Seafood and Tex Mex?

[RebeccaT]

Hi Robb,

First of all, I want to thank you for writing such great restaurant reviews in the Houston Press. Your review of T'afia was responsible for me going there for my birthday, and the Texas Wine Tasting menu that night was one of the best meals of my life. I am forever in your debt.

My question is regarding seafood usage in Tex Mex foods. It seems that one rarely sees anything beyond the odd shrimp fajita dinner when it comes to seafood offerings in Tex Mex restaurants. Why is this? Is it because those most likely to make their way north across the border were not from the coast? Or is there some other reason?

Thanks so much for your time!

Rebecca

[Robb Walsh]

If you stop to think that refrigeration didn't become common until the 1950s, you realize that historically, there was little opportunity for people who didn't live along the coast to eat seafood.

That explains the lack of seafood in old time Tex Mex.

Interestingly, frog's legs were once pretty common.

Ceviche entered the TexMex appetizer arena in the 1980s. And, of course, the oyster nacho and the salmon nacho are now part of the Modern Tex Mex menu at restaurants like Acenar in San Antonio.

Fish tacos emigrated here from San Diego and Baja recently as well.

There are recipes it the Tex-Mex Cookbook for oyster nachos, crab salad and redfish ceviche.

[fifi]

Fish tacos emigrated here from San Diego and Baja recently as well.

But am I right in noticing that we have Tex-Mex'd those, too? Most commonly, those I see here use lettuce tomato and some sort of sauce or salsa. Those I have had in Baja used shredded cabbage, a creamy sauce maybe and were pretty simple. I really hadn't thought about it until I went to someplace here (Cabo's?) and the menu had a "Baja style" option with the cabbage.

[Robb Walsh]

Sure, we Tex-Mex everything.

Matt's El Rancho in Austin has a dynamite Tex-Mex Chicken Fried Steak, it's topped with chili instead of cream gravy.

[bleachboy]

Matt's El Rancho in Austin has a dynamite Tex-Mex Chicken Fried Steak, it's topped with chili instead of cream gravy.

droooool...