Episode Details

The name Tex-Mex started as an abbreviation for the Texas-Mexican Railway, chartered in 1875, and had nothing to do with food at first. This episode makes the case that Tex-Mex was not invented in a boardroom but grew out of the everyday ranching food of the Tejano people, with beef, goat, flour tortillas, and the cumin brought by Canary Islanders who settled San Antonio in 1731.

We look at how the railroads brought cheap processed cheese that pulled Tejano cooking away from food in Mexico, the invention of nachos in 1943, and the sizzling fajitas that Ninfa's in Houston popularized in 1973. We also cover Felix Tijerina, Diana Kennedy's harsh verdict, and Tex-Mex's unlikely spread to France after the film Betty Blue and to Scandinavia's Taco Friday.

• How the Texas-Mexican Railway gave Tex-Mex its name
• Why cumin, brought by Canary Islanders, became central to Tejano cooking
• How railroads brought cheddar and other processed cheese that set Tex-Mex apart
• The origin stories of nachos, chile con queso, and sizzling fajitas
• How Felix Tijerina, Diana Kennedy, a French film, and Taco Friday shaped Tex-Mex's reputation