Fajita

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In the lexicon of food, a fajita generically refers in the Mexican Cuisine to grilled meat served on a flour tortilla with condiments. Popular meats are beef, chicken, pork and shrimp. They are often cooked with onions and bell peppers. Popular condiments are sour cream, guacamole, salsa, pico de gallo, cheese, and tomato. In restaurants, the fajita meat is traditionally brought to the table sizzling loudly on a metal platter or skillet, with the tortillas and condiments served on the side.

In Spanish, fajita is a form of the word faja which translates to "belt" or "girdle" in English. Butchers along Northern Mexico used the word to refer to the diaphragm muscle of a steer.

The cut is known in the US as the skirt steak, and it remains popular for making fajitas.

The food became popular in Restaurants such as Mama Ninfa´s and other Mexican and Tex Mex Restaurants in Houston and San Antonio . The platter comes as a derivative of carne asada when in Coahuila , Mexico , they made a platter with larger pieces than in the platter puntas de filete and smaller than carne asada ... enough for a taco .

Use of the word fajita has evolved from the term for a cut of beef to include the cooking method (thus chicken fajita) and also to define the grilled strips of peppers and onions that usually accompany the meat. This last step might be supported by the similarity of the word fajitas to the word rajitas, diminutive of rajas, a term used in Mexico to describe these strips.

Sonny Falcon is believed to have operated the first commercial fajita taco stand in Kyle, Texas in 1969.

Fajita

See also