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Texas Offers a Fresh Look at Tex-Mex

December 14, 2010 0 Comments

It’s hard to get real Mexican food most palaces in the United States.  In fact, many Americans would be surprised to hear that the cheesy burrito fare that is served by Mexican restaurants across the country not real Mexican food at all!  Most of the Mexican food served in the U.S. would be considered Tex-Mex.

Tex-Mex food is a unique type of food that combines North Mexican food with recipes and ingredients from Texas mixed with a sprinkling of American innovation for good measure. Sadly, Tex-Mex food often gets a bad rap in the U.S., conjuring up memories of soggy steam table food loaded down with cheese.  But, just like any type of food, Tex-Mex can be bad or good, depending on the cook!

Chili-con-Carne is a perfect example of Tex-Mex food.  This dish originated by combining Texas cowboy’s beef stew with Mexican hot chilies and later adding other indigenous American ingredients such as tomatoes, beans, peppers, and spices.  The fajita is another great Tex-Mex dish, combining Texas-style beef, peppers, and onions with Mexican tortillas and spices.  Nachos and chimichangas are American inventions and are considered to be Tex-Mex, as is the use of yellow melting cheese.

Texas serves plenty of Tex-Mex food, but they also have restaurants that offer something that many areas in the U.S. do not—real Mexican food. In Dallas, Texas we stayed with close family friends and long-time Texans Rick and Robin (and their wonderful dog Chief).  Rick and Robin took us to dinner at their longtime favorite Mexican restaurant called Mario and Alberto Restaurant that serves authentic Mexico City style food.

Many Americans would probably be a little surprised by the menu at Mario and Alberto’s.  Steak stuffed with garlic and spicy peppers, fillet mignon pounded flat and served with chimichurri sauce, chicken with lemon-butter sauce, or fish cooked in a spicy vinegar broth?  This is not the average Mexican restaurant, they would think, but nearly all of them would be surprised at how much they love the food!

Mario and Alberto Restaurant has been a favorite Dallas restaurant for over 30 years, and it is the same today and it hasn’t change much since it opened.  They have always had great soups at Mario and Alberto’s and the soups we tried were no exception.  Amanda had a creamy Corn Soup garnished with roasted Poblano peppers.  This soup had an intense corn flavor and silky consistency which she loved.  I had classic the classic Tortilla Soup with chunks of tender chicken and crisp-fried tortilla strips in a rich and spicy chicken broth.

Amanda ordered Pollo Ranchero as her entree.  For this dish chunks of grilled chicken was tossed in and a spicy, fresh tomato sauce and served with rice and vegetables.  Amanda loved this dish because it tasted freshly cooked and just spicy enough for her. This dish also had a good balance of flavors such as garlic, chicken, smoke from the grill, and vegetables that could be tasted individually and were better together!

Robin ordered chicken as well in a dish called Pollo Milanese Acapulco Style.  For this dish a chicken breast was sliced and pounded into thin cutlets, breaded, and pan-fried.  The chicken meat was moist and tender inside the crispy breaded crust and served with a fried potato drenched in a light and flavorful sauce of tomato and chilies Also on the plate was a mini cheese enchilada as an added bonus!

Rick and I both had Filete Chiquita.  The Spanish name of his dish means “little fillet.”  This beef tenderloin fillet may be pounded thin, but my no means was it little!  This thin cutlet was well seared on the griddle and cooked through, the way most Mexicans prefer their beef. Even though this dish is served well-done the meat remained juicy, tender, and was packed with flavor!

The Filete Chiquita was served with a small bowl of chimichurri sauce that was green with olive oil, parsley, and cilantro and spiked with piquant garlic.  This sauce added a ton of complexity, brightness, and flavor to the beef.  The only thing to make this dish better was to wrap it inside a warm buttered flour tortilla with some tomato and fresh-squeezed lemon juice!

Mario and Alberto Restaurant is well known for their northern Mexico specialty–sopapillas, so this is what we ordered for dessert.  Our sopapilla was a fried triangle of dough served with delicious cinnamon ice cream, Amanda’s favorite!  The dough was rich and crisp, puffed up to airy perfection in the middle.  The cold cinnamon ice cream was a wonderful temperature contrast to the warm sopapilla and the cinnamon added a nice spice and warm flavor to the dessert.

The food at Mario and Alberto Restaurant is everyday Mexican food, and this is what real Texans love to eat.  For Amanda and I, the term Tex-Mex is no longer a synonym for mediocre Mexican food knock-offs, but instead it reminds us of the distinct, flavorful cuisine that real Tex-Mex is and all the wonderfully authentic Mexican food served in Texas!

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