Talk:Fajita

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[edit] Cornish pastry like fajita meal

i have come up with the idea to create a cornish pasty like fajita meal, (A Fajita filling in shortcrust pastry) and was wondering if anyone had any tips? Joe 15

Hey Joe! Sorry, I can't really help. I think someone maintains a wikicookbook project, but I can't recall off the top of my head who or where it might be. In my amateur opinion, you might consider using store-bought shortbread pie crusts in the frozen section -- buy two of them, fill the bottom with your fajita filling and then put the other one on top and crimp the crusts together. Good luck. · Katefan0(scribble)/poll 17:16, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Fahita

isn't it important to mention the way it's pronounced? Not many people know it's pronounced as FAHITA rather than actual J in FAJITA! Omernos 08:17, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Origins?

http://www.cookeryonline.com/Tortilla/Fajita.html claims to know the origin of the Fajita. However, I haven't found any other sources to corroborate that story. It would be a nice addition if somebody could find some. 70.74.240.140 01:56, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Tortilla usage

Not everyone prefers to use flour tortillas to eat with fajitas. Some of us (myself included) prefer corn tortillas. When I prepare fajitas at home, I use corn tortillas exclusively, and in a restaurant setting, 9 times out of 10 (or as many times as I'm in a place that serves homemade corn tortillas) I'll request corn tortillas along with my fajitas. I kinda find flour tortillas along with fajitas a bit... UGH. The whole grilled meat + soft flour tortilla thing doesn't float my boat. So the only times I'll eat that is if the restaurant doesn't serve homemade corn tortillas. OTOH, I'd take any kind of corn tortillas over prepackaged flour tortillas, which are EW GROSS GET THAT AWAY FROM ME. (Krushsister 02:26, 22 September 2006 (UTC))

[edit] Nit-picking about nit-picking

It seems that a disproportionate amount of text is spent on nit-picking about what is and is not a Fajita. (Especially since the article isn't very long yet; this makes up about half of the page.) While having an explanation is good, it could be reworded to be more concise. Jobarts-Talk 01:25, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

I second Jobarts. It was mentioned in the previous edit that the term "fajita" has evolved from the cut of meat (beef skirt steak) to the style of preperation (grilled meat with onions and peppers, highly spiced and served with tortillas and appropriate condiments). I feel this is fine; certainly common usage dictates that this is now the accepted form. Paxsimius 05:18, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

I went ahead and changed the article back to its previous edits. The article explained the change of term well enough and touched an many things that had been omitted in the Nov. 20 version. I live in Austin, Texas, where fajitas are very popular, and eat in many authentic Tex-Mex restaurants. Fajitas listed on menus always refer to method of preperation, and not to the cut. Paxsimius 15:35, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Fajitas are not a 'Tex-Mex' dish. They are served there, but they are not Tex-Mex. The fact that you refer to Tex-Mex as "authentic" proves you are incorrect. The fajita plate is Mexican, not Tex-Mex. Please don't refer to places like Chuy's Tex-Mex restaurant as "authentic". That's almost as bad as calling Taco Bell 'authentic'. (Indecks 03:00, 6 December 2006 (UTC))
First, Chuy's is for frat boys and I would never call it authentic, and Taco Bell is an abomination to mankind. Please don't put words in my mouth and then insult me. Matt's El Rancho, however, is authentic, and their menu (http://www.mattselrancho.com/mattsmenu2.htm) has fajitas listed, with beef, chicken, shrimp and vegetarian available as choices. Guero's (http://www.guerostacobar.com/) also offers shrimp and chicken, and many other restaurants follow suit. Second, the English language regularly borrows and adapts words. It's clear that the word "fajita" was borrowed from Spanish and adapted by English speakers. In this case, it moved from the term for the type of meat itself, and adapted into describing the prepared dish. I'm not offering up opinion as fact; the word has changed, and clinging to an outdated definition doesn't really work in this context. Fajitas are what the populace now says they are. That's how language works. As such, the 19 November 2006 version of the article does a fine job presenting the change of definition, is concise, and doesn't preach. Paxsimius 06:05, 6 December 2006 (UTC)
Sorry, but fajitas are not Mexican food. They are most definitely Tex-Mex. Now, it's preparation may be very Mexican but that cut of meat only became popular in Mexico after it became all the rage in the United States. I'm Mexican, and I cook and I know my culture and our gastronomy very well. When I was a child I had traveled all over Mexico and never ran into fajitas. Where I first ran into fajitas was at cook-outs in Texas. Today, you can travel all over Mexico and you may run into this dish; in fact, I have but it's an issue of an imported dish. Now, I am also a purist. Fajita, is ONLY skirt steak (aka: flank steak). What's sad about the adulteration of the word is that when you go to restaurants they will undoubtedly use "skirt steak" in their explanatory note and you will certainly NOT get skirt steak; instead you will get some cheap flavorless steak. The real fajita has an amazing flavor that only comes from this cut of meat.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.140.21.15 (talk • contribs) 13:39, 17 December 2006.

[edit] Third Opinion

I just saw this listed over at WP:3O.

It seems to me the main problem here is that there are absolutely no sources given. I would say that the easiest way to resolve this would be to find at least one source that discusses the ingredients/makeup of a fajita and go from there. Otherwise, it's just going to be based on each editor's own experiences ("well, I went to this restraurant and they did it this way!"), which would make it original research. I would hasten to add that menus from restaurants are not sufficient, because different chefs/restaurants are going to do things differently. Ideally it should be a article/book about Tex-Mex or Mexican cuisine (whichever is appropriate- I'm obviously not an expert).

Cheers --DarthBinky 03:43, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

Unfortunately, as with many histories of regional dishes, citations are hard to come by, but I agree, they are needed, and I am working on it and, of course, invite others to as well. I edited the article in such a way as to be offered up as a sincere compromise, with the second paragraph addressing the above issue. My goal is something that is both written in the succint and scholarly style expected of Wikipedia while encompassing fairly different views. I am honestly not trying to leave anyone out here. Paxsimius 15:54, 11 December 2006 (UTC)
Hmm.. I can agree with that second paragraph, Praximus. Looks and sounds good to me. (Indecks 17:46, 11 December 2006 (UTC))


By definition, does a fajita contain onion and pepper?—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.224.42.43 (talk • contribs) 08:43, 4 February 2007.

No they do not. The fajita itself is the actual piece of meat. While I don't agree with pork/chicken/shrimp/tofu fajitas existing, they don't REQUIRE peppers and onion to be fajitas. If anything they are just added in for flavor. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.110.68.99 (talk) 17:13, 14 February 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Tex-Mex

Thank you for saying that fajitas are NOT part of Mexican cuisine becuase many people that goes to Mexico and asks for burritos, fajitas, nachos and all that stuff, think that they are trying real Mexican food but they don´t know that the nachos con queso that they serve you at an hotel in Cancun aren´t the typical food of Mexico. And the United States and the whole world thinks it so. I wish that someday people know the differnce between Tex-Mex and REAL Mexican food. Thank you. Pablo. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 88.16.159.13 (talk) 19:31, 14 May 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Chicken fajita merge

The chicken fajita article was started as and remains a minor etymological polemic as to why "chicken fajitas" shouldn't be called "fajitas". Leaving aside for the moment what it ought to mean, let me note that a Google search for "chicken fajitas" returns about 272,000 hits while a search for the author's suggested terminology of "tacos al carbon de pollo" returns nine. All of the restaurants that I've been to that serve beef fajitas also serve chicken fajitas, including Mama Ninfa's. From a gustatory standpoint, I'd rather have beef. Given how widely available chicken fajitas are, I do suspect that a number of folks disagree.

Returning to the etymological question, when a foreign word enters a language for which there is already a native word, the new word often doesn't keep its original meaning. The word prosciutto in Italian is a generic word for ham. In American English, its meaning is restricted to hams cured in the same style as a Prosciutto di Parma. As another example, scampi is an Italian word for a lobster native to Europe. When Italians-Americans prepared recipes that used it, they often substituted shrimp. In American English, the word scampi is less tied to a a crustacean than it is to a means of preparation, which in turn has led to things like chicken scampi. In short, another word for skirt steak isn't useful; a word for a commonly served dish is.

Reading over the chicken fajita article, I don't see any points raised that aren't covered with better nuance in the fajita article. As such, I've gone ahead and redirected the chicken fajita page to the fajita page. — VulcanOfWalden 00:34, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

"a Google search for 'chicken fajitas' returns about 272,000 hits while a search for the author's suggested terminology of 'tacos al carbon de pollo' returns nine." A Google search for "Gay Communist Witches" returns 775,000 results. I maintain that Google is a poor test of what should be done to Wikipedia articles. Just a thought.Pygmypony 13:17, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Delicious Sizzling Fajitas

"The 'sizzling fajita' was created by Weidmann in 1982." Surely fajitas sizzled at some point during the roughly fifty years between their invention and 1982. This man most certainly did NOT create the sizzling fajita. He may have coined the term, but this is not the same thing. If anyone has reason why this statement should not be deleted from the article please speak up. Pygmypony 13:18, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

Seeing no objections after what I feel is a reasonable time frame, I went ahead and deleted the offending sentence. Pygmypony 18:42, 17 September 2007 (UTC)