Last week, NYC was blessed with its second recent Tex-Mex takeover with El Original, a sprawling Hell's Kitchen eatery realized in part by Lisa Fain. That name may not turn on lightbulbs for most New Yorkers, but Tex-pats know Fain as the Homesick Texan, who's been writing recipes and offering advice to New Yorkers who once called the Lone Star State home. As the local expert on Tex-Mex, we talked with Fain about the origin of the cuisine, the introduction of breakfast tacos and the pursuit of queso.
What's the biggest misconception about Tex-Mex cuisine? The biggest misconception is that Tex-Mex is pretending to be Mexican cuisine. It's not. This largely stems from the fact that until the 1970s, it was labeled Mexican food. I know that I grew up calling it that! But after writers such as Diana Kennedy insisted that what we were serving in Texas wasn't Mexican cuisine but American cuisine, Texans embraced its uniqueness and the name began to change. Tex-Mex is a glorious American regional cuisine that is a delicious mish-mash of many cultures—including Native American, Spanish, French, English, and German—much like the state itself.
I was wondering when you started the blog and were moving on into writing books, was helping to open a restaurant ever part of your plan or was this something that sort of came about one day? No, it was never part my plan. It's funny, when I go out on a book tours for my two books, I've actually had a lot of people ask me, "Do you plan to open a restaurant?" I'm a home cook, I'm not a professionally-trained chef and in college I actually worked front-of-the-house as a waitress at a Tex-Mex restaurant, but I had no experience in the restaurant kitchen.
I never really thought about it until I met Paul and Michael, two of the managing partners at El Original, who are both Texans. They had been long time readers of my blog and my books and the three of us just really hit it off. Until recently, there was a real dearth of Tex-Mex in New York City. They shared with me their ideas. I'd been writing full time for five years and I was just wrapping up a book tour and I kinda wanted to take a little break. I thought working on the restaurant would be a fun way to take a break, so I'm calling it my "Restaurant Sabbatical."
(El Original)
What's the secret to quality queso? Is Velveeta/Ro-Tel ever okay in your book? The combination of Velveeta and Ro-Tel makes for a classic home-style queso, and it's what I grew up eating, along with most Texans. I have no problem with it! For me, I think the key to a great queso is several things. First, the consistency: you want it thin enough to be able to dip your chip into it but thick enough to stay on the chip. It's a delicate balance! A flavorful mix of green chile peppers, tomatoes, cilantro, and aromatics stirred into the queso is also important. And a little spice, such as a dash of cumin and pinch of cayenne, and a squirt of lime juice also takes queso over the top.
Are individually topped nachos a big deal in Texas? Absolutely. It's one of the few places that you still see people making them that way. All my friends grew up eating individually topped nachos and tell stories about their parents and grandparents making nachos this way for their family and friends. You could say that the preference is passed down from generation to generation.
Were there any Tex-Mex dishes you wanted on the menu but didn't make it? There's a ton of things. Tex-Mex cuisine across the state of Texas has little hyper regions within it. So the Tex-Mex you eat in Houston is not like the Tex-Mex in Dallas, for instance. What we'll probably do is introduce things as specials and just see if they catch on or not. There's a dish from Texas called the "Cheese Taco" that you pretty much only see in the Dallas area. It's called a cheese taco, but it's not really a taco. It's more like a cheese enchilada: it's cheese that's been stuffed into a corn tortilla and the corn tortilla is rolled. Instead of being covered in enchilada sauce, it's covered in queso. It's literally just ooey gooey cheesy things that Dallas people love. It's amazing! So yeah, I'm gunning for that to be on one of the next iterations of the menu, hopefully.
Speaking of things that aren't on the menu, one of the big things I gravitated towards in the time I spent in Texas were actually breakfast foods like breakfast tacos and migas. Are there any plans to introduce a breakfast or brunch menu that would feature those types of items? Oh yeah, absolutely. We're probably going to be introducing breakfast and brunch in the next few weeks. Because the restaurant is in a hotel, we're going to be open for breakfast everyday so it'll be really great for people who work in the area to get breakfast tacos before work.
Armadillo Eggs (El Original)
Can you talk a little bit about armadillo eggs? Because it was something that I was not familiar with and I think that other non-Texan New Yorkers are going to be sorta curious and confused and sort of wondering what they are! They're a popular snack in Texas that can be served two ways: breaded, as we're serving them at the restaurant, or they can just be sausage that's wrapped around the jalapeño and cream cheese and cheddar. They're kind of a fusion of a jalapeno popper and a Scotch egg.
I don't know if they're a protected state animal or not [Ed. Note: kinda], but armadillos are very iconic in Texas culture you see them along the roads often and Texans just love armadillos in general. So I think that's where the name came from. They're a very delicious snack that Texans like to eat and I was surprised when I came to New York that no one had ever heard of them. But you know there have been a lot of things that since I've been here that are very, very common and popular in Texas and you leave the state and nobody knows what they are.
I was really excited when Shiner came to New York City a few years ago. Is there a Texas product or store we don't have in New York City that you wish would come here? Oh, absolutely! This will never arrive, but there’s a grocery store chain called H-E-B and it is the best grocery store ever. The regular H-E-Bs are amazing but they have a special market called Central Market and if you talk to any Texan, H-E-B or Central Market, they will just light up. Everyone just loves H-E-B or Central Market in Texas, but I don't ever think they're ever going to leave the state of Texas.
So that I'd love to have that here but I don't think that's going to happen. But TopoChico, which is this sparkling mineral water from Mexico, is ubiquitous in Texas. If you're not drinking Shiner Bock, you're drinking TopoChico. That was here in Whole Foods a couple of years ago for like a month and then it went away, but I have hope that TopoChico will be back here soon. It's like the most refreshing sparkling water, because you know a lot of sparkling waters actually have sodium in them, so they make you more thirsty. Everyone loves TopoChico, it's so refreshing.
You've been pivotal in bringing Tex-Mex into the minds of New York City, especially for people who aren't from Texas so how do you feel now that Texas and Tex-Mex food has become very trendy? I love it. You know, I will have been here 20 years in May and it just makes me so happy to finally see all these things that I was missing finally catching on and gaining popularity in the mainstream. I'm just pinching myself that people are finally—at my restaurant and other places that are opening—getting to enjoy excellent Tex-Mex.
