[Otter74]

I will also defend New Mexican and Tex-Mex for what they are. I used to sort of look down on Tex-Mex as “Americanized” and perhaps it is, a bit, but I eventually learned its history and, besides, it is basically “Mexican” food from the border region, which borders basically just appeared one day(s) - it was all Mexico, once, and the people didn’t go anywhere. I knew very little about New Mexico cooking until recently (nor about New Mexico Spanish, which I find kind of fascinating.)

I winced a bit at my implicitly mentioning Rich Bayless and Diana Kennedy, two Anglo people, as avatars of Mexican cooking in the US, but they are well-known. There is a Mexican chef on the same level whose name I cannot recall right now.

I will also assert, having lived here for 14 years, that Chicago is the best place in the US after the greater LA/SoCal area for finding good Mexican food of all types. About 30% of Chicago is Hispanic and 2/3 of those are either Mexican or Mexican-American.