Sorry for the long delay in starting this blog. I have actually written tons of stuff for future blogs but wanted to start it out simpler than some of that writing turned out. Right now I think it’s a good idea to start simple. My journey to actually producing Mexican food is a long and winding road. I lived in Texas for about 10 years where there is an abundance of great Mexican food, but with a decided Tex Mex influence. Tex Mex actually is real Mexican food, originally prepared by Mexicans who had settled in Texas and who had to use ingredients available to them instead of the traditional produce they were accustomed to in their Motherland. They found they could sell their food at small cooking stands on the streets of  San Antonio and other places; and people found that they loved this food. It’s not really clear when or where the first Mexican restaurant started, but it was in Texas, probably in San Antonio on the riverwalk, but maybe in Ft. Worth and it was called The Original Mexican Restaurant. The fact is, I loved the Mexican food I found in Texas, the Tex Mex food was wonderful beyond belief, and nothing up here even comes close. It’s not fancy, it’s humble, it’s kitschy in some ways, it’s always fun to go out for, it’s cheap and it’s good. There are exceptions to the rule, and one of my favorite restaurants in the world is Fonda San Miguel in Austin, which serves “authentic” Mexican food, and was the first Mexican restaurant in the US to receive the approval of Diana Kennedy, who is best described as the Jula Child of Mexican cuisine. I tried to model the food here after the food at San Miguel’s, rather than try to do another “Tex Mex” place in the tri state area. Doing that was not easy. I had ideas from the start that certain things were never going to be compromised. One of these is of course our masa which is processed and ground in house. Sauces were all going to be made the way families in Mexico have made them for generations. No cans, no frozen stuff, just fresh good raw ingredients. There is nothing you can’t obtain here today if you want to cook as they do in Mexico. The daunting thing to most American cooks is that Mexican food is complex, and it is very, very labor intensive. Dried chile peppers need to be stemmed, seeded, toasted, reconstituted and ground into pastes and sauces. Our mole Poblano preparation starts 2 days before the finished product is done. Besides the chiles, nuts and seeds need to be assembled, weighed, toasted and ground. Spices in precise amounts need to be ground. Fruits, herbs, and yes a small amount of chocolate are all assembled after their processing and finally added to the pot in stages to be cooked together. Stirring a pot of mole is not for the faint of heart. It takes muscle and perseverance. There is no timer on to say it’s done. You just have to know. I think the work that goes into the food makes it so much more precious and valued. We have lost a lot of that in this country, where home cooking for most of us now is heating things up. Thank goodness those of us who love Mexican food, or Tex Mex, have so many great choices in restaurants where the work is already done. The ones who go to the lengths that we do are scarce but well worth seeking out.