Even the concept of food being “authentic” or “inauthentic” is pretty dumb. Pretty much every food short of raw foraged ingredients is the result of cultural exchange.
You could argue that an Italian cooking with chilis or tomatoes is inauthentic and that the resulting food is more Mexican than it is Italian.
Extending the concept from ingredients to techniques, you could argue that every food that relies on the cold chain (refrigerated/frozen storage and transportation) is an American food because the cold chain was created by an American.
its about expectations. I grew up in California and have some specific expectations about Mexican food. they are different than if I was raised in Jalisco. I went to a “Mexican” restaurant in Budapest and their interpretation of Mexican food is VERRY different.
Mexico, like the vast majority of countries, has wildly different food styles by region city so anyone who immigrated elsewhere will start with their local style and then adapt it. In the US there are a ton of Mexican restaurants that vary significantly. I find it interesting how Americanized Chinese food is actually very consistent between restaurants compared to Mexican food.
I remember watching a video somewhere that touched upon this. IIRC, whenever a Chinese immigrant came to a city in the United States with a large Chinese population, such as San Francisco, they would seek out people from their hometown and would often be directed to benevolent societies. These societies help provide means for the immigrant to start looking after themselves, by offering different professions folks can jump into. Often times that would include providing recipes for dishes they could fix up at restaurants.
I think the video was a documentary about General Tso’s chicken.
Okay I made a quick pop in to Wikipedia just to check, and I can tell you that General Tsao and General Tso were different people. Several different people in fact, some fictional and others real, but they don’t overlap.
It’s “General Tso’s Chicken” and has been a NYT Crossword clue, which got me started with “in case you ever need it for a crossword clue,” because I know accurate spelling is not really necessary here.
San Francisco is known for its burritos, but elsewhere in the bay we have a bunch of taco trucks that will fill you up delicious, cheap, and for those of you with food allergies these trucks at least take them seriously. We have “street” tacos at least once a week.
Did you see there’s a national chain of Mexican restaurants that just shuttered their doors in the US after a failed expansion here? It was founded by two Australian men. I’m really curious what their interpretation is.
I dont think most Mexican food in the US is tex-mex. Fast food like taco bell isnt tex-mex, and most taco trucks and takeout places aren’t. The main category of restaurant that seems to be largely tex-mex are sit-down places with names like “El Mariachi” that cater to non-hispanic people and advertise the cheapness of their margaritas.
Where are you basing that off and what regions? Like, I grew up working around the Statesian southwest. I had a good friend (a Mexican immigrant) when I lived in Austin, TX and I would gripe to her about not finding “real” Mexican food. She took me to a few places and then I cooked her tacos to show her what I meant. East Mexico and West Mexico (according to my friend) use entirely different salsas because of different availability of easy fresh ingredients. So I grew up eating baja style tacos, white people enchilada casserole (my mom made a good recipe what can I say. The salsa is tomato and The Duck), while she grew up with lots of butter and molé. So now our eating comprehension quiz: Q1) Which is better? A1) Fuck you they’re both delicious, I just prefer baja style tacos because it’s what I grew up with. I like Oaxaca style better than that. Imagine thinking Mexico was merely one region and one culture. Q2) Which is more authentic? A2) see A1.
Tex-Mex is “actual” Mexican food, the cuisine formed from the Tejanos and is older than either Texas or Mexico. Mexico is a big place with lots of regional variation. Most Mexican food that Americans are familiar with is from or inspired by stuff near the border (which makes sense) with a mix from all over the country like mole, birria, and tequila.
Preach, Soggy. I was fortunate I had a good friend who was patient and taught me this shit. The internet is usually not that kind, but fuck being unkind.
It is wild how much local cultural food is am invention of the past couple hundred years.
I have a family recipe that goes back hundreds of years, it doesnt look anything like people would consider a cultural food from western Europe and even then it uses tomatoes so it literally can’t be truly old.
Heck look at how the world makes pancakes. They are all the same just somehow mixed up based on loose info or available ingredients.
Cooking a nice meal is a modern invention. Before it was just food to not kill you.
Even the concept of food being “authentic” or “inauthentic” is pretty dumb. Pretty much every food short of raw foraged ingredients is the result of cultural exchange.
You could argue that an Italian cooking with chilis or tomatoes is inauthentic and that the resulting food is more Mexican than it is Italian.
Extending the concept from ingredients to techniques, you could argue that every food that relies on the cold chain (refrigerated/frozen storage and transportation) is an American food because the cold chain was created by an American.
its about expectations. I grew up in California and have some specific expectations about Mexican food. they are different than if I was raised in Jalisco. I went to a “Mexican” restaurant in Budapest and their interpretation of Mexican food is VERRY different.
Mexico, like the vast majority of countries, has wildly different food styles by region city so anyone who immigrated elsewhere will start with their local style and then adapt it. In the US there are a ton of Mexican restaurants that vary significantly. I find it interesting how Americanized Chinese food is actually very consistent between restaurants compared to Mexican food.
I remember watching a video somewhere that touched upon this. IIRC, whenever a Chinese immigrant came to a city in the United States with a large Chinese population, such as San Francisco, they would seek out people from their hometown and would often be directed to benevolent societies. These societies help provide means for the immigrant to start looking after themselves, by offering different professions folks can jump into. Often times that would include providing recipes for dishes they could fix up at restaurants.
I think the video was a documentary about General Tso’s chicken.
-editted for accuracy-
Okay I made a quick pop in to Wikipedia just to check, and I can tell you that General Tsao and General Tso were different people. Several different people in fact, some fictional and others real, but they don’t overlap.
It’s “General Tso’s Chicken” and has been a NYT Crossword clue, which got me started with “in case you ever need it for a crossword clue,” because I know accurate spelling is not really necessary here.
I mean spelling Chinese names in romaji (romachi?) is a crapshoot to begin with. The only consistent English spelling in “General Tzo” is “General”
I agree which is why I checked Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Tsao
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Tso
The list for Tsao includes a fictional character, but the chicken recipe is associated with Tso.
Much appreciated! Accuracy is important
I am well aware of the regional differences in Mexican food (why I used Jalisco as an example).
shit, California was a part of mexico for a a few decades and we definitely have some local variants (CA Burrito is so good)
San Francisco is known for its burritos, but elsewhere in the bay we have a bunch of taco trucks that will fill you up delicious, cheap, and for those of you with food allergies these trucks at least take them seriously. We have “street” tacos at least once a week.
Modern Mission-style burritos, with rice and beans on the inside, were invented in California.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_burrito
Did you see there’s a national chain of Mexican restaurants that just shuttered their doors in the US after a failed expansion here? It was founded by two Australian men. I’m really curious what their interpretation is.
Very different to what you experience in the USA? or very different to what you’d experience in Mexico?
Most Mexican food in the USA is TexMex which is inspired, but fairly different, from actual Mexican food… same with Chinese food
I dont think most Mexican food in the US is tex-mex. Fast food like taco bell isnt tex-mex, and most taco trucks and takeout places aren’t. The main category of restaurant that seems to be largely tex-mex are sit-down places with names like “El Mariachi” that cater to non-hispanic people and advertise the cheapness of their margaritas.
Where are you basing that off and what regions? Like, I grew up working around the Statesian southwest. I had a good friend (a Mexican immigrant) when I lived in Austin, TX and I would gripe to her about not finding “real” Mexican food. She took me to a few places and then I cooked her tacos to show her what I meant. East Mexico and West Mexico (according to my friend) use entirely different salsas because of different availability of easy fresh ingredients. So I grew up eating baja style tacos, white people enchilada casserole (my mom made a good recipe what can I say. The salsa is tomato and The Duck), while she grew up with lots of butter and molé. So now our eating comprehension quiz: Q1) Which is better? A1) Fuck you they’re both delicious, I just prefer baja style tacos because it’s what I grew up with. I like Oaxaca style better than that. Imagine thinking Mexico was merely one region and one culture. Q2) Which is more authentic? A2) see A1.
Tex-Mex is “actual” Mexican food, the cuisine formed from the Tejanos and is older than either Texas or Mexico. Mexico is a big place with lots of regional variation. Most Mexican food that Americans are familiar with is from or inspired by stuff near the border (which makes sense) with a mix from all over the country like mole, birria, and tequila.
Preach, Soggy. I was fortunate I had a good friend who was patient and taught me this shit. The internet is usually not that kind, but fuck being unkind.
It is wild how much local cultural food is am invention of the past couple hundred years.
I have a family recipe that goes back hundreds of years, it doesnt look anything like people would consider a cultural food from western Europe and even then it uses tomatoes so it literally can’t be truly old.
Heck look at how the world makes pancakes. They are all the same just somehow mixed up based on loose info or available ingredients.
Cooking a nice meal is a modern invention. Before it was just food to not kill you.