Julia’s Mexican Restaurant

Food Guides — page 4

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 Why Street Tacos Come With Two Tortillas One tortilla absorbs, one holds. The starch mechanics behind the doubled tortilla, what to do with the spare, and when you only get one.
Mexican Food Guides Mexican Lent Food: What Changes During Cuaresma Forty days, no red meat on Fridays, and a seafood repertoire that carries the season. Shrimp cakes in chile sauce, romeritos, and a bread pudding with…
Mexican Food Guides Mexican Desserts Explained: Why the Menu Is So Short Flan and tres leches at the restaurant, pan dulce at the bakery, churros on the street. Where each Mexican sweet actually lives, and why that matters.
Mexican Food Guides Mexican Mother’s Day: Why It Is Always May 10 A fixed date, not a floating Sunday, started by a newspaper in 1922. Flowers and a serenade in the morning, then a very long lunch somebody…
Mexican Food Guides Regional Mexican Cuisines Explained: A Map of the Menu Oaxaca means mole, the Yucatan means achiote, Jalisco means birria and the north means beef. What each region cooks, and how to read a menu by…
Mexican Dining Guides How to Spot a Good Mexican Restaurant Forget authenticity. Look for the dishes that take a day, menu descriptions that name their chiles, and the two things every kitchen serves: rice and salsa.
Mexican Food Guides Mexican Empanadas: How They Differ From the Rest Corn masa when fried, wheat when baked, and sweet fillings that are ordinary rather than novel. Where empanadas come from and what the crimp is for.
Mexican Food Guides Who Invented Nachos? The Man, the Border Town, the Date Ignacio Anaya, a maitre d in Piedras Negras, three ingredients and no cook in the kitchen. The original recipe, and how it turned into a stadium…
Mexican Dining Guides Taqueria vs Mexican Restaurant: Which Should You Pick? Short menu at a counter, or a full kitchen with table service. What each format is built to do, and why neither is the more authentic…
Mexican Dining Guides Mexican Rice vs Spanish Rice: Are They the Same? Usually the same dish under two names. The orange is tomato, not saffron, and the reason restaurant rice is fluffy is a step most people skip.
Mexican Food Guides Sopes, Gorditas and Huaraches: Masa Antojitos Explained Same corn dough every time. What separates a sope from a gordita, a tlacoyo from a huarache, and why the beans always go on the base…
Mexican Food Guides Mexican Christmas Food: Posadas, Ponche and Tamales Nine nights of posadas, a very late dinner on Christmas Eve, and a bread in January with a figure baked inside. What gets cooked, and why…