How to Tell You’re Eating at an Authentic Mexican Restaurant

Do you love Mexican food? It is one of the most popular cuisines around the United States. There are an estimated 38,000 restaurants that serve this kind of cuisine around the country. Not all of them serve authentic Mexican cuisine. Can you spot the difference? Can you difference between flour and corn tortillas?

1. Check out the tortillas. If you know how to difference between flour and corn tortillas, you have a shot at telling if the Mexican food you are eating is authentic or you are eating Tex Mex. No self respecting, authentic Mexican restaurant is going to serve its patrons flour tortillas. Corn is a serious staple in Mexico. If you are in an authentic Mexican restaurant, they will serve corn tortillas. So, your first step is to lean how to difference between flour and corn tortillas. Note: corn tortillas are way more tasty than their flour counterparts.
2. Are your beans covered in cheese? The best Mexican restaurants do not feel the need to slather their beans in cheese. To the Mexican chef, cheese is great ingredient but they do not have to put it on everything to mask the flavor. If you have everything covered in melted cheese, you are not in an authentic Mexican establishment but an Americanized version.
3. The hot sauce is Tapatio. That is right. You will not see Texas Pete or Tabasco at a real Mexican restaurant. They may have Cholula, La Victoria, and El Yucateco, if they do not have a sauce that they made in the establishment itself. If you see anything else and only real Mexican food will do, walk out.
4. Check out your tacos. American tacos come covered in diced tomatoes, shredded lettuce and may be crunchy. Mexican tacos are served with two corn tortillas and are topped with cilantro, line and chopped onion. Again this is a reason to learn about how to difference between flour and corn tortillas. If your tacos come with flour tortillas, you are in an Americanized Mexican restaurant. You should be on the lookout for cilantro. It is another staple in Mexico and it is used on just about everything.
5. Check out your meat. The meats that used in authentic Mexican cuisine are chorizo, lengua, cesos, tripas and asada. If you get any kind of meat that is crumbed or ground, that is a sure fire way to tell your food is not authentic.
6. You cannot find any low fat options on the menu. If you ask for a low fat version of any dish on a real Mexican restaurant and the chef may kick you out. Most Mexican chefs cook with lard, in fact it is a necessity for many dishes. It is true that you can find authentic Mexican restaurants that cook with vegetable oil but if you want any other kinds of low fat options, you are out of luck.
7. Check out your tamales. No self respecting restaurant that serves only authentic Mexican cuisine would ever dream of serving a tamale that was not wrapped in a corn husk. If yours does not come in a corn husk, you need to leave.
8. There are no fajitas or pico de gallo on the menu. These are items that just do not exist in Mexico. In Americanized Mexican restaurants, you can find both. Pico de gallo is often served as a garnish so if you see it on the menu as such, you are not in an authentic Mexican establishment.
9. Check out the beverage selection. If the restaurant you are in is an authentic Mexican one, you will find aguas frescas, real Coke with sugar and not corn syrup and the Margaritas are on the rocks and come in only one flavor. The aguas frescas come in a variety of flavors like strawberry, cantaloupe, guava and other fruit.
10. Check out your burrito. If you are looking for a giant and fat burrito, you will not find that in an authentic Mexican restaurant. You will find it at a plethora of other places but they real, Mexican burritos are long and thin.

Americanized Mexican cuisine can be good, it just is not authentic. If you want authentic Mexican food, these tips will show you are in the right place.