sopapias are not standard everywhere in AZ and CA like in NM. I could think of many other things as well. I think NM uses more pork in their NM cooking than we ever say in the other states we visited or lived in.
Nita
Thanks, these are some good examples.
I didn't want to come across as rude, I just wanted some comparisons with other states because usually when someone tells me about NM food I ask what it's like and they name dishes I grew up eating in AZ. I'm sure there's differences, I'm just going to have to visit and try for myself.
I consider it different in some aspects, but Mexican, New Mexican and Tex-Mex (or Cal-Mex/Arizona Mex (whatever you call the last) all have roots in common.
One big difference is the way huevos rancheros are prepared. In Mexico, a fried egg tops a fried corn tortilla, and the sauce is usually serrano/jalapeno/tomato-based, and often topped with some type of cheese.
Tex-Mex follows this. But in NM, you can find either corn OR flour tortillas as the base--and red or green sauce. I don't really like red chile sauce on eggs, so after a couple of plates of those, I always ask for green. It's rarely spicy hot. Red chile sauce is for enchiladas, as far as I'm concerned!
Even in a Mexican restaurant here, when I asked for hotter red--I got a small container of red chile sauce, rather than the tomato-jalapeno based sauce that came with the chips. It was also on the bland side, too.
I rarely ever have anything in NM approaching the heat levels I'm used to.
The one exception was in Farmington. The smiling owner brought me a dish of their hottest table sauce, and watched while my eyes watered as I ate it. YUM......at least I had a choice. Margo's here has also turned up the heat on their salsa lately, for some reason... :-)
Keep in mind that over time a lot of dishes original to NM have found there way to other places like AZ. Don't know how old you are but you probably would have noticed a bigger difference if you'd traveled between the two states 50 years ago.
why does this make such a difference to you? It isn't a matter of better or best, just different. Of course there are going to be exceptions to in every situation, but there normally is a difference in Mexican food from AZ, CA, Tx and NM. Some of it is the same, most not.
Normally you don't see Sangria on a New Mexican restaurant menu:wonder if the rellenos are made with Hatch chilis or pablano, both are good.
I sure there are great Asain restaurants almost anyplace in the country but normally you will find the really authentic ones in Los Angeles, San Francisco, NY and a few other places. Again, this doesn't mean there are no other locations in the country.
I'm sure I'll get brickbats for this but the burrito was invented in California in the 1930s, although some claim they came there from Chihuahua, Mexico. It's not part of original NM cuisine as didn't spread to the rest of the American Southwest until the 1950s.
I'm sure I'll get brickbats for this but the burrito was invented in California in the 1930s
Not according to this article:
Quote:
Mexican popular tradition tells the story of a man named Juan Mendez who used to sell tacos in a street stand, using a donkey as a transport for himself and the food, during the Mexican Revolution period (1910–1921) in the Bella Vista neighborhood in Ciudad Juarez. To keep the food warm, Juan had the idea of wrapping the food placed in a large home made flour tortilla inside individual napkins. He had a lot of success, and consumers came from other places around the Mexican border looking for the "food of the Burrito," the word they eventually adopted as the name for these large tacos.
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) is called Taco Gringo. 
