When Mexico met the US: a restaurant guide

Mexico and the United States have been inexorably woven together for centuries. The southern border of the States, after all, once existed, in part, at the current northern edge of California. 

It follows then that the food of much of the two countries would flow in two directions. There is Tex-Mex, an American adaptation of Mexican cuisine, and Texas Mexican, which is the unadulterated vestige of Mexican cooking in what is now the Lone Star State. In much of Mexico, you cannot throw a key lime without hitting a hamburger spot. 

A raft of chefs in the States is shifting this trajectory yet again, melding their Mexican heritage with a delicious myopia at these five restaurants. They are reveling in a centralized sense of place, in which coastal Mexican cooking intersects with the foodstuffs of the American Gulf and Southern California, and barbacoa and esquites meets barbecued brisket and mac and cheese. 

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Acamaya, New Orleans

Ana (right, above) and Lydia (left, above) Castro have built the restaurant of their sisterly dreams. The name is a nod to Macrobrachium acanthurus, a type of freshwater prawn. This Acamaya also hovers near a river, the Mississippi, which abuts the city's Bywater neighborhood. The restaurant is a gorgeous, sublime homage to Louisiana seafood and the bright lambast of coastal Mexican seafood cooking. 

The "seafood culture of Louisiana and New Orleans tends to be more deep-fried, seafood gumbo, jambalayas," Ana Castro, the chef of the pair, said to Axios. "Lots of butter, lots of cream. And here, it's lots of lime and lots of chiles." A standout example: a sope made with local Higgins crab, the masa cup earthy and alkaline, the crustacean otherworldly sweet, the mayonnaise warm with chiltepín chile, the avocado and cucumber adding svelteness and crunch.  

Panther City BBQ, Fort Worth, Texas 

The flacodilla says it all: a quesadilla with asadero cheese but studded with smoked brisket. Such is the approach of Chris Magallanes and Ernest Morales at this celebrated barbecue spot. Texas-style barbecue staples like brisket, slaw, and mac and cheese are served alongside charro beans, elote cups and the weekends-only smoked barbacoa. 

The wisest barbecue lovers are fans, including of one of Panther City's signature dishes: pork belly poppers. "The sensation of biting through the crisp bacon into the meltingly tender cube of pork and fat beneath is pure heaven," said Daniel Vaughn, Texas Monthly's barbecue critic.  

Chilango, Minneapolis

The corn for the masa that stars in the house-made tortillas at Chilango comes from both Minnesota and Mexico. That is how Jorge Guzman thinks about his food sourcing: Be where you are, but never quit your foundations. Plied with heirloom tomatoes, Duke's mayo and salsa macha — that dark, nut-laden salsa born in Veracruz — the pan con tomate is a vitalizing jumble of influences from the American South to coastal Mexico to Spain. Even the sweets feel the pull: the churro-inspired masa pound cake is garnished with candied pecans spiky from guajillo chile and a mound of cinnamon ice cream, and the restaurant's take on a Choco Taco is filled with dulce de leche.

Ema, Houston

The Caesar salad here is a mobius strip: It is impossible to ascertain where the Mexican aspect ends and the American essence begins. The iconic romaine salad was born in Tijuana, yet the salad has become synonymous with Americana, from Idaho to Missouri. At Ema, run by Stephanie Velasquez and Nicolas Vera, the Caesar dressing is laced with anchovies, as it should be, but the salad is finished with roasted pumpkin seeds and corn-masa croutons. The pastries, like the horchata berliner, are fast becoming Houston legends, and even the iced coffee, with its prickly pear reduction, receives a Mexican overlay

Holbox, Los Angeles

A James Beard Award nomination in 2023; the Los Angeles Times' Restaurant of the Year that same year; endless Angeleno mouths and brains upended: Gilberto Cetina's homage to his motherland, the Yucatán peninsula in southeastern Mexico, merges the ingredients and cooking styles of southern California and northwestern Mexico. 

Here, it is all seafood, all the time. Uni, perhaps unsurprisingly, often plays a starring role, in, say, a tostada with kanpachi, walnuts and Pecorino Romano. On Thursdays and Fridays, the counter format converts to a tasting-menu offering. "The sense of place [Holbox] achieves honors the source of inspiration but also conveys something essential about the pluralism of Los Angeles," said Bill Addison, the restaurant critic for the Los Angeles Times.