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I guess given your name I should consider you the expert in these matters! I’ve only seen it twice: once at a street cart in NYC, and once at this local place that offers beef/lamb, chicken, or pork gyros. Nobody ever seems to get the pork there, though, and I’m a little skeeved out by a big cone of meat that’s been sitting there uneaten for days.
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Pork? PORK? A true proper gyro is only EVER with lamb.
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It amazes me that there are people who’ve been to Mexico and never had authentic Mexican food. My family took my mother to a Jersey Shore beach last week, and leaving we trolled for lunch, spotting a Mexican place. It was clear they didn’t get many gringos in, the waitress spoke little english. My mother, who has vacationed in Mexico numerous times, didn’t know what a tostada or burrito were!!! We were floored. She said they only ate out in “fancy restaurants”. The food was predictably awesome, huge platters of meat, beans rice & salad for $10. Sublime fish tacos. We created a Yelp page for them.
BTW, most gyro I’ve had outside Astoria Queens have sucked. The commercially produced meat has bready filler. Best one I’ve had in ages was at a truck along the road in the Catskills.
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The Greeks disagree. But what do they know? They are stinkin’ FOREIGNERS!
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Well the greek side of my family I guess would disagree then. YMMV
I’m no expert… The name originated as someone’s D&D character.
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on vacation in Athens and on Crete I ate a lot of gyros and never saw non-pork variants, and the article about this dish starts with something like “Gyros is a food consisting of pieces of pork” (claims Google translate)
Aren’t burritos Cal-Mex, though? But these things come full circle (I guess?)… The guy who ran El Azteca (which is apparently closing this month 
) in Austin told me that fajitas originated more-or-less as junk food, using the cheapest cuts of beef. Of course, El Azteca served some damn fine fajitas, but (I’m told) that someone from Mexico would’ve been baffled that anyone would go out to a restaurant and order fajitas. That is, until a Chili’s opened in Monterrey and the line to get in went around the block.
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Perhaps i’ve been lied to all these years.
There’s a frequently repeated story about WWE’s Vince McMahon having no idea what a burrito was (even though he ate them daily).
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how many generations does it need to change traditions? I would guess negligible ones like the used meat less than one
This is true - most fajitas use flank (buttocks or abdominal muscles) or skirt steak (diaphragm) which are the toughest cuts of beef. In order to tenderize the meat it needs to be marinated for a long time and cooked quickly at hot temperatures. Throw in some peppers, onions, pico de gallo and a tortilla (tortillas are basically forks in most hispanic homes) and you have fajitas.
Not junk food per se but definitely nothing fancy.
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But goddamn tasty and easy to make…
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As an Austinite, I can attest I once ate tacos at seven meals in five days straight, without even trying. True story. And it was so good.
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which kills me every time I see fajitas for $17 on the menu - smh
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#FishTacosMatter
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I would rather have stuff I can’t easily make at home. So I usually go for tamales or enchiladas… mmm.
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oh man…me too. We have enchilada night at home served New Mexico style - flat and stacked. They’re like crack for me. We get a bushel of chilies from Pueblo, CO every year (Hatch chilies are overrated imho) - roasted on site then we peel and separate into small batches that we freeze.
We do tamales over Christmas so I get my fill then. We have a source from Mission, TX who sends us several dozen every year and they are simply the best I’ve ever eaten. Don’t even bother trying to make them at home as they require a skill honed over many generations to get the masa just right - not too dry and not too mushy. They are a major pain the ass to assemble so you gotta make them in huge batches to be economical.
This a pretty good recipe for NM style enchiladas - I highly recommend the fried egg on top. Canned sauce sucks but if you’re in a part of the country not easily accessible to chilies it will do in a pinch.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/86782/enchiladas---new-mexico-style/
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