Every time I go back to the USA, my London buddies tell me to enjoy the Mexican food -- while I can. What they mean of course is a style of Mexican food common in the USA. Wikipedia mentions three of these: Tex-Mex, California Mex, and New Mexican cuisine. There is also something called Southwestern cuisine, which basically means Mexican ingredients with the fun taken out, served to elderly people at casinos.
Since when did New Mexican food start meaning something posh?
As a kid I could always tell we were in New Mexico by the abundance of dried chiles (which can also be spotted at Jamie's Italian), but other than the peppers themselves there was no talk of a special "cuisine" until later.
Currently, "New Mexican Cuisine" is held in such high esteem that restaurants in other states boast of it, as opposed to dreaded gringo Mexican food, which is, in Europe especially, labelled "Tex-Mex" (wrong!). It has gotten so extreme that you can expect to walk into a so called Mexican restaurant anywhere in the USA (or Europe) and expect Old El Paso brand food (apparently the queen's favourite).
Why are the New Mexican restaurants more cultured?
New Mexican restaurants across the USA charge much more than Mexican restaurants, although New Mexico is one of the poorest states, and food is very cheap outside of tourist hotspots. The decor is thoughtful, the chefs are respectable, the ingredients are fresh, and there is an abundance of exciting ingredients like pomegranate and indigenous nuts. The atmosphere plays homage to ancient New Mexico, location of the oldest city in the USA. Increasingly at these out-of-New Mexico restaurants, Mexican-style cheese (usually made in the USA) is used and sopapillas are rare. However, many of the restaurants in Old Town Albuquerque seem to have exploited their new found reputation by charging more while the cheese actually gets yellower.
I asked my mother (who knows everything) about this curious phenomenon and she said New Mexican food is posh because the place most people visit in New Mexico, Santa Fe, is posh.
Santa Fe has a particularly international history and has long been connected with trade from Europe via the Santa Fe trail. Santa Fe Archbishop Jean Baptiste Lamy imposed French culture in this very Southwestern locality, paving the way for the best elements of international cuisine to become incorporated.
As for gringo food, I would like to point out that most Mexican-American taco, burrito and fast food chains are actually Californian. Yes, California is to be thanked for 50 years of Taco Bell, currently serving up tacos in Doritos shells; I am not sure if these are availble at the new UK (Essex and Machester) locations. I have actually heard that they are delicious.
One should note that, according to my mom, the elements which make New Mexican cuisine so special also apply to the food in Texas. In New Mexico and Texas, sauces are chile-based, and not tomato based as they are in central Mexico. Also flour tortillas are popular, in place of corn tortillas and bread.
I wonder if the New Mexico craze is going to hit Europe. So far, Nuno Mendes, the Viajante known for doing his time at Coyote Cafe in Santa Fe, has brought posh to Bethnal Green.
Since when did New Mexican food start meaning something posh?
As a kid I could always tell we were in New Mexico by the abundance of dried chiles (which can also be spotted at Jamie's Italian), but other than the peppers themselves there was no talk of a special "cuisine" until later.
Currently, "New Mexican Cuisine" is held in such high esteem that restaurants in other states boast of it, as opposed to dreaded gringo Mexican food, which is, in Europe especially, labelled "Tex-Mex" (wrong!). It has gotten so extreme that you can expect to walk into a so called Mexican restaurant anywhere in the USA (or Europe) and expect Old El Paso brand food (apparently the queen's favourite).
Why are the New Mexican restaurants more cultured?
New Mexican restaurants across the USA charge much more than Mexican restaurants, although New Mexico is one of the poorest states, and food is very cheap outside of tourist hotspots. The decor is thoughtful, the chefs are respectable, the ingredients are fresh, and there is an abundance of exciting ingredients like pomegranate and indigenous nuts. The atmosphere plays homage to ancient New Mexico, location of the oldest city in the USA. Increasingly at these out-of-New Mexico restaurants, Mexican-style cheese (usually made in the USA) is used and sopapillas are rare. However, many of the restaurants in Old Town Albuquerque seem to have exploited their new found reputation by charging more while the cheese actually gets yellower.
I asked my mother (who knows everything) about this curious phenomenon and she said New Mexican food is posh because the place most people visit in New Mexico, Santa Fe, is posh.
Santa Fe has a particularly international history and has long been connected with trade from Europe via the Santa Fe trail. Santa Fe Archbishop Jean Baptiste Lamy imposed French culture in this very Southwestern locality, paving the way for the best elements of international cuisine to become incorporated.
As for gringo food, I would like to point out that most Mexican-American taco, burrito and fast food chains are actually Californian. Yes, California is to be thanked for 50 years of Taco Bell, currently serving up tacos in Doritos shells; I am not sure if these are availble at the new UK (Essex and Machester) locations. I have actually heard that they are delicious.
One should note that, according to my mom, the elements which make New Mexican cuisine so special also apply to the food in Texas. In New Mexico and Texas, sauces are chile-based, and not tomato based as they are in central Mexico. Also flour tortillas are popular, in place of corn tortillas and bread.
I wonder if the New Mexico craze is going to hit Europe. So far, Nuno Mendes, the Viajante known for doing his time at Coyote Cafe in Santa Fe, has brought posh to Bethnal Green.
