Close your eyes and remember the first time you ever dipped a chip in guacamole. Savor the rush of garlic, the simultaneous bite of jalapeno and the squish of cool, creamy avocado on your tongue, and reach for the Corona with the lime pushed down inside.

Now recall the thunderous crunch and the shower of lettuce that announced your first bite of a crispy taco. And the sentimental ending of the combination plate, when you first used a warm tortilla to mop up the delicious mess of chili sauce and cheese that the enchilada left behind.

Once upon a time, Americans fell in love with Tex-Mex, and the effects of this wave of infatuation are still rippling through modern American cuisine. Thanks to Tex-Mex, salsa has replaced ketchup as America's favorite condiment. Tacos and tortilla chips have reached a level of popularity rivaling the almighty hamburger and french fries. Chile peppers have become a national obsession, and the popularity of guacamole has moved the avocado from total obscurity to the front row of the produce section.

For some, the old love affair has lost its thrill, and there are even those who are ready to dump Tex-Mex into the bus tray of history. Food critics ridicule its Velveeta-veiled senorita platters, Mexican-cooking authorities question its legitimacy, and the watchdogs of the public health rail against its unsaturated fats. Authentic Mexican food and Southwestern cuisine have become the upscale versions of border cuisine, while many equate Tex-Mex with junk food -- greasy tacos, congealed mixed plates, and salsas that come in little plastic pillows.

But Tex-Mex has triumphed despite these criticisms. Authentic Mexican food and Southwestern cuisine have many fans, but in terms of popularity, they are no match for Tex-Mex. Despite its low-brow reputation at home, Tex-Mex has conquered the world. The wonders of crispy tacos are now being appreciated from Tokyo to Oman. Tex-Mex is the toast of France, where the locals are making cheese enchiladas with aged Gruyere on the Left Bank and debating new margarita recipes in the Dordogne.

As Tex-Mex spans the globe, it keeps evolving. Here at home, it's changing too. The old-fashioned senorita platter may have gone out of style, but something more exciting is taking its place. This cookbook is an introduction to the modern version of Texas Mexican cooking, a style we call Nuevo Tex-Mex.

Nuevo Tex-Mex brings our appreciation for authentic Mexican dishes and Southwestern cuisine back home to its Tex-Mex roots. It is spicy, eat-it-with-your-fingers food that combines modern ingredients with traditional, forthright flavors.

Tex-Mex is one of America's oldest regional cooking styles. The restaurants that started serving it at the turn of the last century, like The Original Mexican Restaurant in San Antonio and the Old Borunda Cafe in Marfa, are gone now. Nuevo Tex-Mex proves that their spirit lives on.

Here's to the next hundred years!

Robb Walsh is the restaurant critic of the Houston Press, and a commentator for National Public Radio's Weekend Edition, Sunday. He has also served as the food editor of the Austin Chronicle, food columnist for Natural History magazine, and editor-in-chief of Chile Pepper magazine. Walsh articles appear in several anthologies including Best Food Writing 2001, and Cornbread Nation I: The Best of Southern Food Writing.

David Garrido is a Mexican national who helped pioneer the Southwestern cuisine in Texas as an assistant chef to Stephan Pyles at Routh Street Cafe in Dallas and Bruce Auden at the Fairmont in San Antonio. David is currently the head chef at Jeffrey's in Austin.

Mannie Rodriguez is a food photographer whose clients include American Express, Neiman Marcus, and William Sonoma. Born in Havana and raised in Miami, today he makes his home in Dallas, Texas.

By David Garrido and Robb Walsh
Chronicle Books, May 1998

"Food historians ten or twenty years hence might well call it a benchmark, a book that shows, through 98 engaging recipes and a lively enlightened text, where a major element of Texas cooking has been and where it might well be headed." -Patricia Sharpe Texas Monthly, May 1998