6 Things You Didn’t Know About Mexican Food

Did you know that tortillas once came in cans? In fact, in the 1980s, most U.S. residents looking for tortillas could only find them in cans.

That’s just one thing you probably didn’t know. For five more things you probably didn’t know about Mexican food, read below:

1. Fajitas aren’t a true Mexican food: they were created by Ninfa Rodriquez Laurenzo for his Rio Grande Valley restaurant, Ninfa’s. Fajitas became so popular that Mexican food chains such as Chi-Chi’s and El Torito actually dispatched spies to Ninfa’s to pilfer the recipe.
2. Disneyland is said to have played a part in the creation of Doritos. It’s believed that (in the early 1960s, when Disneyland was young) Mexican workers at the one of the park’s restaurants fried leftover tortillas and also added flavoring to them.

3. Nachos, while not a traditional Mexican dish, do hail from Mexico. Ignacio Anaya, a chef in Piedras Negras, first made the snack item for military housewives shopping on holidays. The idea grew in the 1970s when a San Antonio concessionaire at Arlington Stadium named Frank Liberto decided to see if the nachos would sell during games. They did and nachos have become a Mexican-food item ever since.
4. The taco truck, now seemingly everywhere you turn in a downtown street in any city in the country, actually got its start in New York City in 1966 when two housewives ran an early version of a the truck.
5. .The term Tex Mex food was created when the Texas Mexican Railway was chartered in 1875. The cuisine uses the best influences of food from South Texas, Mexico and Spain.

There’s one fact that we’re certain you know well: Mattito’s serves some of the best Tex Mex dishes in the Dallas region! Check out a Matitto’s near you to enjoy some delicious Tex Mex cuisine.

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