Frontera Bar & Grill @ Jaya 1, Petaling Jaya

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Today, my friend J, who has perfected the art of talking a mile a minute, not even pausing for breath for a second, told me a rather interesting story about the origins of the Fajita. I googled it, and apparently, he was telling the truth.

You see, there was once a man, Mr. Homero who, as part of his graduate work in animal science at Texas A&M, was intrigued by a spike in the retail price of skirt steak (cheapo cut of meat from the cow). This sparked his research into the dish that took the reject cut of the cow, from poor man fodder, to the table of the rich.

During cattle roundups, beef were butchered regularly to feed the hands. Throw away items such as the hide, the head, the entrails, and meat trimmings such as ‘skirt’ were given to the Mexican vaqueros (cowboys) as part of their pay.
Considering the limited number of skirts per carcass and the fact the meat wasn’t available commercially, the fajita tradition remained a poor man practice, and relatively obscure for many years, probably only familiar to vaqueros, butchers, and their families.

Then all of a sudden, Fajitas appear to have made the transition from obscurity to mainstream dining, starting with commercialization e.g. the opening of the first commercial fajita taco concession stand in the united states. Soon after, entrepreneurs started to recognized the commercial potential of this popular local Tex-Mex dish and chefs started putting “sizzling fajitas” on the menu of local diners and finally, the big time.. on the menu of the Hyatt’s La Vista restaurant.. and the rest as they say was history.

That brings us to the great irony of fajita success: The more popular the dish became, the less likely it was to be made from the cheapest cut of steak! J thumped the table as he hit the climax in his story.
Everybody yawn… erm, I mean jumped up and applauded his story! Bravo J ! Now, can we please eat? 😛

Frontera is located at Jaya One,
Best ever Chimicangas and Chili Burgers in Petaling Jaya! You must eat these two items.. you must.

Add:
Frontera Bar & Grill
18-G-2, Block L
Jaya One
No. 72A, Jalan University
Petaling Jaya
Tel: 603 7958 8515

14 Comments

  • backStreetGluttons says:

    No matter , those Westerners et el are extraordinarily good with their intriguing tales of the twas has been and with interloping sippings of da old world sentimental highist demeanour will continue to impress , even the most intrepid of the convulated far East & the Indo Malay wastelands ( or so ), noble fish head curries anyone ?
    ;p

  • "Joe" who is constantly craving says:

    no food pics 1? now food history blog too?

  • CUMI & CIKI says:

    bsg:
    haha.. sometimes tex mex is good for variety in our everyday coffee shop makan sessions!

    joe:
    variety is the spice of life.. expanding our creative juices and keeping thing interesting.. for what are we.. if we don't evolve! teehee;)

  • thenomadGourmand says:

    I agree! The burger is good! I'm sure u enjoyed the margaritas too ;p

  • CUMI & CIKI says:

    yarr! i need to go for happy hour la.. been long time since had time for afterwork happy hour!

  • Lavendar Blue says:

    Great story…. now we know. Tks.

  • thule a.k.a leo says:

    went to Frontera twice… had equal experience of hits and misses 🙂

  • J says:

    Only piccies of beautiful people and none of yummy food??? 😛
    (Are you shifting your focus babe?)

  • foodbin says:

    ate there when they first opened could not appreciate the food.

  • CUMI & CIKI says:

    Lavendar:
    interesting story but even more interesting food!

    thule:
    really ar .. hmm, I haven't been there enough time to know;)

    J:
    not at all;)

    foodbin:
    shame!

  • sc says:

    such coincidence 🙂 just wrote about frontera a few days back.. though mine was a back log for months back..hehe

  • Lao says:

    Foodbin and Thule

    I'd be grateful if you would give us a try again.

    Hopefully, we will find something that suits you on the menu.

    Please ask for me when you come in, I'd be honored to serve you.

    Larry

  • Julian Si says:

    Chilli Burger!? Shucks … I ordered wrong stuff when I last went 🙁

    Huggs from the middle east…

  • Lyrical Lemongrass says:

    No habanero? Your meal iz not complete then. 😛

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