Tex-Mex 25 years from now?

[fifi]

Given the discussion on this thread, would you be willing to speculate on what Tex-Mex will look like in 25 years?

[Robb Walsh]

25 years from now, Tex-Mex will still be the simple, inexpensive peasant food of Texas,

25 years from now, Tex-Mex food will join Tex-Mex music as a favorite of blue collar Northern Mexicans.

25 years from now, New York will have America's largest Mexican population and a growing interest in things Mexican.

[fifi]

Yeah, yeah, yeah...

But what will the food taste like?

[ExtraMSG]

Further, do you worry that Tex-Mex will lose a lot of its unique properties as influences from California and the broader tastes of America are imported and exchanged?

Obviously, Tex-Mex has always been a cuisine in transition, as all are, and I wouldn't expect a French or Italian style response, such as certifying what can be called "nachos". But do you worry that the inventions of the cuisine will be lost and that as geography becomes less and less important, Tex-Mex will just be subsumed into the greater Mexican-American food? Do you see your book as some measure to document great dishes that might be lost?

[Robb Walsh]

Further, do you worry that Tex-Mex will lose a lot of its unique properties as influences from California and the broader tastes of America are imported and exchanged?

...do you worry that the inventions of the cuisine will be lost and that as geography becomes less and less important, Tex-Mex will just be subsumed into the greater Mexican-American food?  Do you see your book as some measure to document great dishes that might be lost?

I see it the other way around.

Tex-Mex has long been a pejorative term meaning Americanized (bastardized) Mexican food. So it's already subsumed in a larger category that includes ball park nachos and Taco Bell.

In the book, I hoped to illustrate that the Texas variety of Tex-Mex is something unique--that it came from a real culture and is in fact, a very old American regional cuisine.

I have no fears about where it goes from here.

Edited July 22, 2004 by Robb Walsh (log)