Tex-Mex

I was sitting next to a teacher at lunch and after finding out that I’m part Mexican she said, “Oh my God, I love nachos!” I thought about telling her that nachos aren’t really Mexican food, more Tex-Mex and likely created by white folks. But then I decided this sounded a bit uppity and argumentative and figured I shouldn’t say anything.  Plus, even though the ten Mexican food restaurants that exist here are the epitome of it, the lady probably has absolutely no idea what Tex-Mex is.

*Side note* There is one good Mexican restaurant that Tom and I go to from time to time. It’s by no means authentic, since it’s neither owned by a Mexican nor is the food cooked by Mexicans, but their veggie chimichanga is pretty darn good. Although, to be honest, it’s hard to find something in this world that is deep-fried that I won’t say is delicious so it’s not like the standard is set that high.

I would like to introduce that restaurant to Mexican martinis. I think the peeps in this country would love them.

Back to that conversation about nachos….now that I’m writing about it, I’m feeling like that woman saying “I love nachos!” immediately after discovering my heritage is kinda offensive. If someone tells me they’re half Chinese I don’t respond with, “Oh my God, I love fried rice!” or tell an Indian person, “Naan is my absolute favorite” just out of the blue. However if I was going to be offended by anything it would be the fact the she chose nachos as her favorite Mexican food.

This country has so much to learn.

I would absolutely love, love, love, love to open an authentic Mexican restaurant here. There are only a few problems with that. 1) I in no way have the money to open any type of restaurant, let alone one where half the ingredients would have to be shipped across an ocean. 2) Kiwis don’t like spicy foods. They can maybe handle a hint of Asian spice, such as in a curry or a Thai-style soup or something, but the burn of a Habanero would probably feel like death to them.

Although I do think pretty much anyone would want to dive into a vat of queso with their mouths wide open after dipping a chip into some melted cheese for the first time. I simply cannot believe that the amazing-ness that is queso has not spanned across the entire world. When you think about the ratio of simplicity:deliciousness it’s probably just about the best food on the planet. I mean, you can get fancy with it if you so chose, but really all you need to do is melt a big ole’ hunk of cheese, grab a bag of tortilla chips, and hunker down. How has this food not been discovered everywhere?

Here I am talking about authentic Mexican food and I’ve just gone on and on about queso. So maybe I wouldn’t open an authentic Mexican restaurant, I would open an authentic Tex-Mex restaurant.

Maybe I could start a Go Fund Me campaign titled “Help Me Teach Kiwis About Mexican Food”.

The other morning, while playing in the sand pit with some of the preschoolers we were all babbling away to each other and I said something about tacos and the children literally all stopped what they were doing and looked at me and the closest child to me tilted his head to the side and said, “What’s a ta-ko?”

I almost wanted to cry.

Buenas Noches, Amigos.

Geez….now I want Mexican food.

*Addendum* After writing this post I started looking at Mexican restaurants to see if there is one nearby where I can pick up some food for Tom and I. And I have seen that there is indeed a restaurant that serves queso. I will be going there very, very soon.

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