[conductr]

LOL. I've actually never been to El Paso. I think it's a matter of Latitude so I'm sure it's great there too.

> great tex-mex in East Dallas and Oak Cliff

This is what is weird to me in Dallas. I have to go to certain parts of town to find decent tex mex. These are both 20-30 minutes away from where I live! I never had this problem in Houston or Austin. There was always some little cinder block building in/near the neighborhood run by owner pumping out great stuff.

I've tried a few of these places in East Plano or Harry Hines area that look authentic from the outside. All occasions they were actually Guatemalan or El Salvadorian which was a surprise to me.

[bfuller]

So the problem isn't dallas food culture. its that you dont want to drive 20-30 minutes (which is a common thing here)

Dallas has AMAZING tex mex. Dallas popularized tex mex to the world with el chico and el fenix. you are being insanely reductive. We have a great food scene.

And Dallas doesn't have very many Guatemalan spots (I wish we had more) so I sense you are being intentionally obtuse in your post.

[conductr]

Well yes, I do consider being widely accessible as a measure of culture. Without arguing over exact establishments, I will say IMO El Chico and El Fenix do not represent good tex mex. They represent the chained version of tex mex (which isn't good in my book). This is what Dallas loves to do and a reason I don't think the food culture is very good here. It's always corporate, with an eye toward expansion. Good food cultures tend to be locally owned, chef driven. There are a few bright spots (Lucia comes to mind).

Are you from Dallas? If so, I think your bias is likely too strong to sense how good this food culture is. Everyone I meet that grew up here thinks it's a great food culture just because there are a ton of restaurants and they are mostly pretty good. But, coming from Houston/Austin, I see;

1) too many chains (not a problem alone, but generally correlates to poor execution/quality) 2) restaurants rarely change their menus (good chefs change their menus!) 3) lacking depth of cuisine (we're not as international of a city as we think we are: the ethnic food options are lacking, there are some and I've seen improvements but generally people just want more burgers and more steaks) 4) we are copy cats; if you travel to other cities with good food culture it's easy to see food trends a year before they reach Dallas - I think this is related to not being chef driven, our restaurants have executive chefs that design a menu once a year, they are not driving new trends)

> doesn't have very many Guatemalan spots

I know several in Irving and along Harry Hines/Denton Drive between Love & 635

[bfuller]

El Chico and el fenix aren't good, but I didn't say they are, I said they introduced it to the world.

The term "authentic" tex mex is silly in the first place because it is regional (otherwise known as.. "authentic") food with replacement ingredients based on what was available here.

People that grew up here know its a good food city because... we know the spots. You'd only think Dallas has only chains if you only knew about chains.