Cuisine of the Southwestern United States

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Southwestern cuisine is food styled after the rustic cooking of California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, as well as parts of Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado. It comprises a fusion of recipes for things that might have been eaten by cowboys, Native Americans, and Mexicans throughout the post-Columbian era, however, there is a great diversity in this kind of cuisine within the above-mentioned states.

Southwestern cuisine is heavily influenced by Mexican cuisine but often involves larger cuts of meat, and less use of tripe, brain, and other parts not considered as desirable in the United States. Like Mexican cuisine, it is also known for its use of spices (particularly the chile, or Chili pepper) and accompaniment with beans (frijoles), cooked in a variety of manners. Chili con carne, fajitas, certain kinds of chiles rellenos (stuffed chiles), and various steak-chile combinations are particularly well-known Southwestern foods. Note that "chili" generally refers to a thick stew or soup prepared with beans and meat, while "chile" refers to the peppers that grow in this region and have been eaten for thousands of years by the native people. Recently, several chains of casual dining restaurants specializing in Southwestern cuisine have become popular in the United States.

As more immigrants from Mexico travel to the southwest seeking "The American Dream", more southwestern restaurants open, and boom.

New Mexico is known for its dedication to the chile (the official "state question" is "Red or green?", which refers to the preferred color of chiles), most notably the "hatch" chile.

The Coyote Café in Santa Fe, NM claims to be the birthplace of the fancier (more expensive) form of this cuisine.