It’s the salsa.
When you are trying to get your family to have dinner at one of the favorite Mexican restaurants in town, you have been known to use a variety of reasons and tactics. Sometimes you tell your family that you know you are early enough that you will be able to get a seat. Sometimes you tell your daughters that you will get them some fried ice cream for dessert. Sometimes you simply say that the Mexican restaurant that you want to go to is one of the most affordable places you eat. The read truth, however, is that it is all about the salsa.
You enjoy the kind of salsa that is a little sweet. You love the kind of salsa that is salty enough it leaves you drinking lots of water for the rest of the evening. You like the kind of salsa that is thick with diced tomatoes. You even like the salsa that is a little too spicy for you. And while you do have some Mexican restaurants that have better chips than others, the bottom line is that you are really all about the salsa.
Do You Know How to Spot Authentic Mexican Food?
With 67,391 restaurants in the U.S. that serve a burrito how does your family select where they go for Mexican food? For some young children, their favorite Mexican restaurant is the one that serves the fresh warm tortillas. Instead of sitting at their table passively eating crunchy chips, some children love the Mexican restaurant that lets them walk over to the area of the restaurant where someone is going through the repetitive process of grabbing a small ball of dough and putting it onto the tortilla making machine.
And while this person is really making fresh tortillas that will be served to diners with their meals, the tortilla maker is more than happy to share her warm product with they young observers who watch with wonder from the ornamental fence that separates the large, hot machine from the hungry watchers. One trip, two trips, three trips, in an effort to stay both busy and satisfied waiting for their food, many of the young children travel back and forth many times. It is no surprise either that it is sometimes the parents who are requesting just one more warm tortilla before the food arrives.
It is more than a tortilla machine at the front of the best Mexican restaurants that signal to diners that they are entering a place that serves authentic Mexican food. an offering of several authentic sauces can also indicate an authentic menu. For instance, how many of these sauces of Oaxaca , or moles, does your most frequented restaurant serve?
- Amarillo
- Coloradito (brown mole)
- Chichilo
- Manchamantel
- Negro (black/chocolate mole)
- Rojo (red mole)
- Verde
Other authentic Mexican menu items that attract customers to restaurants are local adaptations of many items. For instance, the invention of Tex-Mex in the began a trend that continues to be popular today. Initially, this particular trend of Mexican menu items likely stemmed from the goal of integrating the state of Texas with the neighboring country of Mexico. As more and more people moved from Mexico to Texas, for instance, neighbors may have been exchanging favorite recipes and eventually lead to restaurant distribution of these foods.
Although specific menu items are what attracts some people to Mexican cuisine, others are drawn to a food that is made fresh from both familiar and unique ingredients. Additionally, many people look toward specific healthy items to replace condiments that are much less healthy. For instance, salsa has recently become the number one condiment used in the nation. Surpassing ketchup and mayo, items which often have high amounts of sugars and preservatives, salsa is a condiment that can be made with fresh vegetables. The fact that tortillas have now been outselling hot dog buns since 2010 is another indicator that Mexican foods are more popular because they have more natural ingredients, and fewer artificial ingredients and preservatives.
As of the year 2011, as many as 38,000 Mexican restaurants are dispersed all across the American landscape. Does your family have a favorite Mexican restaurant where they frequently love to eat?
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