I disagree. Tex Mex in Dallas is generally horrible. San Antonio is the only other city that comes close to competing and they have their own takes on things as well. Certain tex-mex food is authentically Houston.
Houston was where fajitas took off as a trendy dish in the USA at Ninfas in the 1970's. Prior to that it was ground beef or cheese enchaladas which is what sustained places like Felix's back to the 1930's. Early TexMex was lots and lots of cheese.
Of course Houston TexMex came from elsewhere. Look, St Louis is known for Italian food in general, with tested ravioli as a specific dish. The fact that all the Italian food came from people that moved there from *gasp* Italy doesn't invalidate their rep for Italian food. Look, 5 million years ago some Australopithecine killed an impala and cooked it over a fire at Olduvai Gorge in Africa. That doesn't mean that Tanzania gets to invalidate anybody else's claim to "barbecue" as a signature dish. Kansas City and Memphis both still can claim beef and pork ribs respectively as their signature dishes.
The thing about Texas is no city has a signature. The signature additions to the world are just Texan. The country of Texas has many signature additions thanks to our history. No one city can claim these Chili Steak Smoked Brisket Chicken Fried Steak Gulf Red Snapper Tex mex The margarita These are historical for this country. Anything specific to Houston is later in history due to the uniqueness of Houston being a port town that attracted a lot of new immigrants post Vietnam War and our love for Cajun food.
Didn't know that about fajitas. Neato. So we have two options so far- fajitas and veitnamese crawfish. Others- gulf seafood or some brisket dish?
For some reason I want to say chicken fried steak. Perhaps that's because you can eat one every single day in high school anywhere in the surrounding area. Or at least it seemed like you used to be able to back in my day.
There is a specific restaurant in Tijuana that can and does claim the margarita, as they invented it. Other ubiquitous dishes that can trace to a specific city and restaurant off the top of my head are chicken tetrazzini, Cobb salad, Waldorf salad, and Caesar salad. These all have a very specific documented creation location and date. I see no reason to make exclusivity a prerequisite in claiming a dish as signature. I dare you to tell me that Kansas City, Memphis, and North Carolina aren't all known for barbecue. Oh, and I dare you to tell Cincinnati that they aren't known for their nasty version of chili. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnati_chili
Chili and smoked brisket are most definetly Texas I didn't say BBQ. I soecifically said brisket. Our German immigrants did that Chili is a cattle drive thing. That's up for debate if Mexico already did it and brought it to us, but otherwise Chili is a 1800s cattle drive thing. I like researching these things. And chili is texas. So is smoked brisket
This thread makes me hungry. Nice You aint never lied. Houston's restaurants are great especially Tex-Mex. Only other state that even close is Louisiana, and they lack diversity. As great as Cali is, their food sucks.
I think the Armadillo egg at T-Bones should be our signature dish. Bbq and Jalapeño... Although it's in Kemah.
