Talk:Fajita

Wiki Editors
Not enough citations for a page on food? WTF? Is the only wiki page acceptable to the edit nazis something resembling a scientific review paper?

Get a life. We are talking about a f* food recipe. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.27.49.225 (talk) 19:27, 18 August 2011 (UTC)

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. &middot; Katefan0(scribble)/ poll 17:16, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

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)
 * The Spanish letter "j" is NOT pronounced like "H"...no matter how many times stupid gringos pronounce it like that! 93.219.169.162 (talk) 05:51, 26 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Given that is is Mexican, it's pretty obvious.  Tu rk ey ph an t 20:40, 10 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Given tha this is an English Wik, it isn't obvios to a large partof our users. Kdammers (talk) 09:40, 3 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Why is the pronunciation written in European Spanish rather than the Mexican pronunciation, since it is a Mexican food & known to be pronounced as ? It's the first time for me to know that it may be pronounced  as well! --Mahmudmasri (talk) 08:37, 26 July 2010 (UTC)
 * The x in is not like the English -ks-, it is an IPA symbol for a kind of h (like Arabic/Persian خ). —Stephen (talk) 12:37, 26 April 2011 (UTC)

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)

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))

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).

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).
 * 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).

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).

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. &mdash; 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)


 * No one has suggested calling any form of fajitas "Gay Communist Witches". Someone did suggest that "tacos al carbon de pollo" is a better term than "chicken fajitas".  Part of my observation is that whatever the merits in favoring one term over another, a four order of magnitude difference in usage means that the writer was trying to invent proper usage rather than report it. &mdash; VulcanOfWalden (talk) 20:08, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

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)


 * The sizzling fajitas that were still being attributed to Weidmann until I removed it was the presentation style, that is, the use of a pre-heated sizzle plate onto which the cooked meat and onions are placed, then some liquid. As the liquid rapidly boils off, the sizzling dish is presented to the diners.  If I read things correctly, he did use it at the Hyatt and, being an early adopter in a visible position, may have helped popularize both the dish and this style of presentation, but he wasn't first with it.  Weidmann is noted for using sirloin rather than skirt steak for his fajitas. &mdash; VulcanOfWalden (talk) 16:53, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Unclear sentence
"It contended that Jon Daniel of Houston, Texas introduced beef fajitas to Texas in 1972 after a trip to Matamoros, Mexico." Either there is a missing prior referent, or there should be an "is" after "It." Which i it?Kdammers (talk) 09:49, 3 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Note: This problem is long solved. The sentence was in August 2011 as unsourced and dubious. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 15:38, 20 April 2012 (UTC)

Copyright violation
The section on etymology is copied almost verbatim from from the first paragraph of "Just Exactly What Is a Fajita?" — O'Dea  (talk) 10:26, 8 October 2012 (UTC)

This Article is Wrong
In no way shape or form are Fajitas American or "Tex-Mex" A.K.A. Garbage. My Grandmother (R.I.P.) would prepare Fajitas IN MEXICO - IN THE 1930s!!! My mother then learned from her. My friends and family are Mexican and they will tell you the same thing. You have NO valid sources either. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.249.220.129 (talk) 10:39, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Fajita. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20080924163542/http://www.austinchronicle.com:80/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A261130 to http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid:261130

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Cheers. —cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 00:06, 18 October 2015 (UTC)

Highly relevant source on history
"First off, Chili’s didn’t invent fajitas. Far from it. That credit would more likely go to Juan Antonio “Sonny” Falcon, who named the belt of meat that surrounds the midsection of a cow. He called it the faja, Spanish for “belt” or “sash.” It was mostly considered trimmings. But Sonny, whose family owned a meat market, came up with a way to season and grill those tough cuts so they’d be tender and tasty. In 1969, at the Dieciséis de Septiembre celebration in Kyle, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley, he opened his first booth to the public."

"In 1984, as the Hyatt struggled to modify its fajitas to fit in other hotel restaurants, Chili’s rolled out its version in twenty-three of its locations, with great success. People lined up around the block waiting to get a table. Long before the term became popular, Chili’s sizzling fajitas went viral. Cooks called it the “fajita effect”: When the first order of the night came into the kitchen, the cooks fired up several skillets and started prepping ingredients for the bunch of orders that always came soon after. "

https://medium.com/galleys/the-fajita-effect-504838a5f2f0#.titktz2ux

46.182.35.48 (talk) 19:09, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

Are fajitas only made from beef?
An editor (and then another one, newly registered and only editing this page with the same purpose) has been trying to insist that fajitas can only be made from beef. Although they were originally made from beef, there are lots of sources that allow chicken, lamb, pork, vegetable, shrimp and even venison fajitas. (The source provided for the purist claim doesn't actually support it.)

Here are three examples: Rancho de Chimayo Cookbook: The Traditional Cooking of New Mexico has lamb, chicken and vegetable fajitas. Jane Butel's Southwestern Kitchen has chicken, shrimp, and duck. I can even offer The Homesick Texan's Family Table: Lone Star Cooking from My Kitchen to Yours, which explicitly says that the battle over whether a chicken fajita is a fajita has been lost, the author noting that the "linguistic purist" in her still sees the name as inaccurate. But she proceeds to give a recipe entitled "chicken fajitas". OsFish (talk) 04:18, 18 August 2016 (UTC)
 * I've been bold and incorporated those references into the text.OsFish (talk) 08:45, 18 August 2016 (UTC)

Wrong info about Arizona !
There has been (now "was") a restaurant in Arizona known as "Fajitas: A Sizzlin' Celebration" since September 1986 ! ! !

So, "fajitas" was not an unknown anywhere in Arizona during the 1990s.

I say "was" because of the stupid COVID-19, the restaurant has, as of May 12, 2020, permanently closed its doors.

Am surprised there is no entry here at/in Wikipedia for this popular and successful restaurant chain; even if it was just 'local.'

So, how about some corrections and a new, separate entry ?

Just curious. 2600:8800:784:8F00:C23F:D5FF:FEC4:D51D (talk) 21:57, 13 May 2020 (UTC)

Marinade
Marinade is the key to a fajita being a fajita. It typically contains vinegar, lime juice, cayenne, black pepper, garlic, soy sauce, liquid smoke, sugar, oil (usually olive), and water. It has a very tangy flavor that lingers in the mouth for many minutes. Without it, no knowledgeable Texan would call it a fajita. 2600:1700:96D0:7E90:1C54:C774:942F:55F6 (talk) 06:06, 27 September 2020 (UTC) fringewood