Bon appetit, everyone. Oh, Jas, thanks for having us. Can’t wait to eat today. Thank you for joining.
It’s so good. It’s not too spicy. No. But it’s still got a little bit of a kick to it. You know, it’s almost like a perfect blend. Oh, yeah. We get into that season, though, when they’re spicy and you watch out. What o- what other seasonings in here? ‘Cause that is amazing flavor.
What’s up, everyone? Welcome to Campus Eats. I’m so excited. We’re doing an episode at University of Texas El Paso. And when we asked all the students, students were writing me messages. Everyone was saying, “You have to come to L&J’s.” So here we are. It is my honor, I’m here with Vanessa, fourth generation- That’s right
running this amazing family restaurant. Where do I begin? ‘Cause we’re gonna get into this dish that they’re very known for, green chile enchiladas. Right. But can you talk a little bit about the history? I mean, this is, this was started in 1927. Um, there was a lot of bootlegging happening out of here. Do you wanna tell a little bit- Yeah, definitely
of the origins and the history? So we started in 1927. It was opened by my great-grandfather, and it eventually went down to my grandparents. From my grandparents it went to my dad and my mom, and now down to me as well. My parents are still here, but not as much. So yeah, we opened in 1927 during Prohibition, so we were known for bootlegging.
We were known for, um, hiding in little cubby holes. We were known for slot machines and the sort. So we have pretty neat history. I mean, so cool that, okay, so Fort Bliss, the Army base not too far from here. No. How many miles do you think it is from here? Um, I’m gonna say it’s, like, six miles away maybe. Six miles away.
A mule was trained- … to go back and forth from Fort Bliss to this restaurant, right? Mm-hmm, yep. And they would do some bartering and whatever, you know, potentially the restaurant needed, and then they might get some, you know, little jug to beer or what have you. Yeah. So it’s really cool. Really fascinating history that we have down here.
It’s so great. It’s so great. So- Let’s talk about this dish because this is what- Yes. I mean, you’re known for a lot of things. Yes. I was in the back of the kitchen watching them make this. If I’m correct, I mean, you have this, this green chili, but you’re also putting, like, tomatoes and onions. You wanna tell a little more about that?
Yeah, so our green enchiladas are definitely different here. We don’t use a puree sauce. It’s, um, a diced roasted green chili, and we do cook them with onion and tomato and various spices just so it can incorporate all those flavors. Definitely a little different, though. A lot of places do use the puree.
We don’t. It’s hatched green chilies that we use here. Um, I’m not sure how it came to be, but this became the famous dish, the dish that we’re known for. Someone in your family came up with this recipe. They did, but I’m not even exactly sure if it was my great-grandmother. One of the, one of the, one of the four generations.
Yeah, it was either my great-grandmother or my great-grandfather. I’m not quite sure who. Uh, but yeah, it’s just, it’s been the staple since then is our green chilies. Yeah. And we use that in everything from the enchiladas to our caldillo to our chile verde con carne to our chile con queso. So it’s, it’s a well-known chili for us.
Yeah, and so it’s almost like they start the making of the process of this with the green chilies. They take a tortilla. First thing that goes down is a little bit of, um, green chilies. They put some queso, a little cheese right there. Mm-hmm. Then the chicken goes on top, then more queso, then more green chilies, and it’s just, uh
I mean, it’s amazing. Yeah, and it’s not just- Is there anything else I should know before I taste this? Yeah, so it’s not just chicken that we do as well. So if you’re a carnivore, I’m a carnivore, I love meat. I prefer it with ground meat on them. Oh, yeah. But a lot of people do like them with the chicken, but we do switch out proteins as well.
All right. Well, it’s probably time to take a bite, huh? The moment of truth. Too good. It’s so good. It’s, like, I almost need like two forks, two knives to get into this. It looks so good. It’s just smothered with these, this green chili, um, that you put together on here. Look at this. Bon appétit, everyone. L&J’s, thanks for having Campus Eats here.
Thank you for joining.
So good. It’s not too spicy. Yeah. But it’s still got a little bit of a kick to that. You know, it’s almost like a perfect blend. Oh, yeah. We get into that season, though, when they’re spicy and you watch out. What else, what other seasonings in here? ‘Cause that is amazing. The flavor is just, like, busting out.
So we’ve got garlic. We’ve got a whole bunch of little flavoring in there. Secrets. But we don’t… Yeah, I can’t mention it all. Definitely garlic. We got salt, we got pepper, and a few other things in there. Oh, well. Listen, thank you for having Campus Eats here. You’re welcome. When you come to El Paso, L&J’s, have the green, uh, enchil- green chilies enchilada, and everything else on the menu’s fantastic.
All right, everyone. We’ll see you next time. Bye.