Earlier this month while I was at home from school for... I think it was Spring Break?, me and some of my family was eating dinner together and having a conversation about different kinds of food. I can't remember when the conversation took place or what specifically we ended up talking about as we enjoyed dinner, but I do remember that at one point I made up my own "new" word, that let's face it, I'm probably not the only person that's ever come up with this idea. Historically I haven't been the biggest fan of traditional Mexican food, although I've recently decided I want to try and branch out a bit more whenever possible. One type of food I'll never get tired of, though, is Italian food. Whether you're talking the off-brand "Italian" food that's still great that we have so much of here in the United States (apparently we make our pizzas different or something, idk I'm not a tourist) or genuine actual Italian cooking from some recipe book, I struggle to think of a time when I haven't enjoyed eating anything with the word "Italian" in the name somewhere.
At some point while I was trying to think of new Mexican foods I wanted to try, I came up with the idea for the word "Mexitalian", when referring to food and cooking would be... pretty much exactly what it sounds like. I've always been a fan of combining something I dislike with something I enjoy in an effort to make the disliked product more enjoyable, so in my head, this sounded like a perfect idea, even if it's probably not very original. I decided to add in this idea to our conversation, to which my brother's girlfriend responds with what might be one of the single greatest recipe ideas I've ever heard.
Her idea was to create something along the lines of a meat-based Fajita Pasta dish. I have to admit I found it kind of strange that she of all people suggested that knowing she enjoys a vegetarian diet, but going off of just those two words, I suddenly found myself on a roll with ideas for recipes even an inexperienced "chef" like me could try and make. That brings us to the present day- my summer break will be coming up in a few weeks after I post this, and I really want to try and take the Mexitalian idea the distance and see what I can come up with. I plan on doing some more looking into it on my own once final exams are past, but for the time being, I was wondering if any of you had any ideas I could share with the family or even some of my college friends. I was thinking about starting my experimentation this summer with dishes that have different kinds of rice and beans in them, if you need anything specific to go off of. Any and all ideas are appreciated :)
