Fajitas

LET’S CHAT ABOUT IT

My previous post about breakfast tacos got me thinking about Tex Mex. In fairness, I think about Tex Mex a lot. Like I mentioned in my last post, the food that we had during our trip to Houston was absolutely mind-blowing and, sometimes, my friends and I sit around and just talk about Torchy’s or that Mexican breakfast place’s iced coffee (oddly specific and seemingly random, I know, but I don’t think I have ever had a better iced coffee in my life). However, I have a confession to make: for most of my life, being a white girl from a predominantly-Italian area of New Jersey, I thought Tex Mex and Mexican food were one in the same.

The reason: fajitas.

Fajitas were served at both restaurants that labeled themselves “Mexican” and “Tex Mex,” so I just assumed they were different names for the same cuisine. And, yes, Tex Mex and authentic Mexican foods are very similar — but fajitas in particular are more Tex Mex than Mexican.

My Texan friend Izzy was disgusted when I displayed my ignorance regarding Tex Mex versus Mexican food (as all Texans would), but hey at least now I know! And it makes sense. There is a very popular Tex Mex restaurant near my hometown in Jersey and they are renowned for their fajitas — when you go there, you get a fajita and a margarita, no ifs ands or buts… you also wait for your table for two hours, but I digress.

Fajitas as we know them are extremely Americanized. The word “fajita” in Spanish refers only to skirt steak — yet restaurants always offer chicken, shrimp, I’ve even seen seitan fajitas. These technically are not “fajitas,” not how they are understood in Mexican cuisine. The fajita we know, the fajita I grew up eating and ordering at Chili’s just to hear that sizzle as it was brought from the kitchen to my table, is undeniably Tex Mex.

The more you know.