Julia’s Mexican Restaurant

Food Guides — page 2

Guides to Mexican food, drinks and ordering, written from the kitchen at Julia's Mexican Restaurant in Houston. What the dishes are, what the words on a menu mean, and how to order well.

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 Dining Guides Mexican Cooking Methods Explained Asado, a la plancha, guisado, pibil, capeado. The verb on a Mexican menu predicts the plate better than the name of the dish does.
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.
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 Dining Guides Seafood at a Mexican Restaurant Cold citrus-cured dishes from the Pacific, cooked tomato-and-olive plates from the Gulf, and shrimp everywhere. How to read the seafood section.
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 Dining Guides Low-Carb at a Mexican Restaurant The starch sits in five things: tortillas, rice, beans, chips and masa. What the rest of the menu is made of, and what to ask.
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.
Drink Guides What Are Aguas Frescas? Fruit, flowers or rice blended with water and a little sugar. The non-alcoholic drinks in the big glass jars, and which one to order with what.
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.