The history of Matta's food and some Mexican food descriptions

Matta's West Texas style Mexican food uses both New Mexico and Texas food products, chiles and spices to create an unmistakable taste we have been serving since the 1940's.  All  our dishes are made from scratch.  Our chile sauces are unique and made from the freshest Anaheim green chiles and the freshest red chile pods and chile powders from New Mexico.  Our Jalapeno chiles are brought in from Deming New Mexico during the late summer and autumn fresh picked from the fields.  Each of our sauces is made fresh every day.  Our chile relleno peppers are cooked and peeled every day.  Our tamales are made fresh in our own kitchen from masa made here in Phoenix.  Our tortillas and chips are delivered to us each morning from the tortilla factory.  We have been using the same spice factory for almost 60 years.  We may have not been the first Mexican restaurant in Arizona,  but we were the first to bring West Texas style cuisine.    Every one of our recipes are our own.  Our family can trace our roots in America since the early 1800s.  We have been in the mercantile, food and cantina business for over 200 years.  Four generations of Mattas have been serving 7 generations of customers in the East Valley since 1953. 

The majority of the following terms are borrowed from similar cuisine in Mexico and Spain; albeit with the New Mexican standardized green chile, and some minor stylistic differences that are also found in the northern Mexican states. The most distinctive differences result from the influence of native New Mexican and Texan cuisine, and the linguistic evolution of certain terms (for example, the diminutively-suffixed bizcochitos instead of the conventional bizcochos used in some of Latin America and Spain).

Albóndigas: meatballs.   
Atole: a thick, hot gruel made from corn.        
Bizcochito: an anise-flavored cookie.       
Burrito: a small-to-medium white flour tortilla, filled with meat, beans, cheese, salsa, or a combination of these, and rolled. Often served smothered with chile sauce and melted cheese; the California-style variant is usually much larger (often twice as large or more), includes rice, and may use colored and flavored tortillas.       
Caldillo: (Green chile stew) a thin stew (or soup) of meat (usually beef, often pork or a mixture), potatoes, and green chiles.       
Capirotada: a dessert traditionally made during lent festivities made of fried slices ofbirote or bolillo bread then soaked in melted piloncillo, garnished with coconut, peanuts, orange slices and nut bits, served warm or cold.  
Carne adovada: cubes of pork that have been marinated and cooked in red chile, garlicand oregano.

Chalupa: a corn tortilla, fried into a bowl shape and filled with shredded chicken or other meat, and/or beans, and usually topped with guacamole and salsa. (Contrast with the larger and vegetable-laden California-style equivalent known as taco salads; compare with tostadas.)
Chicharrones: small pieces of pork rind with a thin layer of meat that are deep-fried.
Chicharrones de cuero: strips of pork skin that are deep-fried (see Pork rind).
Chile or chile sauce: A sauce made from red or green chiles by a variety of recipes, and served hot over many (perhaps any) New Mexican dish. Chile does not use vinegar, unlike most salsas, picantes and other hot sauces. Green chile is made with chopped roasted chiles, while red chile is made with chiles dried and ground to a powder. Thickeners like flour, and various spices are often added, especially ground cumin, coriander and oregano (none of these is usually added to a red chile sauce, and rarely would cumin or coriander show up in a traditional green sauce). Chile is one of the most definitive differences between New Mexican and other Mexican and Mexican-American cuisines. Mexican and Californian tend to use various specialized sauces for different dishes, while Tex-Mex leans toward the use of salsa picante and chili con carne (and even Cajun-style Louisiana hot sauce). New Mexican cuisine uses chile sauce as taco sauce, enchilada sauce, burrito sauce, etc. (though any given meal may use both red and green varieties for different dishes). A thicker version of green chile, with larger pieces of the plant, plus onions and other additions, is called green chile stew and is popular in Albuquerque-style New Mexican food; it is used the same way as green chile sauce, as a topping for virtually anything, including American dishes. The term "Christmas" is commonly used in New Mexico when both red and green chiles are used for one dish.