Book #8: The Tex-Mex Cookbook

Title: The Tex-Mex Cookbook: A History in Recipes and Photos
Author: Robb Walsh

A cookbook, you ask yourself? Does that really count? Normally, I'd say that an average perusal of a cookbook would not count toward the 50 book challenge, but in this case, I actually read every word of this cookbook (well, not all of the directions on all of the recipes). In fact, it's really not all about the recipes in this book. There are very few that I'd ever actually invest the energy into making. With literally thousands of Tex-Mex restaurants in the metro area, I'd much rather let my fingers do the walking and order in authentic take out. Although, I think that Walsh would take issue with my use of "authentic" since one of the main objectives of the book seems to debunk the myth that Mex-Mex food is inherently better than Tex-Mex food. He also loudly sings the praises of velveeta and lard-- lots of lard. As a recent transplant to Texas, I saw reading this book as a way of understanding the history and culture of the place I now call home. And it made me hungry, yes, very hungry, despite the lard.

My only beef (pun intended) is that it failed to address a question that has been bothering me since we moved to Texas-- why ground beef? When we lived in Utah, and even in St. Louis and Minnesota, we could always get an enchilada or a taco with shredded beef. Here in Texas, beef tacos invariably have ground beef. If you don't want ground beef you have to order fajita meat, which is fine, but I just want to know why. So, if you know, would you please enlighten me?

--originally published 2/13/06