5/17/2012

The Secret of Mexican Restaurants

It’s true, most Mexican restaurants really do have a secret! That’s because most of them specialize in antojitos mexicanos. Antojitos are the simple tortilla and corn based foods, such as tacos, enchiladas, quesadillas, burritos, chimichangas, tostadas, and flautas that have won the hearts of Americans and bring crowds of them daily to restaurants from coast to coast.

Although the secret involves mathematics, nothing beyond simple multiplication is required to understand it. That secret is based on the fact that almost all antojitos consist of three basic items:

• Filling, such as shredded chicken, fajitas, or simply refried beans
• Wrap, usually a corn or flour tortilla of one size or another
• Garnish, such as cheese, sour cream, guacamole and a salsa or two

Here’s how it works: assuming they already have tortillas and garnish items, if a restaurant prepares five fillings and uses those five fillings to make just the seven different items mentioned above, they will have thirty-five different menu items! If they use both flour and corn tortillas for some of the items, they will have even more. And if they serve some of the filling items, such as carnitas or fajitas, as entrees with rice and/or beans, there will be even more. All that for preparing just five fillings, some rice and beans, a few salsas and sauces, grating some cheese, making some guacamole and laying in a supply of tortillas! Did I hear somebody say Chipotle Grill?

Next week we will offer some specific suggestions to show how you can easily use this secret at home, for anything from a quick snack to an entire meal, with a minimum of time and effort!