Tex-Mex is its own distinct cuisine with roots in the Texas borderlands

Texas' includes German, Mexican, and Polish influences

Beef brisket, served with white bread and pickles, and sausage—a holdover from German immigration in the 1800s—are two of the most popular dishes. The southern end of the state brings together Mexican barbacoa and fajitas.

Unique ingredients and preparations differentiate burrito styles

Examples include California burritos, which wrap french fries in with the other ingredients, and chimichangas, an Arizona specialty in which the burrito is deep-fried prior to serving.

The first chili cook took place in a Texas ghost town

"The Great Chili Confrontation" happened October 21, 1967, in Terlingua, Texas, a small ghost town near Big Bend National Park. The showdown was between journalists H. Allen Smith, who wrote an article titled “Nobody Knows More About Chili Than I Do,” and Wick Fowler, a Texas reporter.

A comprehensive taxonomy of American tacos

Tacos may be a Mexican food, but they're wildly popular in America and in a number of different styles. This lengthy guide from Serious Eats was compiled after visiting more than 1,000 taco shops. It breaks down the differences between the many variations on the form (including breakfast, barbacoa, and Deli Mex) you'll encounter in different regions of the country. We don't recommend reading on an empty stomach!

Cinco de Mayo is a regional holiday concentrated in Puebla and celebrated with local cuisine

Puebla is considered by many food experts to be an excellent culinary destination. Traditional dishes you may find there on Cinco de Mayo include mole poblano, a complex, dark sauce born in a 17th-century convent; chalupas, fried tortillas topped with salsa and meat; and chiles en nogada, stuffed peppers topped with walnut sauce and pomegranate seeds.

Flour tortillas are more common in northern Mexico

Of the several hypotheses for the origins of flour tortillas, the most likely is that European colonists in the region began cultivating wheat, which they used instead of corn when making tortillas.

Sinaloan sushi is a Mexican take on the Japanese classic

Sushi became popular in Mexico in the early 20th century, thanks to Japanese immigrants who settled in Sinaloa, a Mexican state that runs along the Pacific Ocean. The region’s modern-day sushi blends both cultural traditions, evident in items like the Mar y Tierra roll, which includes carne asada and shrimp.

A deep dive into the man behind ballpark nachos

Nachos were invented in Mexico in 1943, but "ballpark nachos" (featuring liquid cheese and pickled jalapenos) were invented in 1976 for the Texas Rangers, then a relatively new franchise. This Texas Monthly piece digs into the history of Frank Libreto, who realized classic nachos could be a cost-efficient concession with just a few small tweaks.

Famous Catalan dishes

Catalan cuisine is defined by its bold and unexpected flavor combinations, which are largely a reflection of Catalonia’s diverse geography. Meat and seafood are often combined into a single dish, an ode to the region’s fertile soil and coastline. Meatballs with cuttlefish and peas is a common meal enjoyed alongside fresh bread. Salivate over 15 more dishes in this listicle that’s frontloaded with a bit of history.

Why beefsteak tomatoes are named after a meaty dish

No, they won't get vegetarians into trouble, but beefsteak tomatoes did earn their name because of their meaty texture. People also associate the hearty beefsteak with sandwiches and burgers because they make for a perfect topping on meat-centric dishes. This quick explainer breaks down the basic etymology of the beefsteak and provides a few helpful ideas for using the tomato in your next meal.

Some call Beard the original 'foodie'

James Beard came of age when home cooking revolved around canned and frozen ingredients. Likewise, West Coast cuisine wasn’t on anyone’s radar. Beard’s appreciation of fresh, seasonal ingredients and regional influences provided a foundation for today’s movement toward local, farm-to-table cooking and the foodies who seek it out.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

A chopped cheese sandwich is a New York culinary staple

The sandwich is a cross between a hamburger and a cheesesteak, featuring ground beef, cheese, and seasoning on a roll. Its fans add whatever other fixings they like, including lettuce, tomato, onions, mustard, and more.

Tequila is made from the blue agave plant and can only be produced in Mexico

By law, tequila must be produced from blue Weber agave grown in Jalisco and a handful of other Mexican states. The plant takes years to mature before harvest, after which it is cooked, crushed, fermented, and distilled into blanco, reposado, or añejo, depending on its aging process.

Discover why Texas runs its own electric grid, separate from the other US interconnections

In 1935, electrical utilities in the Lone Star State opted to rely on the state's own fossil fuel reserves to power an independent electric grid. While this prevented the federal oversight required for the Eastern and Western Interconnections that span multiple states, it also meant Texas's grid was unable to draw sufficient backup power during the winter 2021 power grid failure.

The frozen margarita was invented in Dallas using a repurposed soft-serve machine

On May 11, 1971, Dallas restaurateur Mariano Martinez adapted an ice cream machine to produce frozen margaritas using his father's recipe. The original machine now sits in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

Brazil is leading a cheese revolution and challenging European dominance in the industry

Brazil has plenty of traditional dishes that rely on cheese, but it’s only in the last decade that the country has emerged as a powerhouse in artisanal cheesemaking. While the cheeses may be inspired by European traditions, options like cocoa-dusted goat cheese or an Amazonian buffalo cheese are pure South American.

Chicano artists shaped the celebration of Day of the Dead in the US

Beginning in the 1970s, Mexican-American artists have used Day of the Dead components like ofrendas and festivals to combine cultural identity with social justice movements, highlighting indigenous traditions to address issues like gang violence.

Mexico’s political chaos weakened its defense against US invasion

Mexico’s post-independence instability—marked by coups, power struggles, and weak central control—left its northern frontier vulnerable. That political fragmentation shaped Mexico’s unpreparedness during the Mexican-American War and helped enable US conquest.

Country music can be traced back to Colonial America

The genre begins with the folk music of the Colonial settlers, blending the area’s regional sounds, including gospel, African spirituals, and Anglo-Saxon, Scottish, and Celtic ballads.

Lucha libre is Mexico's high-flying spin on pro wrestling

Lucha libre, a Mexican style of professional wrestling that roughly translates to “free fighting,” shares some common characteristics with the American style, though it’s a genre in and of itself, with high-flying acrobatics, masked wrestlers and longstanding traditions.

How texture affects taste

Texture is the brain's interpretation of several sensations, including pressure, as registered by our teeth, tongue, and finger tips, and sound, as recorded by our ears. Texture also speaks to food particle sizes—smaller than 35 microns contributes to the sensation of creamy—and the balance between flavor and mouth time, such as the crunch of a crispy chip or the bounce of a chewy caramel.

TikTok is obsessed with weird cottage cheese recipes

Cottage cheese “cookie dough.” Pizza cottage cheese bowl. Cottage cheese queso dip. TikTok influencers are suddenly posting nonstop cottage cheese recipes. It might be echoes of the 1990s weight-loss obsession, when diet culture encouraged the consumption of questionably tasty low-fat foods and not much else. Now, cottage cheese’s high protein content has made it an intriguing prospect for online fitness gurus who say that it’s the key to building muscle.

Ranchos were large land grants in California to Spanish, Mexican leading families

They were typically given to leading families or retired soldiers as means of settling the land with loyal people. The hundreds of ranchos have since shaped land-use policy in the area, determining plots of major cities and ranches today.

New York artist Donald Judd turned Marfa, Texas, into an artists' haven

In 1971, Judd arrived in the West Texas hamlet in the brutal high desert, not far from Big Bend National Park. He acquired 22 buildings, repurposing them and inviting other artists to create on-site installations. Today, the Donald Judd Historic District is part of the National Register of Historic Places.

Hibachi restaurants were designed to appeal to American soldiers stationed in Japan

Hibachi-style cooking was originally used in residences, with Japanese families cooking together around the grill. That style was then refined after World War II with the teppanyaki restaurant Misono, which used more American-friendly ingredients (like steak) to appeal to American soldiers stationed in the country. Despite the differences between teppanyaki and hibachi, diners began using "hibachi" to describe the concept. Later, the Aoki family brought it to American soil with Benihana.

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

The Dracula character, now seen as the vampire archetype, was inspired by a seafood-induced nightmare its creator experienced.

While El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

The rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson centered on federalism—the question of how much power the federal government should hold relative to the states.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

'Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,' a work by American painter Thomas Moran, inspired Congress to establish Yellowstone National Park.

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.

How fusion—which releases energy when two lighter atoms combine to form a heavier atom—differs from fission

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

Poison ivy is in the same family as mangoes, cashews, and pistachios—and they all produce oily urushiol in their raw, unprocessed state—but they are typically prepared in ways to avoid causing human discomfort.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.

Lesser-known phobias include turophobia, or the fear of cheese, and nomophobia, the fear of being without your cell phone.

Georgia O'Keeffe's flower paintings are often assumed to be sexual, though the artist claimed she was simply interested in highlighting the beauty of flowers that most people neglect

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

One disco producer saw 'Star Wars' four times on its opening weekend and was so inspired that he recorded the album 'Star Wars and Other Intergalactic Funk,' which produced a chart-topping single.

Brandi Chastain, the star of the 1999 US victory over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup, was a last-second choice to take the penalty kick that sealed the victory.

Corals are themselves not coral reefs—the term refers to the tiny marine invertebrates that build the rigid reef.