This looks like a handy reference for you: List of Mexican dishes

Quick run down of what's on your list.

Taco is a tortilla filled with meat and folded in half.

Tortilla is the foundation for Mexican food. Tortillas can be made with corn or flour. Corn are used for enchiladas and general eating with other dishes. Flour tortillas are used for burritos.

Tamales are made from ground corn and lard (masa) spread on a corn husk (or banana leaf) and may be filled with meat. They are wrapped and then steamed. May be served with salsa.

Burrito is a larger flour tortilla filled with beans, meat, lettuce and other veggies. Generally served naked but some folks serve them "wet" which means covered with sauce.

Enchilada (means "in chile") is a corn tortilla filled with meat or cheese covered with a sauce made from ground chiles. If covered with mole, they are called enmoladas.

Chimichanga is a non-Mexican creation. Think of it as a fried burrito.

Fajitas are grilled meat (steak, chicken, shrimp) with grilled veggies (peppers, onions), served with sides of guacamole and salad like stuff.

Chalupa is a non-Mexican creation. It can be any thicker tortilla filled with stuff. Who knows?

Navajo fry bread is an Indian (North American) dough that is rolled flat and then fried. Never had it but it looks similar to fried pizza dough. Heard it's good!

I know a lot about Mexican food so please let me know if you have questions.

They all taste about the same to me, some are fried, some have sauce, some have chicken but all American styled mexican restaurants I have ever been too- lots, use the same ten ingredients over and over with enough variety to have 73 lunch options. So, for the basic restaurant, nothing fancy, I usually sub chicken for beef and add an order of pico de gallo to supplement the standard boring salsa. I do like fajitas though as they have peppers and onions too.

Navajo fry bread, as above, is a flat bread that is deep fried. It is often covered with a mixture of meat, beans, and red or green chile sauce, then lettuce, fresh tomato, cheese, maybe sour cream, etc. It is yummy but very calorie dense.

In New Mexico, tamales are often served sauce, most often red sauce. They are a bit dry to eat without a sauce. There are also sweet tamales but they are rarely seen in restaurants.

Yeah Snidely, I appreciate the clarity....I probably should have said "a mixture of ground corn flour and lard, commonly known as masa". I was trying to brain dump too quickly! ;) Masa is a general term for this ground corn/lard mixture with several variations. There's a tamale version, a tortilla version, a gordita version....and so on. Masa is just a better general way of saying it.

Mexican food is exceptionally diverse and differs by region. I don't think our US restaurants do the cuisine justice.

I don't think that's true, snidely. Within an hour of my house, there are probably 25 American Mexican restaurants I am being conservative with the number, too) all owned by Mexicans. We have a fairly large Mexican population here. The food is good, but it seems like they have a conspiracy to only produce what Americans seem to want as they are all nearly identical.There are slight variations, of course, some are better than others, but they are generally very popular places to eat even if not authentic. That here, is a much higher price point.

I could drive 2-5 hours away and find the same thing....

Even in Mexico, the best Mexican food is made in homes rather than in restaurants, although I've had very good street food in Mexico City. My favorite city in Mexico for food is Mérida (Yucatan) where there is a large Lebanese population, and so it is common to find pita bread there. I like the Mayan spice blends much better than the Oaxacan, and I've spent a lot of time in Oaxaca buying things to sell.

In Mexico, tacos are made with two corn tortillas that are generally rolled and are never crispy. I've never had a burrito in Mexico, but they are common in Texas and California.

Here's some info regarding Tex-Mex vs Mexican food that may be helpful. As you can see, fajitas were invented in Texas; Margaritas were supposedly invented in El Paso. Having grown up in Texas, I had mostly Tex-Mex food, but then I spent a good deal of time in Mexico in the 1970s and early 80s (to avoid the cold winters of San Francisco), and I visited all regions of the county. Today there are a lot of upscale restaurants in Mexico City that are nothing like what I experienced decades ago.

I admit, I am curious. What are the differences in the Mayan and Oaxacan spice blends?

I need to spend some more time with a wider variety of Mexican recipes. Not much of the New Mexican style food uses tomatillos and they are actually more dependable for me than tomatoes in the garden so I need to start exploring more uses for them.

Y'all are talking about what we call "G#$%%" food. :) That made of the same ingredients thing is a restaurant business thing, not a Mexican food thing. There's a place I've been to which has like 15 lunch salads trying to entice the ladies who lunch crowd, but in that case, too, they're all the same ingredients arranged differently. They actually encourage this in restaurant science classes and texts because it reduces inventory, prep and wastage costs, but it's flippin' boring!

I've also experienced "Mexican" food in the Mid-West which was obviously made by clueless people who read about it in a trade magazine, but have had really good Mexican food in Lexington, KY, at a place owned and run by Mexicans.

If it comes from a chain restaurant, it's probably bland and boring. I say "probably" because I haven't tried them all. :)

Mexican food made by Mexicans for Mexicans is wonderful! The street food is good, but the cuisine is amazing!

The thing about all of these is that the flavor comes from the spices, herbs, and vegetables. How they're assembled is the least of it. If you're choosing at a restaurant, ask for a description of the meats, etc., involved and choose by the flavor you want.

"Masa harina" is hominy, and is what people usually mean around here when they say "masa", though "masa" just means "dough" and is equally correct they way Dees used it. You do need the lime washed cornmeal to make tortillas, however.

A tortilla is literally a small loaf. It is a flatbread that is usually made from masa, except in the North where it might be white wheat flour, though food travels and it might be anywhere nowadays.

A taco can be flat, folded or rolled like a cigarillo. It is a small tortilla, almost always corn, with a filling, and rarely with any kind of sauce on top. It can also be grilled or fried, or the tortilla can be grilled before it's assembled.

Tamales are steamed dumplings wrapped in leaves (cornhusks, banana leaves or even vine leaves). The dough is masa, which is sometimes made with fruit, and the fillings can include shredded spiced meat, vegetables and/or cheese. Tamales are traditional food for Christmas, though are eaten all year round.

Classic burritos (little donkeys) are take along food, like pasties or pierogi, because they're all wrapped up. They're usually made with wheat flour tortillas because the gluten helps hold them together. My mother grew up next to one of the old Californio ranchos. She (along with the children of the house) would go into the kitchen before the school bus came, and grab a tortilla, smear it with chili or beans from the pot that was always hot on the stove, and fold up a burrito to keep their hands, and tummies, warm while waiting in the morning fog. A fancier burrito might also have rice in it. The modern restaurant interpretation of a burrito as a pound or more of bland filling wrapped in two tortillas and soaked in sauce, sour cream, unspiced guacamole and flavorless salsa picante, is only similar the way eggrolls are, by the rolling of the wrapper.

Chimichangas (deep fried burritos) are mostly served in the US Southwest and the Mexican Northwest. I just looked it up, and found a non-definitive source that suggests they were invented in Tucson almost 100 years ago. Considering where they're usually found, that makes sense.

Enchiladas are the Mexican version of stuffed crepes or cannelloni. They're tortillas (generally corn) wrapped around any sort of filling, usually a combination of a protein or cheese and vegetables) and covered with a sauce made from chilis. The are a zillion ways to make the sauce, and even more kinds of fillings. The filling should also have flavor, however, and not depend on the sauce.

Fajitas are literally strips of skirt steak, and are Tejano (Texan) in origin. They were commonly eaten by cowboys as the skirt used to be an undesirable cut for sale. The dish that has become popularized as "fajitas" is often made with other cuts because there isn't enough skirt steak, and it's no longer cheap. The trick with skirt, which runs tough, however, is to marinate it with acids and cook it very quickly. The current restaurant version of fajitas traces back to Ninfa's restaurant in Houston. Usually, you'll see the meat grilled with bell pepper and onion slices, but the word refers to the meat, and you'll also see fajitas tacos and the like.

Chalupas come from the Southern part of Mexico and I'm not very familiar with them. They're sort of like the authentic Mexican version of the '80's restaurant staple of the fried tortilla bowl tostada. The chalupa is tortilla dough fried in a boat shape (it means "boat"), and topped with meat, etc. Less salad than the American tostada.

Tostada (toasted) is a tortilla fried or grilled crisp and topped with meat and vegetables. American style ones are often more like salads.

Can someone explain how tamales are served and eaten. What happens with the corn husks/banana peels? I 'm familiar with all the others, but have only heard about tamales.

If the tamales are served with a chili, gravy or other topping, the husks should be removed in the kitchen. If they are served family style, without a topping or with a topping on the side, they are more likely to be in the husk. If you see a wrapper rather than a corn dough, you need to unwrap them and the peels should go onto a separate plate or bowl. Generally speaking, the only time I have to unwrap them is when I prepare them or perhaps in a buffet. Chances are, you won't have to worry about it, but i'ts good that you are aware the possibility exists.

Depends on where you are. Standing around a kitchen or walking down the street, you just untie them, and nibble, or use a spoon, depending on how stiff they are. Licking the wrapper in public is as rude as it sounds.

At a sit down dinner, they're often unwrapped and plated, with some accompaniments, and sometimes even a little sauce and garnish on top--but at that point they're much fancier tamales. Generally eaten with a knife and fork, the knife being for pushing the crumbles onto the fork so it can be eaten with some grace.

For casual family dining, one puts a tamale on one's plate. Depending on the household manners and whether there are other things on the plate, one might unwrap, then fold and discard the wrapper (into a bowl provided). Alternatively, if there's room on your plate, and it's the accepted way, untie and open the tamale, fold the long bits under, and eat it out of the wrapper with a fork, and use the fork to scrape the good bits off the wrapper. In this kind of situation there might be a condiment or sauce on the side which can be added like gravy. The wrapper can be useful for keeping the sauce from running away. :)

For casual company, somewhere in between, just follow your hostess's lead.

In a sit down restaurant, they'll probably unwrap it in the kitchen. If they don't, there's probably no good place to discard the wrapper, so just do the untie and fold under thing. Only scrape up the last good bits if it can be done discretely without holding onto the wrapper or calling attention to your plate.

I have no idea about authenticity, but I love fried ice cream!

I think we need some clarification regarding masa. Masa is corn dough, not corn flour. Masa is made with dried Dent field corn that has been processed (cooked) with crushed limestone (calcium oxide). Recipe follows:

About 2 lbs Dent corn (white or yellow)

2TBS Calcium oxide

In a small nonreactive bowl, combine calcium oxide with a cup of water. A chemical reaction will take place and calcium oxide will become calcium hydroxide. Sort through dried corn, much like you would dried beans/lentils. Add corn to a stainless steel stockpot and cover with three to four inches of water. Bring to a boil and add the calcium hydroxide solution. Simmer for 8 - 10 minutes, remove from heat and let rest at least 8 hrs.

Pour corn and solution thru a colander and rinse well. Under running water, take the kernels in your hands and lightly rub to completely remove the hulls. This should be fairly easy. Rinse again. What you are left with is known as nixtamal or hominy. The nixtamal is then processed thru a corn grinder with small amounts of water. The final product is known as masa. Fresh masa is highly perishable and should be kept under refrigeration and used within 24 hrs.

Masa harina is dried product made from fresh masa. In my opinion, it's a poor substitute for the real deal. (Think instant potatoes verses the real thing)

If you are interested in making your own, dried field corn is readily available thru online vendors. The best masa grinder is a device called the "Nixtamatic" which will require a trip to Mexico to purchase.

Rick Bayless does Mexican food, does it superbly and does it in Chicago. Last time I looked, Chicago was in the Midwest. Wanna know something? Check out Rickbayless.com

I'm sorry, Westsider! I meant no insult to Chicago or the Midwest. I was only talking about my experience in the Midwest, which has nothing to do with fine dining or Rick Bayless. I've had the same experience with plain American food there, too, though more often with the "Mexican" food. That it seems they were reading about popular dishes in trade magazines, but didn't have the recipes, and sort of made up stuff with the same name, but totally wrong (and not in a oh look at the good thing we invented kind of way).

I'm sure there's much better food, especially in Chicago, which is known as a dining town, but even some of the smaller places where there's an environment of good eating. I've travelled a lot in different places, including some where the food was by and large mundane, tiny towns where it was invariably brilliant, and large cities where it's hard to find a decent restaurant. Only in the Midwest, however, have I repeatedly experienced this phenomenon of the descriptions of the food being what you might expect to find anywhere but the actual dishes being off kilter. Not necessarily bad as in inedible. Just weirdly not what the name means anywhere else, and not particularly good in any way that would redeem them.

Markb, thanks for the concise description.

And now y'all know why around Christmas time people, especially young men who've been sent by the family elders, line up before dawn at the doors of the places that are known for the good fresh masa. They're bringing home buckets full to make the tamales. :)

Hmmm. I'm in Michigan, and in a largely agricultural area, with many Hispanic workers. They are for the most part Mexican immigrants who have made permanent homes here and have managed to open restaurants and other businesses. I had an intern from the local high school whose mother made tamales and sold them for $10 a dozen, and the intern delivered to the office when she came to work. Probably a dozen health code violations there, but the staff loved the darned things. Anyway, there are a couple of very good and ostensibly authentic Mexican restaurants, small and family owned and invariably full of Hispanic customers. There are a couple of Mexican groceries as well, catering to the Hispanic community, full of things I'm unfamiliar with.

So, I'm an hour from Grand Rapids (with a population which just hit a million) and 4 hours from Chicago, and yet I can find authentic Mexican food within a 15 mile drive, I don't have to go look for Rick Bayless. Or I can just make my own...

My experience with chain restaurants, not just Mexican but pretty much all of them, is that you will get chain restaurant food. It's not always bad, but they want it consistent, so it tastes the same in Kentucky as it does in Missouri as it does in California. (shrug) Some people like that.

Fry bread? Now that's something I'm intimately familiar with, LOL, with my Native American roots. It's the ubiquitous bread product, every culture has it. It's a round of bread dough, either yeast risen or not, fried in hot fat and used to hold meat, vegetables or beans or whatever you might stuff into a pita, a tortilla or a hamburger bun. Alternatively, you can dunk it into soup, use it to scoop up stew like injera bread is used, or fill it with fruit or sprinkle it with cinnamon and sugar and have it for dessert.

Annie

You can buy fresh masa at your local Latin market, but it does have to be used right away, as Markb said. I usually freeze it if I will not use it right away.

Yucatecan spice mixtures generally have a combination of dried chilies plus achiote paste, which gives it a unique earthy flavor. They also use sour oranges - I substitute a combination of orange and lime. Oaxacan spice mixtures usually include chocolate, cinnamon, and sugar (plus the chilies, etc), and I do not like the sweet moles. I do, however, buy Oaxacan mole at Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles and then dilute it drastically to minimize the sweetness and the spices that I do not like. If it is toned down a lot, it is okay, but it is not something I really like.

The last time I was in Oaxaca City, it had become very upscale, and I felt like I was in Santa Fe, but at least the restaurants had improved from the 1970s - for my tastes anyway.

I've never been to the Midwest (except for Oklahoma), and so I have no idea what Mexican food is like there, but when I first went to Vancouver in 1976, I was shocked to find that fresh tortillas were not available in the supermarkets. Kevin went to Indiana last year for work (Terre Haute) and found it to be very foreign to what he is used to. I still hope to visit Michigan one day!

Thank you for the explanations. I have played with achiote in the paste.

Annie, your list did not include one of my favorites that I only order out because I cannot be bothered to make it: chile rellenos. A chile that is stuffed (most often with cheese in restaurants but there are an infinite number of fillings) that is battered and fried.

As is already showing, there can be much disagreement about authenticity, etc. Around here, there are arguments about whether or not you can make red sauce with a chile powder and not whole pods, there are disagreements about whether or not enchilada sauce contains tomato products, etc. Our supermarkets also carry a flour that is supposedly the "best" one for making fry bread (it is rather nice, soft and silky smooth, I like just running my fingers through it).

We Americans conveniently forget that Mexico is a very large country and has a huge coastline. Regions have very distinct specialties and seafood is a major component of dishes near the coast. We've managed to reduce all that good stuff into a taco/tamale/burrito cuisine with beans and rice on the side.

Here's an interview with Diana Kennedy and her rant about fake tortillas.

Well, to be fair, Sushipup, all of the above listed dishes have seafood versions (I don't know about other people, but when I said "meat", above, I meant any kind of mammal, fowl or seafood). Great article!

Since we were talking specifically about what AnnieD asked, I don't think anyone mentioned that most Mexican cuisine isn't any of those things, like real Chinese food isn't the banquet food that's served at American Chinese restaurants. It's like calling American cuisine the list of sandwiches you can find at any diner. Mexican cuisine has a lot of barbecued, roasted or stewed meats, usually mixed with vegetables and spices, and a lot of vegetables that stand on their own, and an amazing panoply of sauces, some specific to their regions. There are a lot of Mexican pastas, and even more rice dishes, that are served as a first course, and some of the most flavorful [Edit--word got eaten here. Oh! I remember! It was another word about sauces. The most flavorful sauces.] Tortillas are served on the side, and not at every meal. There are also quite a few fabulous specifically Mexican yeast breads (and they have their own version of Wonder Bread).

I'll have to agree with Ms Kennedy regarding fake tortillas. We have several Tortillarias in our area and most now make theirs with masa harina. Blasphemy, I tell you! Once you've had a tortilla made with fresh masa dough, you'll NEVER go back.

But to be helpful to Annie d, if you are going to a basic - non authentic- Mexican restaurant, get the fajitas. They are almost foolproof delicious and a lot of ordinary restaurants take pride in them. They tend to be popular too.

Wow! Such great info! I knew I came to the right place.

This is most helpful, and will give me a lot more knowledge when I peruse the menu.

Thank you everyone for all your insights and information!

tishtosh, there's a reason I left out chiles rellenos. I can't eat them, I'm a heat wuss and I don't particularly like cheese either, so they never enter my thoughts. Elery, of course, loves them, go figure, the man can eat a ghost pepper and never break a sweat and I saw him do it.

He also loves huevos rancheros and the poor guy almost never gets them because I can't even imagine eating spicy tomato sauce with eggs first thing in the morning...

Lars, I'd love it if you visited Michigan, I think you'd be surprised. Come in the summer though, I think you'd freeze to death here!

Annie

So when they serve the fajita in a hot fry pan, are you then supposed to assemble everything yourself to your liking and then eat it? Or do you eat it like a platter of food?

Assemble to your liking -- even if that means eating off the platter. They are a variant of soft tacos though, so typically you add some meat, grilled onions and peppers and whatever else you like inside a tortilla and roll it up.

jim gaffigan

This thread reminded me of a bit by comedian Jim gaffigan. The part I'm talking about starts at about the 2 minute mark.

Very funny! Thanks melissaki5!

Annie1992, I do appreciate some zip in my food, but I am definitely not a dragon mouth. I have seen rellenos with poblanos so that may be an option for yours and I know home cooks who stuff them with mashed potatoes or piccadillo type fillings. To me one of the advantages of making huevos rancheros on a Saturday is I know that if I start it, the younger kids will not start asking for it so I can get it on the table for DH pretty quickly. The chile I bought this year, both red and green, was supposed to be medium but it is all rather mild. I may have to find some hot to mix in but fear then it will go too far the other way.

@AnnieD: enchiladas are pretty accessible and usually pretty consistent, if this is new to you. Most common restaurants will do this OK. Growing up in the PNW, I suffered through some watered down Tex-Mex, Cal-Mex and Mexican interpretations (even done by Mexican-American owned establishments). Now, the quality and execution has improved tremendously.

The variety of cuisine in Mexico is quite diverse, and I've had great Nuevo cuisine in my travels down south. California, being a former part of Mexico and plenty of Mexican Americans and immigrants, is really starting to support restaurants with regional cuisine and more traditional dishes, plus new takes done in new styles. You will not see the same 10 ingredients re-arranged into 70 items. The tendency to water-down the cuisine has also lessened. (At the same time, Taco Bell and fast casual chains seem to survive). I love also to discover small kitchens and taco stands, and buy homemade tamales from the lady who pushes her cart on Sundays through my neighborhood or from the farmer's market.

BTW, one of the origin myths of the original burrito is from San Francisco's Mission district, a former immigrant neighborhood that is now a hipster/foodie destination.

On the other hand, there are some terrible Tex Mex and Mexican restaurants throughout the world (outside of the Americas) -- like in Europe, Asia and Australia. I've tried them --- ugh.

This is so helpful. Thank you one and all!

Will drinks be involved? If so, there's also an old say, which I believe is Mexican. In English:
1 tequila and you're a friend
2 tequilas and we're brothers
3 tequilas and you speak Spanish like a native

Have fun!

I'm driving, so no drinking for me....

Plllog, LOL !

If you go to Fonda San Miguel in Austin, you will be able to try food from several different regions of Mexico. Here in Los Angeles, Mexican restaurants generally offer food from only one region at a time, and Oaxacan is the most common because there are so many people from Oaxaca here. When I was in Oaxaca last, everyone I met hat a relative or knew someone who lived in L.A. BTW, I have a Fonda San Miguel cookbook, signed by the authors, that my sister gave me for my birthday once, but I did have to request it! I like it much better than Diana Kennedy's books, as it is more accessible and flexible. I have several other Mexican cookbooks as well, mostly in Spanish, and they are also more flexible than DK, who can be very authoritarian and condescending, unlike most Mexicans.

I'll be in Costa Rica next week.