The Adán Medrano Interview, Part 2: “Cuisine Divorced of Culture Has No Legs”

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Editor’s Note: Adán Medrano is a chef, film maker and author who has championed the unique cuisine served in home kitchens across south Texas crafted by cooks of Mexican descent. This cuisine is Texas Mexican, and Medrano has written books and produced a documentary – Truly Texas Mexican – on the topic. el Restaurante publisher Ed Avis interviewed Medrano on August 5, 2024. This is the second of three parts of that interview, edited slightly for clarity. Click here to read the first part in which he explains why Tex-Mex is not Texas Mexican. And click here to read the third part, in which he describes the true meaning of "enchilada."

Ed Avis: In your movie Truly Texas Mexican, you said, “Cuisine divorced of culture has no legs.” What does that mean, and how does it affect restaurants?

Adán Medrano: Ultimately, Mexican gastronomy is an expression of local Native indigenous cultures. This is true of all Mexican cuisine, whether you're from Jalisco, Oaxaca, or another area. The palette, the taste of Oaxaca Mexican food is from the Zapotec people, the indigenous Zapotec people. If you go to Veracruz, it's a different flavor profile, although it is still Mexican, because it's the chiles, the chocolate, and all of these things. It's still Mexican food, and the expression is of the Nahua people. Those people are Nahua. In Sonora, Mexico, the people there are Yaqui, their roots are the Yaqui tribes. And in Texas, our roots are the Coahuiltecan people. Coahuiltecan, Karankawa, our native ancestors.

     It's the memory of the indigenous palate. So we cook things differently, and that's what makes the larger Mexican gastronomy so beautiful and different.

     So that's what I what I mean when I say “cuisine without culture has no legs,” because the stronger you get to the identification with the Yaqui people of Sonora, the Coahuiltecan people of Texas, the more you'll understand how these flavors came together, and the more you'll want to really cook that way.

     If you think of it this way, the chef's dishes will be much, much more flavorful, much more delicious, because the chef will understand the complexities that come from these regions.

Do you have a favorite dish of the Texas Mexican cuisine?

     One of my favorite dishes is connected to a childhood memory. We lived in San Antonio where I was born, but we also had land in Nava Coahuila [Mexico], which is about 25 miles south of Eagle Pass. And that's where I had my first aguacate tacos. So to me, a corn tortilla properly made off the comal with a slice or two of aguacate and just a sprinkling of salt, that is amazing. And I think if you speak to any Mexican chef, they will agree. That's a really iconic, beautiful taste, flavor. So that to me is one of my favorite flavors, that dish.

How about a favorite restaurant that serves Texas Mexican cuisine?

     I just posted on Facebook about one here in San Antonio, Regio Cafe. But I started by saying, "Almost all Mexican restaurants of San Antonio serve great food." That's because if you come to San Antonio, in these neighborhoods, there are dozens and dozens of very small family-owned Mexican restaurants that have been in existence for 20 or 30 years.

     In Houston, I recommend Cochinita & Co, and Sylvia's Enchilada Kitchen. In McAllen you have Maria's Restaurant. And in Mission, Texas, Ana Liz Pulido has Ana Liz Taqueria, and she won the James Beard Award Best Chef of Texas. She makes her own tortillas, her own masa. And so there are hundreds. As I said, there are more Texas Mexican restaurants than there are Tex-Mex.

     And you can identify them by, number one, their sign says Mexican, not say Tex-Mex. Not even Torchy's calls itself Tex-Mex. It's not a name that has strength beyond the food writers. It's an Anglo name invented by Anglo food writers in the '70s and '80s, and it masks over and dismisses the Texas Mexican food of all these restaurants that I've been talking about. They go and they look at them and they write about them, and they say, "This Tex-Mex restaurant." And they never ask the owners, "Are you Tex-Mex?" And the owners will say, "No, we are not."

Mexican food seems to take different forms in different places.

     Food travels and changes, it changes its meaning. And I think the reason that things like agua frescas are trending on menus in the U.S. is because there is a need or a want, a desire to have food have meaning. And when you understand the story of it and that its cultural roots are here, and that it's meaningful to you and you can relate to it, it simply expands the value of what you're paying for. I think more and more people are going to want their food to have meaning and story, and that's what this type of food has.

Click here to read the first installment of the Adán Medrano interview, in which he explains why Tex-Mex is not Texas Mexican. And click here to read the third part, in which he describes the true meaning of "enchilada.". In the meantime, learn more about him at https://adanmedrano.com/

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