Julia’s Mexican Restaurant

Category: Mexican Food Guides

Plain explanations of Mexican and Tex-Mex dishes, chiles and menu terms — what each one actually is, how it is made, and what to expect when it reaches the table.

Mexican Food Guides What Is Cochinita Pibil? Spanish pig, Spanish orange, indigenous seed, Maya pit. Slow-cooked until it falls apart and served with sharp pink onion against it.
Mexican Food Guides What Is Guajillo? Long, smooth, deep red and mild. The dried mirasol that gives birria, adobo and pozole their color — and that almost no menu names.
Mexican Food Guides What Is a Quesadilla? One folded tortilla, a melting cheese, a griddle. Why the American version is so much bigger — and why Mexico City makes you ask for the…
Mexican Food Guides Tierra Caliente Food, Explained A hot, dry region across three Mexican states, and a cooking tradition built on dried beef, eggs and chile. Almost invisible outside Mexico.
Mexican Food Guides Serrano vs Jalapeño Same flavor, different heat. Thin and pointed is the hot one; thick and blunt is the mild one — and the mildest serrano beats the hottest…
Mexican Food Guides What Is Mexican Vanilla? An orchid from Veracruz, pollinated by one bee, held as a Mexican monopoly for three centuries. Why it tastes spicier and why it costs what it…
Mexican Food Guides Cajeta vs Dulce de Leche Same method, different milk. Cajeta is goat's milk and tastes tangy; dulce de leche is cow's milk and tastes rounder. Neither one is caramel.
Mexican Food Guides What Is Nixtamalization? Cooking corn with lime is why tortillas smell like corn and why masa holds together without gluten. The process under most of the menu.
Mexican Food Guides Mexican Herbs Explained Cilantro fresh at the end, Mexican oregano dried into the base, epazote cooked into beans. Four herbs, four jobs, and no clean substitutes.
Mexican Food Guides Mexican Food vs Spanish Food Corn, chiles and lard on one side; wheat, saffron and olive oil on the other. Two cuisines that traded ingredients for five centuries and stayed distinct.
Mexican Food Guides What Is a Chile Relleno? A poblano roasted, peeled, stuffed, coated and fried. What is inside, why the coating matters, and why the Puebla origin story is shakier than it looks.
Mexican Food Guides Breakfast Tacos, Explained Eggs and one other thing in a flour tortilla, built to eat with one hand. Where breakfast tacos came from and how to order them.