I love Mexican food. LLLLLOOOOOOVVVVVVEEEEEE Mexican food. I could eat Mexican food every meal, every day, no question. There is very little about Mexican food I don't love. I used to not be so much of a hot and spicy kinda girl, but over the years, I have developed a tolerance. I still can't, say, eat a pepper or even just a slice of a jalapeno, but I don't think that makes me any lesser of a Mexican food lover.
Now, I suppose here is where I should point out that when I say Mexican food, I mean Tex-Mex. I'm a Texas girl--born, raised, and never left. I have been outside of Texas and tried Mexican food outside of Texas. It sucks. I don't even know what it is that makes Tex-Mex so much better, but it is. The only Mexican food outside of Tex-Mex that doesn't suck is authentic Mexican food. Living in Texas, you can find that and I have been to Mexico. The meats are different in authentic and often the dishes themselves, but there is something about eating authentic that makes it good even if it is not what you are used to.
So, my very favorite thing to eat at a Mexican food place and usually the thing I order the first time I try a new place is Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas. I love them. If my older brother was reading this, he would take this time to tease me about not liking sour cream. At some point when we were young children, I turned down sour cream on tacos claiming to not like it. While I do remember this incident, I have absolutely no idea why I said it because I do not ever remember a time in my life that I didn't love sour cream. What's not to love? And that is why I love the Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas.
And here is where I would like to discuss enchiladas for a moment. I'm a bit of a cooker myself. Due to my love of chicken enchiladas and B's love of, well, all enchiladas, I have tried my hand at them. My biggest complaint about recipes I see for enchiladas is that the majority call for flour tortillas. Enchiladas are NOT made with flour tortillas. Burritos are made with flour tortillas. You put fajita meat on flour tortillas. You can even make soft tacos out of flour tortillas. Enchiladas, however, are made with corn tortillas. Yummy, slightly fried corn tortillas.
Now that we have that cleared up, I need to tell you why I love Mexican food today.
Today, I had dinner at El Paseo. As you have probably gathered, I have eaten at a lot of Mexican food places in my life. And there are other places that I also love (Mexican Inn--the original locations, not the franchised locations--is a family tradition). But, no other place in many years has come close to rivaling El Paseo when I want real, down home, authentic Mexican/Tex-Mex.
B has been eating there with family for years. His late brother, Johnny, worked there for years. For some reason known only to him, B waited well over a year to share this place with me. I will never forgive him for that year or so I lost. We used to live minutes from the Fort Worth location, which is actually the only location I've been to. When we lived there, I could pretty much convince him to take me anytime I wanted. Now, we live over 30 minutes away, so it's a bit more of a decision if we want to go. But, it's also less than 10 minutes from my in-laws' house, so I have NO problem ever visiting them (I have no problem visiting them anyway; I love my in-laws) because even if B wasn't planning on taking me, odds of my father-in-law taking are pretty good. My father-in-law loves this place as much as I do. We are obsessed with the chips and salsa. We get our own basket, just the two of us. They have to refill it often.
Anyway, our best friend, Scotty P., took us to dinner tonight because B had been craving some Mexican food while in the hospital and, well, we love the place. So, we made the 30 minute trip out there and were not disappointed. In case any of you locals would ever like to try it, the dishes we got tonight (and that we get pretty much every time) were:
Steak Fajitas (Scott)
Steak a la Mexicana (B)
Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas (A)
Soooo yummy!!! I love the fajitas. Really awesome steak. But, B's dish is their specialty and so worth the extra wait to cook. The steak is absolutely perfect and sooo different from the fajitas. And the SCCE are, hands down, my favorite of any other restaurant.
I need to say here that when I have mentioned my love of El Paseo to others in the past, I have received bad reactions. Other people--reasonable people whose tastes I usually agree with--have said they do not like El Paseo. However, these people have not been to the location I go to. Perhaps there are differences; I don't know. All I know is, the Fort Worth location is so good that I have been known to say I could just stand in the entry way and smell the air!
Happy Thursday!
A
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