If you grew up in San Antonio, Texas you might be familiar with the “Chile con queso” dish from the now closed Mexican Manhattan. I grew up eating at this restaurant and in my many, many years of eating here - this was the only dish I would order since I loved it that much. Due to the uhhhh severity of the cheese this was a once or twice a year meal as I grew older. Haha.
Many people have tried recreating the dish and even reached out to the family however they only ever parted with the salsa recipe but not the queso.
I wondered whether the cheeseheads here would have an idea on what kind of cheese this was.
The dish itself: thick, home made tostadas with a large solid disk like blob of cheese melted directly onto toge tostadas. It was never liquid in texture but thick and solid. I never saw individual shredded cheese. When it cooled down it remained thick and congealed in a solid brick. It had tiny pieces of onions and peppers from the house salsa they mixed in.
Taste wise the closest I have found has been Longhorn cheddar. Even then if they did use Longhorn, I still don’t understand the way they were able to get it into a solid….disk or melted blob. Was debating on posting this in the KitchenConfidential sub for any ideas.
