50 Fun Facts About Tex-Mex

The word Tex-Mex is derived from the names of which two places?

It is also called Tejano cuisine after the people who created it.

Which people's cooking is Tex-Mex cuisine built on?

Tejanos are Texans of Mexican descent; the food is a subtype of Southwestern cuisine.

Which spice, rare in Mexico, did Canary Island settlers bring to Texas cooking?

It is used in only a few central Mexican recipes but is everywhere in Tex-Mex.

Which tortilla type is characteristic of Tex-Mex rather than most Mexican cooking?

Shredded cheese, beans and chili peppers are the other hallmarks.

A fajita served without a tortilla is called a fajita what?

Tex-Mex dishes are sometimes made tortilla-free.

In which Mexican border town were nachos invented?

It lies across the river from Eagle Pass, Texas.

What was the nickname of Ignacio Anaya, who invented nachos?

He improvised the dish in 1943 at the Victory Club when the cook could not be found.

In what year did Anaya create nachos at the Victory Club?

His original recipe was printed in the 1954 St. Anne's Cookbook.

Which cheese did Anaya use on the first nachos?

He added sliced pickled jalapenos and heated the lot for a group of US officers' wives.

At which ballpark were 'ballpark nachos' with cheese sauce launched in 1976?

Frank Liberto of Ricos Products sold them at Texas Rangers games.

Which sportscaster's on-air enthusiasm for nachos in 1978 spread the dish nationwide?

He kept mentioning them for weeks after a Colts-Cowboys Monday Night Football game.

On what date is the International Day of the Nacho?

A bronze plaque honouring Anaya stands in Piedras Negras.

Which cut of beef is the classic fajita meat?

The word is a diminutive for the little strips cut from the beef skirt.

The Spanish word faja, root of fajita, means what?

It descends from the Latin fascia, meaning band.

Who ran the first commercial fajita taco stand, in Kyle, Texas, in 1969?

He was an Austin meat market manager; the stand appeared at a 16 de septiembre celebration.

Otilia Garza is credited with adding which signature touch to fajitas?

She got the idea from queso flameado served on cast iron in Acapulco, at her Round-Up Restaurant in Pharr.

Which Houston restaurant popularised the fajita from 1973?

The Hyatt Regency in Austin and San Antonio restaurants followed.

Fajitas mixing steak, chicken and shrimp are usually labelled with which word?

The original Tex-Mex dish used steak only.

In what year did the word fajita first appear in print, per the OED?

The dish itself dates to 1930s ranch cooking in South and West Texas.

Tex-Mex cheese dip is thought to derive from which Chihuahuan dish?

That dish comes from the state of Chihuahua.

Which processed cheese is often the base of restaurant queso?

Unlike chips and salsa, queso usually costs extra.

What is a chimichanga?

Most researchers think it was invented by accident in an Arizona restaurant.

In which Arizona city is the chimichanga's US birthplace usually placed?

El Charro Cafe founder Monica Flin supposedly dropped a burrito in the fryer in the early 1950s.

The El Charro legend says Monica Flin shouted 'chimichanga' instead of what?

The word is a Spanish equivalent of 'thingamajig'.

Frito pie is traditionally served in what?

The bag is split down the middle and chili, cheese and onion are piled in.

Which Santa Fe lunch counter is sometimes credited with the 'true' 1960s Frito pie?

Teresa Hernandez served it there with homemade red chili con carne.

What is the Midwestern name for a Frito pie made in a single-serve bag?

In the Ohio Valley it is 'taco-in-a-bag'; in Southern California, 'pepper bellies'.

Which restaurant opened at Disneyland in 1955 with Frito Chili Pie on the menu?

Frito founder Charles Doolin was an early Disneyland investor.

Chili con carne became the official state dish of Texas in which year?

The 65th Legislature passed House Concurrent Resolution 18.

The 'chili queens' who sold chili from casual stands were famous in which city?

Chili largely originated with working-class Tejana and Mexican women.

At which 1893 fair did a Texas chili stand give many Americans their first taste?

The fair was held in Chicago.

Who produced the first canned chili, in 1908?

Lyman Davis had developed Wolf Brand Chili near Corsicana in 1895.

Wick Fowler's chili, later sold as a spice kit, went by what name?

A columnist said it opened 'eighteen sinus cavities unknown to the medical profession'.

Which spirit is the base of a margarita?

Triple sec and lime juice complete the classic, with salt or Tajin on the rim.

Margarita is Spanish for which flower?

Historian David Wondrich sees it as a brandy daisy remade with tequila.

Which singer was the Galveston bartender Santos Cruz said to have named the margarita for?

The 1948 story places it at the Balinese Room.

Which magazine printed the first known margarita recipe, in December 1953?

Jose Cuervo had already been advertising the drink in 1945.

Which Santa Fe diner claims the first menu use of 'breakfast burrito', in 1975?

McDonald's introduced its own version in the late 1980s.

Who popularised the triangular tortilla chip in 1940s Los Angeles?

She fried misshapen rejects from her tortilla machine and sold them for a dime a bag.

Which Texas restaurateur opened the Mexican Inn in Houston in 1929 and later led LULAC?

His mild, cheap dishes, like spaghetti con chile, were aimed at Anglo diners.

What was the unhyphenated word 'TexMex' first used to abbreviate?

The Texas Mexican Railway was chartered in 1875.

In what year was 'Tex-Mex' first used in print as a food label, in a syndicated article?

The OED's first citations are from 1963 and 1966, but the 1960 article predates them.

Whose 1972 book The Cuisines of Mexico separated Mexican from Americanized Mexican food?

Robb Walsh called it a breakthrough 'that could have been written only by a non-Mexican'.

Chef Adan Medrano prefers which name for the food instead of Tex-Mex?

He argues it was the indigenous cooking of South Texas long before the border existed.

Which 1986 film made Tex-Mex explode in Paris, according to restaurateur Claude Benayoun?

'Everybody in Paris wanted a shot of tequila and a bowl of chili.'

Which two brands introduced Tex-Mex to the Nordic countries and UK in the early 1990s?

Local twists include gouda and taco fillings stuffed into pita.

In which Norwegian city had Tex-Mex been sold on a small scale since the late 1960s?

The rest of the Nordics caught on only in the 1990s.

Who founded Chili's in Dallas in 1975?

The first location was a converted postal station on Greenville Avenue.

In which California city did Glen Bell open the first Taco Bell in 1962?

The 400-square-foot building sold tacos, burritos and tostadas for 19 cents each.

Josef Centeno's 2019 cookbook Ama is subtitled 'a Modern ... Kitchen' of which cuisine?

The New Yorker named it one of the best cookbooks of 2019.