Chile con queso

Queso is the dish people mock until the bowl arrives. Chile con queso was on Texas menus as early as 1910, at San Antonio's Gunter Hotel and the Original Mexican Restaurant, and a 1939 church cookbook from Lubbock already made it with Velveeta. That processed-cheese version is the point, not a shortcut: it melts into a smooth, pourable dip instead of a stringy, greasy one. Warm chips, a molten bowl and some chopped chiles or tomatoes are the whole appeal, and any Tex-Mex meal that skips it is missing its opening act.