It's a cuisine caught in the middle,
despite its roots and discrimination,
and recent criticism of the
cooking style is unimaginative.
Many chefs consider Tex Mex a
beacon of unity that should be
celebrated for its uniting of both
Mexican and American cultures.
Thank you for coming.
The original Blanco Cafe and
Medical Drive may help you.
The original Blanco Cafe is known for their
awardwinning enchiladas. She's in Chila
Sir would like for
50 years in counting.
Generations of San Antonio's have
filled these dining rooms to grab
a bite of the Tex Mex Classic.
I've been coming here since
probably since I was born.
What is South Texas without Tex
Mex food? It's not South Texas.
If you travel anywhere outside
San Antonio to find these same
rich flavors, good luck, I
believe. That San Antonio
is the home of Tex Mex food.
You don't find this particular style of
Tex Mex food anywhere else. It's a cuisine
embedded in our culture, in our identity.
I love all Mexican food,
but there's something about Tex
Tex Mex that just feels like home
for nearly two centuries.
South Texas, specifically, San Antonio.
Has sat front row center to
witness the evolution of Tex Mex,
which began in the mid 1800s
with the chili Queens.
These women graced San Antonio
plazas with open air food stands,
selling Gisados, a Stew of sorts,
blending European ingredients
with traditional Mexican recipes.
Recipes that date back almost 10,000 years.
You know, wild hair or deer,
A lot of cactus, chili,
squash, beans, corn.
People from all around the country
wanted to come down and experience
these flavors for themselves. The
iconic chili Queens were run out of
business when San Antonio enforced
strict early sanitation reform laws.
It was this idea that if you
weren't white and making these
foods that it wasn't sanitary.
That discrimination was embedded
in that in the food early on.
By the early 40s,
there was no more chili Queens left.
From the 1940s until the 2000s,
the cuisine evolved. To the style many
of us are accustomed to today, Tex Mex
is very commercial. It's cheese,
the yellow cheese introduced to Tex Mex,
pointing to the easy accessibility
of these ingredients at the time.
In Mexico, you don't see
a lot of cheese, yellow cheeses.
It's white cheeses, the cotija,
the queso fresco, things like that.
And so those little changes
started to create its
own type of food. Well,
this is the Nyx to My Life corn.
Right around the exit of the Chili Queens,
Steven Pizzini's family planted
culinary roots in the Alamo City.
My great Uncle Frank in
1932 manufactured and invented
the Molino that we still use
using his grandmother's recipes from Mexico.
The family opened Deca Molino in
1938 and Taco Hut 20 years later.
Each restaurant a Tex Mex staple.
As a child, we called it Mexican food. I
started using the word Tex Mex in 1992,
and in 1996, when I owned the Taco Hut,
I patented A slogan name
where the Tex got the Mex.
OK, you want onions on your enchilada?
Today, Pizzini owns and operates
Lala's Corditas. Right around the
corner from Mission Concepcion,
we consider ourselves the
home of the Puppy Taco.
He serves his grandmother's original recipes
to loyal customers who grew up with them.
Those memories, those smells.
And that's why I did this.
Late last year,
food critics attacked Tex Mex,
proclaiming the death of
the cuisine as we know it.
Cruise your orders. Ready. Cruise.
That strikes a nerve with Chef Pizzini,
and this is Angela.
He believes consistency and
tradition are critical to survival.
Let's celebrate Tex Mex food.
That's not dismissive. It is a cuisine
number one top selling year
round. Chef Juan Rodriguez grew
up selling tamales door to door
with his mother on the West side.
To me, I was fun, I liked
it and I got it with jalapeno
or without and I got been in chief.
He started his own business
selling tamales Los de carnegies
con quesos in queso 25 years ago.
His wife pitched A radical
idea to boost sales.
Thank you. Have a good day. My
wife is white and I'm, I'm Hispanic.
So one day she's all Why don't
we put cream cheese in the
tamales in the chicken tamales?
And I was like, no,
that that's a horrible idea. He took
a leap of faith and tried it.
But these tamales weren't selling in
heavily Hispanic areas around San Antonio.
All these people were telling me
you need to go to Universal City,
where where there's more
white people who might like
cream cheese in their tamales.
They just absolutely loved it.
And just took off from there.
His quick success motivated him to evolve
his menu even further, to Beni cheese,
to Carmizada and to barbacoa.
Adding more non traditional
flavors like barbacoa,
even egg roll ingredients to his tamales.
Thank you, have a good day.
I used to tell my mom bye yolis que
rosos chief Las onis a la gente.
Whatever they want. I want to make it now.
More Tex Mex menus are featuring
health conscious options.
Some people don't eat Lord in their tamales.
You know, so in the masa, there's,
I mean, we make tamales out large.
Hey guys, come on in before our
eyes or next time we cut the carrot
and then mandolin.
We see in many spaces.
We wanted to open a restaurant
that could tell the history of
Mexico through its gastronomy.
We had a lot of fun kind of reworking some
of these ingredients,
the originality of this
cherished cuisine. Coming back,
so here we have our flour tortillas that
we've made using white Sonora wheat.
And on the side we have our
house smoked pecan butter.
More ingredients originating
in Mexico are easier to get.
Right near that coastline off of
Sonora grows the iconic Chile.
Many believe Tex Mex has
come full circle. I think
it's time that we take it back and honor it
the way that it's supposed to be honored.
Let's honor it. Let's respect it.
Let's celebrate.
More importantly, let's eat it.
Alisini Avis, Ken Spy.