Dear SXSW Hipsters: Don’t Follow The NY Times Advice About Mexican Food

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Dear SXSW Hipsters: Don’t Follow The NY Times Advice About Mexican Food

Posted on 10 March 2010 by oscar

From: Guanabee

This morning we were amused to read a headline in the New York Times that said, “Tacos in the Morning? That’s the Routine in Austin“. As any of you who are Mexican-American probably know, tortillas are basically bread to Mexicans, so of course they are present at breakfast. They are present at every meal. It’s like saying, “Bread at breakfast?” Well, yeah. It’s called toast. We’re used to that kind of ignorance from Americans, but what really got us all wound up was this line:

When it comes to breakfast tacos, however, Austin trumps all other American cities.

Oh. No. They. Didn’t. Look, America. We love Austin. Some of us choose to make it our homes, we love it so much. But, we’re sorry. Austin did not invent the concept of serving breakfast tacos, nor does it own the title of Best Tasting Breakfast Tacos. Nor does it even own the title of Good Tasting Breakfast Tacos. It may own the title of Creative Breakfast Tacos. Like any modern, progressive American city, Austin took the idea of the breakfast taco, (which, by the way, is owned by the Rio Grande Valley and done very, very well in San Antonio, too.), and figured out how to gringofy it (cover it in cheddar cheese), produce it more efficiently (store-bought tortillas) and re-interpret it five ways to Sunday (our favorite is filled with Texas BBQ). Of course, the SXSW hungover crowd will not know the difference when they dig into some eggs and bacon on a store-bought flour tortilla buried alive in orange cheese. But just know, gringo hipster, that you are eating the McDonald’s version of the breakfast taco.

In the Rio Grande Valley, and in particular Brownsville, where your editor’s experience mostly lies, breakfast tacos are listed alongside oatmeal and eggs and bacon on the menus at Mexican diners that are only open for breakfast and lunch. These have been operating since Tejanos put food to mouth. The tortillas consumed are primarily flour, are always homemade and usually twice the size of your head. There is never, REPEAT NEVER, any cheese involved. The beans, sigh, are cooked in salt pork. You will never taste beans this good again in your life. In the Rio Grande Valley (and most of South Texas including San Antonio) they eat them filled with things like machacado (dried beef), chorizo con huevo (mexican sausage scrambled with eggs–our circle calls it “The Orange” for the orange grease that drips down from it as you lift your taco to your mouth), carne guisada (stewed beef) and papas con huevo (eggs scrambled with potatoes). They melt in your frikkin mouth.

So when you go to Austin, the best thing to do is eat what Austin does best which is innovative Mexican. Like at Bouldin Creek Coffee House where they make this VEGGIE chorizo to die for. We are not vegetarian and we actually used to make special trips from New York just to eat this stuff. They serve it in tortillas with cheese. We get them on corn without cheese and a side of cantaloupe. Mmm.

We have found a place in Austin that makes their beans with salt pork! It’s a little off the beaten path but it’s called Casa Maria and it’s on South First below Ben White. This joint also serves menudo–the breakfast of champions. They also have a panaderia, or Mexican bakery next door.

One of the restaurants listed in the New York Times story, El Chilito, does make good tacos de barbacoa. Barbacoa is a Mexican barbecue that is traditionally eaten on Sunday mornings. Of course, los americanos have made it available every day of the week. Don’t ask what’s in it, but it’s goooood.

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Categorized | Business, Latino News, Uncategorized

Dear SXSW Hipsters: Don’t Follow The NY Times Advice About Mexican Food

Posted on 10 March 2010 by oscar

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