What Makes a Genuine Mexican Food What is comes to our mind when thinking of Mexican food are beef burritos, fajitas, nachos, and cheese dip, however, it is not right to say that a dish is an authentic Mexican food with ingredients like beef, black beans, cheddar cheese, and wheat flour. What we call as Mexican food has been influenced by Texas, when Mexico and Texas became a Spanish colony called as New Spain for over three hundred years. In 1821, although Texas separated from Spain, and became a part of the U.S. in 1945, it still maintained its ties with Mexico, thus influencing food, culture and tradition. When Mexican settlers came to Texas, they have experienced the Texan cuisine which is relatively close to the Mexican cuisine, and people began to fuse Mexican ingredients to Texan ingredients such as beef and wheat flour which are scarcely found south of the border. The Tejanos, or people who are living in Texas with Mexican descent, created and sold “chili con carne” which is a Tex-Mex cuisine, that grew so much in popularity. Nachos came after fifty years and the rest is history. The most common are soft-shell tacos with lightly grilled or steamed tortillas because hard-shell tacos are also scarce in Mexico. Fresh white cheese, cilantro, onions, and limes are the common ingredients in authentic Mexican tacos, while the genuine Mexican salsa is a combination of fresh tomatoes, onions, and cilantro. Down south, wheat tortillas as not available and you can try an authentic dish such as shredded beef with avocado and lime rather than fajitas. Three milk cake (pastel de tres leches), and flan are authentic Mexican desserts . When a lot of Mexicans began settling in Texas, there was a higher demand for Mexican food, and people attempted to make it themselves in their kitchens by using ingredients that are not common in Mexico which is wheat flour and beef. Eventually, Tex-Mex came to existence when Mexican restaurant owners incorporated Texan and Mexican cuisines such as putting ground beef in enchiladas. Tex-Mex differs from Mexican food when it comes to commonly used ingredients which are scarcely found in South or the Rio Grande such as beef, wheat flour, yellow cheese, canned vegetables (canned tomatoes), cumin and black beans. Texan ranchers’ meat of choice was beef which was hardly used in Mexican cuisine, outside of the country’s extreme Northern reaches, while cumin was imported to the US from India. The general rule in knowing if it is an authentic Mexican food or not is the more Tex-Mex the food is when there is more starch. If you need more information about Mexican recipes and Mexican groceries, you can always visit our website or contact us directly. Learn more about the latest discovered Mexican snacks, chili sauce and a lot more.Finding Similarities Between Cuisines and Life