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Food

Taste the true flavors of Mexico

Say goodbye to "Tex-Mex." More restaurants are going to their roots to introduce "real" Mexican food to U.S. diners.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published May 10, 2006

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The tamales at Jose Avalos' Mexican restaurants are wrapped and steamed in corn husks, a traditional way to give them flavor.

The chilies rellenos - roasted peppers stuffed with pork or fresh Mexican cheese - are no longer made with generic green bell peppers but with authentic poblano ones.

It's part of a push to introduce Americans to more authentic Mexican cooking.

With the country's Hispanic population swelling to more than 41-million - most with Mexican ancestry - U.S. restaurants are slowly moving beyond the casual fare of tacos, burritos and combo plates that are little more than sanitized versions of the real deal.

Avalos, 34, left Mexico with his parents in 1978 and owns 12 restaurants, including Las Margaritas in suburban Columbus. Most of his customers aren't immigrants or Hispanic.

"Americans are more open to trying new things than they were 10 or 15 years ago," he said. "We're trying to be authentic with our food, but there's still an educational process that needs to take place before people really adopt it."

Mexican restaurant chains reported $15.4-billion in sales in 2004, the latest data available from Technomic Inc., an industry research firm in Chicago. That's up from $12.9-billion in 2000.

Mexican food - along with Italian and Chinese - has become so popular that it has joined the mainstream and is hardly viewed as being ethnic anymore, said Steve Anderson, president and CEO of the National Restaurant Association.

But what most Americans consider "Mexican" food is essentially Tex-Mex, a style developed more than 50 years ago with the fusion of recipes brought by Mexican immigrants to Texas and other border states in the American Southwest, observers say.

Hard taco shells filled with ground beef, cheese, lettuce and sour cream are as familiar as hot dogs in the United States, but they're not Mexican. Neither are nachos.

Another misconception is that Mexican food is spicy hot. That's not the way Mexicans enjoy their food, said Rick Bayless, a Chicago chef and restaurant owner and host of the PBS series Mexico: One Plate at a Time.

Real Mexican food is never covered with melted cheese, and most authentic dishes are never served with rice and beans, he said.

"You're starting to see Mexican cooking in this country evolve, but we're probably a generation away," said Bayless, noting that it took decades for Italian restaurants in the United States to move away from generic spaghetti-and-meatball dishes that were mass marketed.

Some restaurants, though, are sticking with time-tested formulas. Taco Bell, the fast-food chain that helped popularize the hard-shell taco in the United States, has no plans to abandon what it calls its "Mexican-inspired" menu, spokesman Rob Poetsch said.

Defining "authentic" Mexican food is tricky because of regional cooking differences within the country. But roasted chili peppers are used extensively to make a variety of salsas, which aren't used for dipping chips but to garnish and season shredded beef, pork and chicken.

Many Americans are unaware of Mexico's exotic soups and rich seafood dishes, said Jim Peyton, 62, a San Antonio, Texas, restaurant consultant and author of four Mexican cookbooks.

Immigrants who want the real thing typically stay at home and make it themselves or seek out neighborhood mom-and-pop restaurants, Peyton said.

"Words like 'authentic' and 'real' are scary to some Americans who might not know what they're ordering and might not like it," said Bob Hogan, senior vice president for marketing at Avado Brands Inc., which last year bought Don Pablo's, one of the largest Mexican restaurant chains in the United States.

That's a big reason why many Mexican restaurants are being cautious, Hogan said.

To help customers feel at ease, the menu at Abuelo's Mexican Food Embassy contains detailed descriptions of each specialty entree, said Bob Lin, president of Food Concepts International, which operates 34 Abuelo's restaurants in the United States. Also, servers are trained to know the ingredients of each dish so they can thoroughly answer questions.

Revenue at the private company has grown from $46-million in 2003 to $84-million last year, Lin said.

Don Pablo's, which was founded in Dallas in the mid 1980s, watered down its menu as it expanded into the Midwest - fearful that consumers wouldn't embrace bold flavors - Hogan said.

But the company is slowly adopting the trend toward authenticity. Carnitas - shredded pork served with fresh avocados - was put on the menu last year, and customers were provided with eating instructions on how to put the pork in a tortilla and add various toppings.

"Americans aren't used to squeezing limes all over their food," Hogan said.

The experiment was successful enough that in July, Don Pablo's plans to introduce a shrimp and rice entree based on recipes popular in the port city of Veracruz, Mexico, he said.

TRUE MEXICAN CUISINE

HISTORY: Mexican food is a blend of indigenous Indian and Spanish traditions. Corn was a staple of Mayan and Aztec diets, along with beans and chili peppers. Spanish colonists introduced cream, cheese, chicken and pork.

CHILI PEPPERS: Varieties abound. When roasted and crushed, chiles are used to make a variety of sauces, which season meats featured in main dishes.

MOLE: Classic and complex Mexican sauce. Mole (pronounced mol-lay) poblano is a popular version, made with chile peppers, spices and unsweetened chocolate. Often used to prepare chicken and turkey.

SOUPS: An integral part of Mexican life. Pozole (puh-ZOL-lay) is a traditional stewlike soup made with pork or chicken, white corn and served with oregano, lettuce, avocado slices and lime juice.

SEAFOOD: Dish of choice along the Mexican coasts. Seasoned huachinango (red snapper) is popular in Veracruz.

- ASSOCIATED PRESS

[Last modified May 10, 2006, 06:40:42]