If you're locked into a chain restaurant routine and starting to get a little bored with ordering the same favorites all the time, it's time to take your palate exploring.

If you've ever looked at the menu at an independent restaurant and nearly gotten lost in the variety of dishes available, you were most likely right at the edge of a great dining discovery. Almost every menu, especially in places specializing in ethnic cuisine, contains hidden gems that will give you a glimpse into the real talent and interest of the chef behind the grill.

Take, for example, your average Mexican restaurant. Fully two-thirds (or more) of the standard dishes on most Mexican places are more Tex-Mex than true Mexican. There's nothing wrong with Tex-Mex, it's just not quite the real thing.

In Shelby, N.C., there is an unassuming little place called El Acapulco. It has the requisite mass-produced paintings of bullfights and mission scenes on the walls and serves margaritas large enough to drown a cat. A look at the top of each category on the menu will reveal the expected Tex-Mex and Mexican dishes such as nachos, chile rellenos, tacos, burritos, enchiladas and the like.

But look down the menu a bit, let your eyes wander and -- wonder of wonders -- you come across dishes most of you outside the Southwest have never heard of. Under the chicken dishes lies chilaquiles, a marvelous peasant-food mixture of chicken, fried tortilla strips, Oaxaca cheese, onion, green chiles and spices. This dish has as many forms as there are cooks in Mexico, and here it's served my favorite way: topped with two fried eggs. When the yolks are mixed in, they add an incredible richness to the dish.

Yes, I know topping an already rich dish with fried eggs may not make your cardiologist turn backflips, but you owe it to yourself to try this at least once.

An even greater discovery on the menu is tortas. They are available in beef or chicken, but if you ever find these, insist on pork. The roasted pork, with avocado, lime, Mexican crema, onions, jalapeños and a panoply of other possible ingredients, tucked into a crusty bolillo roll, is a sandwich experience you won't soon forget.

If you're lucky, you might even stumble across a torta ahogada, which is a torta drenched in an insanely spicy, incredibly flavorful sauce. This is a very, very messy sandwich guaranteed to turn your fingers and face red, and yet it's one of the most popular foods at Mexican soccer stadiums.

Hungry yet? Let's go to a Chinese place.

Asian Food

Chinese cuisine has suffered from its encounter with the Western palate more than any other.

In my experience, most of your sit-down Chinese restaurants are very careful to stick to the expected array of dishes. However, if you are lucky enough to live in a city that has a section of town heavily populated by Asian immigrants, strike out and find a place populated mostly by the locals. You might not be able to read all the items on the menu. You might feel like you're making a goof out of yourself trying to order. But it's worth it.

A tactic that has served me well is to take a casual glance at what your fellow diners are eating. If you see the same dish in front of four or five people, it's a good bet that's what the place is known for. No menu required.

Chinese takeout joints can offer even more culinary adventure. The owner/chef at my local place was born in Sichuan province and has an amazing gift for concocting dishes with a spice level that would make Satan beg for beer. He doesn't put them on the menu, but he'll take a picture of the finished plate and post it on the wall by the cash register. Again, no menu required.

Italian Food

Finally, a quick word on Italian restaurants: Find one that has been in business for a while, preferably one where members of the same family have run the kitchen for a number of years.

After you've eaten there a couple of times and established your reputation as a good customer who tips well, ask if there are any off-menu dishes or any family recipes you can sample. It will likely cost you a bit of a premium, but it will be well worth the price.

Again, these tactics work with independent recipes. It's unlikely the cook at your local neon-laden chain chow house is going to go off-menu … he'd get fired.