Skirt steak marinated in citrus and aromatics, grilled over a flame, sliced across the grain and served on a sizzling cast-iron skillet with flour tortillas, guacamole and pico.
Where to eat it: 3 restaurants across 1 city.
The modern restaurant fajita was popularised by Ninfa Laurenzo at the Original Ninfa's on Navigation Boulevard in Houston, who opened her ten-table room on July 25, 1973, and put grilled skirt steak with flour tortillas on the menu as 'tacos al carbon'. By the late 1970s she was branding them as fajitas and the dish went city-wide, then national. Skirt steak (faja means belt in Spanish, the cut runs along the diaphragm) had been a cheap ranch hand's cut on the Texas-Mexico border for generations, but it was Ninfa who turned it into white-tablecloth food. The sizzling cast-iron presentation and table-side assembly are her staging.
Common allergens: Gluten
Tip from the editors. Slicing against the grain is the difference between tender and chewy. Look at the lines in the meat; cut perpendicular to them.
This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.
The Original Ninfa's on Navigation in Houston is Ninfa Laurenzo's 1973 Tex-Mex room, the birthplace of the restaurant fajita, still serving skirt steak tacos al carbon and Ninfaritas.
Signature: Fajitas (tacos al carbon), Ninfaritas
Order: Fajitas (tacos al carbon) for two, a Ninfarita on the rocks, queso and chips.
Tip: Back patio under the strings of lights beats the front room. The bar opens 90 minutes before the dining room.
Hugo's Sunday brunch in Houston is Hugo Ortega's Mexican buffet on Westheimer Road, with chilaquiles, three moles, sopes, churros and the regional Mexican menu compressed into one buffet.
Order: The buffet itself: chilaquiles, mole, sopes, churros
Tip: 12pm seating sells out two weeks ahead; 10am seating is easier. Tableside hot chocolate is the closing course.
El Tiempo Cantina on Navigation in Houston is Roland Laurenzo's Tex-Mex room (son of Ninfa Laurenzo) next to the Original Ninfa's, with fajitas, beef rib parrilladas and stacked margaritas.
Signature: Fajitas, Beef rib parrillada
Order: Fajitas, the beef rib parrillada, a stacked margarita.
Tip: The Navigation flagship is the original; other locations exist citywide. Patio in cool weather.
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