# White sauce at Mexican restaurants



## rede2learn

Does anyone know how to make the white sauce that accompanies salsa at numerous mexican restaurants?  It's like ranch dressing but much thicker and with different seasoning.


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## mexican mama

Most mexican white sauce has cheese in it thus the 'white' or light yellow color aka queso blanco most of them are dips for tortilla chips, as well as enchilada sauces. ALso walnut sauce is a popular kind of sauce in Mexican cooking
Walnut sauce
Chile en Nogada - Chiles in Walnut Sauce

This info is very useful
What is Mexican White Sauce?


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## rede2learn

The stuff I'm thinking of is not cheesy at all.  I do love the queso with chorizo though.  This is more sour creamy and served cold.


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## GB

It almost sounds like you are describing creme fresh, but that is French, not Mexican.


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## vagriller

rede2learn said:


> The stuff I'm thinking of is not cheesy at all. I do love the queso with chorizo though. This is more sour creamy and served cold.


 
You are talking about the white sauce tha gets served with chips and salsa, not the white cheese sauce that is served over an entree, right? I will try to find a recipe. This is something I want to learn how to make too!

edit: here I found one! Some helpful tips in the reviews too!

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/mexican-white-sauce/detail.aspx


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## Selkie

It sounds like: 

*Baja Sauce*

*Ingredients:* 
12 ounces mayonnaise or salad dressing
12 ounces sour cream 
1 1/2 cups cilantro leaves 
6 jalapenos, seeded and chopped (remember to wear disposable latex gloves) 
3 avocados, pitted and pulp extracted 
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice

*Instructions:* 
In a food processor, blend cilantro and jalapenos. 
Add remaining ingredients and blend.
_Keep refrigerated until served._


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## powerplantop

I would be curious where people are seeing this. I have never seen it at a mexican place. Sounds interesting but I have not seen it.


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## vagriller

powerplantop said:


> I would be curious where people are seeing this. I have never seen it at a mexican place. Sounds interesting but I have not seen it.


 
I'd never seen it until I moved to the Mid-Atlantic region.


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## Selkie

powerplantop said:


> I would be curious where people are seeing this. I have never seen it at a mexican place. Sounds interesting but I have not seen it.



The fusion between Mexican food and Mexican-American food is more of a blur everyday.

Tortilla chips were invented and first mass produced in Los Angeles in the 1940s, but they are now regular Latino fare at nearly every table from the Straits of Magellan to Hudson Bay. (Perhaps a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea... never the less, they are popular south of the border all of the way to Chile. )

Fish Tacos are also a product from Southern Calif., but they are now very popular in Mexico!

And for those who have a particular taste in fast food, the menu at Taco Bell only has two or three items of Mexican origin. The rest are American inventions.

So just because you haven't seen Baja Sauce (also a popular American invention, and a sauce used with Fish Tacos) at your local Mexican Restaurant, it doesn't mean it isn't used at many other places.  I haven't seen Mole in very many Mexican Restaurants either, but it's a very popular sauce used throughout Central America and the Caribbean.


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## GB

Selkie said:


> I haven't seen Mole in very many Mexican Restaurants either, but it's a very popular sauce used throughout Central America and the Caribbean.


I love how different areas of the same country can be so different from each other. I can not recall ever being in any Mexican restaurant that did not have mole on the menu.


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## jabbur

I went to the link for allrecipes and read the reviews.  It appears this is a VA thing at Mexican restaurants.  Everyone who comments on how it is so much like the stuff they get at their favorite Mexican place is from VA!


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## rede2learn

Makes sense that it is a VA thing and so strange to the rest of you.  I live in Hampton Roads, which encompasses Williamsburg to VA beach.  It does accompany chips and salsa, I didn't realize it wasn't served everywhere or I would have mentioned that.  
I love baja sauce, especially when we make fish tacos.  I'll have to check out the link.
As always thanks for all the help.

This site is the best!


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## vagriller

GB said:


> I love how different areas of the same country can be so different from each other. I can not recall ever being in any Mexican restaurant that did not have mole on the menu.



Mole huh? That taste like chicken?


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## vagriller

jabbur said:


> I went to the link for allrecipes and read the reviews.  It appears this is a VA thing at Mexican restaurants.  Everyone who comments on how it is so much like the stuff they get at their favorite Mexican place is from VA!



That is funny! And if you go even to Raleigh, NC none of the restaurants there have it either. I wonder if Plaza Azteca started this white sauce trend.



rede2learn said:


> Makes sense that it is a VA thing and so strange to the rest of you.  I live in Hampton Roads, which encompasses Williamsburg to VA beach.  It does accompany chips and salsa, I didn't realize it wasn't served everywhere or I would have mentioned that.
> I love baja sauce, especially when we make fish tacos.  I'll have to check out the link.
> As always thanks for all the help.
> 
> This site is the best!



Well what is your favorite Mexican restaurant? There are a few at the link in my sig, and I'm always looking for new places to add.

And welcome to DC, this site is the best!


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## rede2learn

vagriller,

Our favorite mexican place is called "El Rancho."  It use to be Cinco de Mayo and had a few locations.  We frequented the one in Grafton most Friday nights for about 6 years.  Really got to know the staff well.  New owners took over up there 3 years ago, but the previous owners opened up in Poquoson.  Business was so good that the expanded to a much larger setting a few shops down.  They even have a lunch buffet!  
If I had to pick one restaurant that was my favorite it would have been the Poquoson Seafood House.  The chef that used to be at Cowboy Sids took over their kitchen.  The food was always superb!  Best she crab soup, clam chowder, seafood marina, seafood alfredo, oyster po boy and on and on.  Unfortunately that place is now another Italian place.  There are now 3 in town and none can make a decent pizza which is a huge turn off for me.  Coming from Pittsburgh I'm very picky about pizza.  
Anyway the best place for me right now has to be Little Philly.  Best subs I've had in the south.  The even used to put fried egg on my cheesesteaks.  They stopped serving breakfast so their eggs are in short supply.  

Sorry for the rambling but I love food.


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## babetoo

vagriller said:


> Mole huh? That taste like chicken?


 
i find how the same dish will move from culture to culture to be endless  interesting.  each puts it stamp on it. try sometimes to follow a dish and see how it is done in another country. the taco or tamale comes to mind. flat bread is another. i could cite more but you get the idea.


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## Silversage

Could you be referring to crema, a Mexican sour cream similar to creme fraiche?  It's often used as a cooling balance to the spicy food.  Maybe they're just spicing it up a bit.

Like you, GB, I've never seen a Mexican restaurant without mole on the menu.  After all, it was the Aztecs who first cultivated cacao.  

And fish tacos originated in Baja California, where the diet has always been heavily dependent on seafood, and which is in Mexico.


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## powerplantop

Selkie said:


> The fusion between Mexican food and Mexican-American food is more of a blur everyday.


 
That I will agree with. Even within Mexico you will find variation. I still want to try Arab tacos. 



Selkie said:


> Fish Tacos are also a product from Southern Calif., but they are now very popular in Mexico!


 
Fish taco's are from Baja not CA. To be the real thing they come with cabage. (Cabage last longer in the heat than lettuce.)



Selkie said:


> So just because you haven't seen Baja Sauce (also a popular American invention, and a sauce used with Fish Tacos) at your local Mexican Restaurant, it doesn't mean it isn't used at many other places.  I haven't seen Mole in very many Mexican Restaurants either, but it's a very popular sauce used throughout Central America and the Caribbean.


 
In the US (not counting Mexico) I have had Mexican food in CA, OR, WA, TX, AR, LA, MN, NY, FL, IA, NC, SC, GA, AZ, NM, OK, and IL so far I have never been served a Baja sauce with my chips. But usually I am in Mexican places where English may or may not be spoken, and I don't speak Spanish.


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## Selkie

powerplantop said:


> ...Fish taco's are from Baja not CA. To be the real thing they come with cabage. (Cabage last longer in the heat than lettuce.)...so far I have never been served a Baja sauce with my chips. But usually I am in Mexican places where English may or may not be spoken, and I don't speak Spanish.



If you're talking about Rubios Fresh Mexican Grill, on the Baja Penninsula, fish tacos didn't come from them originally. Rubio's actually began in San Diego in the 1980s, but picked up the idea of fish tacos from a local sandwich shop.

I never said Baja sauce was served with chips.


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## Selkie

I will concede that originally: "...it used to be something you'd get from a few sketchy vendors with little carts down in Baja, Mexico - a very good thing. These are Baja style with a piece of fried fish, shredded cabbage, a white yogurt sauce, and hot sauce on a small corn tortilla. They were originally made with the traditional shark, but as word spread that sharks were endangered, they switched to other fish."

And from what I can glean, American fishermen and surfers brought the idea back to So. Calif., and that tasty creation exploded in sandwich shops and food vendors along the entire southern coast.


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## wanna be

*When you all figure it out.*

Please let me know!!
I am a mexican food Nut.It all sounds so interesting to me.I have never had anything like you have described but it would be nice to have two things to dip your chips in.Have you asked your favorite resturaunt what is in the sauce?Sometimes they are pretty helpfull and will tell you what you are eating.


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## Silversage

The fish taco was not originated at Rubio's!!!!

Putting local fish into a taco was a staple to the indigenous people of the Baja Peninsula ...... centuries before the Europeans came to this continent....and way before either Rubio's or the State of California existed.


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## powerplantop

Selkie said:


> I will concede that originally: "...it used to be something you'd get from a few sketchy vendors with little carts down in Baja, Mexico - a very good thing. These are Baja style with a piece of fried fish, shredded cabbage, a white yogurt sauce, and hot sauce on a small corn tortilla. They were originally made with the traditional shark, but as word spread that sharks were endangered, they switched to other fish."


 
Selkie, that pretty much describes the fish tacos that I used to get in Rosarito Mexico in the 84 to 86 time frame. We used to only buy from one lady. She had two sauces one a thin redish brown made from tomatoes and dried chilies. The other was a thin avocado it was kind of like avocado, tomatillo salsa and something creamy that may have been mayo. I don't know what the other vendors were serving since we only ate from the one lady. 



Selkie said:


> And from what I can glean, American fishermen and surfers brought the idea back to So. Calif., and that tasty creation exploded in sandwich shops and food vendors along the entire southern coast.


 
When I came back to San Diego in 89 fish tacos were the in thing. You could get them before that but in 89 everyone was talking about them.


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## vagriller

babetoo said:


> i find how the same dish will move from culture to culture to be endless interesting. each puts it stamp on it. try sometimes to follow a dish and see how it is done in another country. the taco or tamale comes to mind. flat bread is another. i could cite more but you get the idea.


 
I was joking about mole. I know what it is.

Very true though about different ethhic foods. I was quite suprised when I ate the food in Italy. The sauces served on pasta were very light and not at all like the red marinara or alfredo sauces I was accustomed to in America. Still very good though.


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## mexican mama

*French*



GB said:


> It almost sounds like you are describing creme fresh, but that is French, not Mexican.



I agree with you...its either the Baja sauce or walnut sauce that is a white sauce in Mexican cooking without using cheese/queso..


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## vagriller

mexican mama said:


> I agree with you...its either the Baja sauce or walnut sauce that is a white sauce in Mexican cooking without using cheese/queso..


 
Well, now I'll have to make up a batch of Baja sauce and then respond back to this thread. Or maybe the OP can make some.

Baja Sauce - All Recipes


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## vagriller

By George, I think I've got it! This is going to the SB party on Sunday!

Mexican White Sauce - All Recipes


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## Selkie

I'm glad you've got your sauce!!


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## rede2learn

The sauce served with chips is not baja sauce.  We eat baja sauce every time we make fish tacos.  I think the recipe from allrecipes seems right.  Haven't had time to try it though.  
I'll try to whip it up for the Super Bowl since we are having a nacho bar.


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## vagriller

rede2learn said:


> The sauce served with chips is not baja sauce.  We eat baja sauce every time we make fish tacos.  I think the recipe from allrecipes seems right.  Haven't had time to try it though.



Yes, I tried it the other night and it seems right. I didn't let it sit in the fridge for 2 hours though. It ought to be even better after that.


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## rede2learn

Thanks griller.


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## JohnL

Sure looks easy enough. Might have to try it this weekend.


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## vagriller

rede2learn said:


> Thanks griller.


 
No prob!


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## jabbur

I mixed this up this afternoon.  It looks like the same stuff.  Waiting for the flavors to blend now.  Will probably have some later tonight and will let you know the verdict.


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## vagriller

jabbur said:


> I mixed this up this afternoon.  It looks like the same stuff.  Waiting for the flavors to blend now.  Will probably have some later tonight and will let you know the verdict.



Well? What do you think? I didn't wait for the flavors to blend when I made it.


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## jabbur

I think I'm gonna add more mild to make it a little less thick and I'm gonna cut the red pepper flakes a bit.  We don't like really hot and the amount called for is bit hotter than we prefer.  Overall, I'd say it's a go and a good match taste wise.


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## vagriller

Yeah, at the many restaurants I have had it the heat level varies from place to place. Even from visit to visit at the same place.


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