Julia’s Mexican Restaurant

Category: Mexican Food Guides — page 2

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 Adobo? Dried chiles, vinegar, garlic and spice, ground into a paste. What adobo is, what adobada means on a menu, and why it is not the Filipino…
Mexican Food Guides What Is a Jalapeño Pepper? Medium heat, thick-walled, and far more variable than its reputation. Where the heat actually sits, and why two jalapeños are never the same.
Mexican Food Guides Mexican Chiles Explained Fresh chiles taste green; dried ones taste of raisin and smoke, and get new names. Which chile names on a menu are warnings and which are…
Mexican Food Guides What Is a Tomatillo? Small, green, husked and tart — and older in Mexican cooking than the tomato. What a tomatillo is and why salsa verde depends on it.
Mexican Food Guides Flautas vs Taquitos: What’s the Difference? Both are rolled and fried. Flautas are long and usually flour; taquitos are short and usually corn — and plenty of menus use the words interchangeably.
Mexican Food Guides What Are Chilaquiles? Fried tortillas simmered in salsa, topped with crema, cheese and onion. What chilaquiles are, why they are breakfast, and how they differ from nachos.
Mexican Food Guides What Is Achiote? The annatto seed ground into recado rojo. Deep red-orange, earthy, and not spicy despite how it looks — the base of Yucatecan pibil.
Mexican Food Guides What Is a Habanero Pepper? Roughly forty times a jalapeño, and genuinely fruity underneath. How hot a habanero really is and how to read it on a menu.
Mexican Food Guides What Is a Chipotle Pepper? A ripe jalapeño, smoke-dried for days. Same heat, completely different flavor — and why most kitchens buy it canned in adobo.
Mexican Food Guides What Is a Poblano Pepper? Large, dark green and mild. Roasted it becomes rajas or a chile relleno; dried it becomes ancho and ends up in mole.
Mexican Food Guides What Mexicans Eat on Independence Day Chiles en nogada for the flag and the season, pozole because it feeds a crowd. What is actually eaten on 16 September, and why.
Mexican Food Guides What Is Al Pastor? Lebanese Technique, Mexican Pork Shawarma arrived in Puebla with Lebanese immigrants and became the most recognizable taco in Mexico. The trompo, the marinade, and the pineapple.