Cheese enchiladas: the essence of Tex-Mex

Tex-Mex is not Mexican food. That's right, even though most of the restaurants you see all over Texas say that they're Mexican, they're not. But that's OK. When Diana Kennedy bellyached that the food Texans were cooking was an abomination of her beloved la cocina Mexicana, Texans replied, "You're right. Tex-Mex is a cuisine of its own!"

As much respect I have for Kennedy's work, she was rather draconian in her assessment on what was happening north of the border. I won't begin to outline the differences between Tex-Mex and Mexican food because quite frankly, there are more similarities than differences. And as Tex-Mex is practically a youngster in the grand scheme of world cuisines (it’s only been around for about 150 years), it's still evolving.

Many traditional Mexican ingredients, such as epazote, huitlacoche, prickly pear, jicama and yes, even cilantro were absent on your classic Tex-Mex menu—which was a brown feast of tamales, tacos, enchiladas and queso, sandwiched between mountains of rice and beans. But today, many restaurants are going beyond the basics and including more of these authentic Mexican flavors. Squash blossom quesadillas? Of course! Chicken in mole verde de pepita? Why not?
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