Generic “americanized” Mexican and Italian food - the kind you get at chain sit-down restaurants. Your Olive Gardens and so on.
Authentic. The kind from a hole-in-the-wall run by an immigrant family where the kids are doing homework in the back or, generally in the case of Italian food, an upscale place serving really high-end stuff.
For #1, I pick Mexican.
For #2, I pick Italian.
On the whole, I think there’s a much larger gap between “okay” and “amazing” Italian food than there is between okay and amazing Mexican food, but mediocre Mexican food is much less offensive (enough Tapatio and I’ll eat just about anything). Now if we’re talking about Latin cuisine in general, things get trickier.
To me, Italian has a lot more dishes I like, but there’s nothing in the Italian* I’ve eaten that comes close to the awesomeness and flexibility of the simple nacho.
*Admittedly, “American Italian” (though I spent a delicious week in Italy!)
I put they both suck, because I have been dragged to the little “Italian” eatery for lunch far too often lately. But in retrospect, what Johnny Bravo said.
High end Northern Italian food, with its heavy French influence, is one of my favorite things to eat.
Completely different flavors and heat levels, so it really depends on what flavors I’m in the mood for. But I chose Italian just because of variety of tastes and textures, from seafood to pasta.
I tried to be fair with the idea of “prefer” so I chose Italian. I’ve had as close to authentic in either category as has made it to Nashville. In that sense Italian is ahead something like 60-40.
One of our favorite delivery places is Roma Pizza and Pasta and I get the pasta about half the time we order from them.
Sadly the only “Mexican” nearby is Taco Bell and it’s pitiful – and unreliable. But a little further to drive is an “authentic” sit-down place with good food at okay prices.
I love them both and eat both regularly, but If I had to eat only one for the rest of my life, (or alternatively, was forbidden to eat one for the rest of my life) I’d be eating Italian.
Why’d you put an option to wimp out in one direction, and not the other?
Anyway… my parents love to tell the story about their time living in Ohio in the early 1970s. The one place they could find that was advertized as a “Mexican” restaurant actually only served Italian food. They had to get salsa and hot sauce shipped from my grandparents back in California.
About the only “italian” I eat is pizza. I’m no fan of pasta and everything else seems to be pasta or a small amount of something with a huge side of pasta. You can take these noodles and shove 'em, mister.