Using packaged taco seasoning is no different than using curry powder. It’s a shortcut for when you don’t want to go to all the trouble of mixing your own. That said, I’ve known people who thought that curry powder came from some sort of curry plant.
no, but then again I don’t think I’ve seen it labeled that much if at all in the US either. Usually people refer to the regional style e.g. New York style (big, floppy, thin crust,) Chicago-style (deep dish with upturned crust edges,) Detroit style (square deep dish, cheese all the way to the edges, sauce on top) and so on. IME the only times I’ve specifically seen “Italian” as a descriptor is in smaller pizzerias where they make e.g. actual Neapolitan pizzas.
that looks like it’s a total mish-mash of stuff. The bread looks like it’s for sfincione.
I thought Europeans viewed corn as fodder for horses and cattle. :dubious:
Fodder for horses, cattle, and Americans. Hence why pizza with corn on it is considered “American style”.
Thanks. Are you whoosing me? :dubious:
Dr. Johnson, author of the first English dictionary, defined oats as “A grain that in England is fed principally to horses, but in Scotland supports the population.”
Not that I know of. Europeans know that we eat a lot of corn. Which is true. We just don’t eat it in the ways that Europeans think we do.
I’ve heard the same, which would mean they aren’t aware of the differences between field/dent corn (the stuff used for animal feed, processed foods, and industrial ethanol) and sweet corn (the stuff we eat as-is, whether on-the-cob or canned.)
we don’t (usually) feed animals sweet corn, and we don’t break our teeth trying to eat dent corn on the cob. seriously, dent corn is borderline inedible when unprocessed. It’s rock hard, dry, and starchy. I buy bags of it in the fall for deer feed.
They’re meant for American style tacos. But, seriously, go to la Comer. You’ve got all of these McCormick and other brands of pre-mixed packets of stuff, too, for use with chicken, pork, fish, goat.
Typical “taco seasoning” (I like Alton Brown’s recipe) isn’t anything remotely close to anything in Mexico. I would describe it as more of a southwest USA flavor, especially given the quantity of cumin. Granted, they use cumin in Mexico, but not nearly as much as they use in the SW USA. And, yes, you can use it with chicken or pork, but I don’t imagine it would go nicely with fish.
Maybe, maybe not, but they do have fish taco seasoning to solve that problem. 
Of course there are spice mixes for certain specific dishes here but they aren’t so broad as what taco seasoning implies. And you know what I am talking about when I say trying to narrow tacos down to a certain flavor or recipe is unbelievable to Mexicans. There is no such thing.
BTW a packaged spice mix for goat? Never seen or heard of that!!
Before Mexican food became mainstream in the US, the main familiarity most Americans had with Mexican food was stuff like Ortega tacos and, of course, Taco Bell. And also taco salads. And taco casseroles. A “taco night” at home or tacos served in hot lunches in school were pretty much invariably of this kind of taco. Hard, preformed, corn shell stuffed with seasoned ground beef (or other ground meat, if you prefer), topped with lettuce, tomato, and cheese. Sometimes sour cream.
That is (or at least “was”) pretty much the “generic taco” for many Americans. And, while here in Chicago things have changed much over the last 40 years such that I can get everything from pork tacos al pastor to tacos al vapor/tacos de canasta to cochinita pibil to even goat eyeball tacos, I am comforted by the American riff on picadillo tacos for which taco seasoning was made for. Every once in awhile, I just want an 80s-style “taco night” (except I do soft tortillas–don’t like those hard shells) with gringo toppings and McCormick’s taco seasoning.
We also have taco pizza.
Here’s a taco casserole, a dish my Wisconsin mother-in-law makes at least once whenever she visits. It’s tasty.
Here’s the taco salad I mentioned. Seemed to be a staple of parties back in the 80s, even 90s. I haven’t had one in ages, but they’re still around. Probably most famous recently for the Trump comment on Cinco de Mayo and taco bowls.
And, of course, the original taco flavored Doritos.
What they all have in common is that ground beef + cumin + chili pepper + onions/garlic powder flavor to them. (And usually lettuce, cheese, tomato.)
Soon after NAFTA went into effect in the 1990s, someone opened a Tex-Mex style restaurant in Guadalajara. They spent a lot of money building a large building and on decoration, etc. It looked like the typical American chain restaurant. They sold the typical “taco” you mention and other dishes like you would find in a Tex-Mex place in the US, everything covered in a brown sauce with lettuce and yellow cheese. It went out of business in less than a year. Last time I drove by there was an insurance company occupying the building.
I don’t find that surprising at all. I have a friend here from the Yucatan who opened up a critically acclaimed Yucatecan restaurant here in Chicago, and was complaining about how difficult it was for him to get his neighborhood Mexican population to eat his food (they tended to be from Jalisco and Michoacan.) He eventually had to add more more “safe” choices like arrachera and your usual assortment of steak and tongue tacos to get more of the local Mexican population through his doors. He explained to me, at least, that they were stubbornly regional in their eating habits. Eventually, the place moved, and then closed down. Too bad, since it was some of the best food I’ve ever eaten. The cochinita was to die for, their xni-pec salsa simply incredible, hearty sopa de lima, and chiles en nogada is perhaps the best Mexican dish I’ve ever eaten (OK, I know the last one is Pueblan, but this place had the best version I’ve ever eaten.)
it could be so much worse.
I remember traveling Europe in the mid-90s, then settling and living there from '98-'03. Mexican food, or what people thought of as Mexican or (more likely) Tex-Mex food, was pretty grim there. Hell, even the myriad ways people could fuck-up something as simple as an American hamburger.
Luckily, with the advent of Youtube and cultural knowledge spreading via the Internet, things really have gotten much better. Last time I visited Budapest, one could actually find masa harina and even huitlacoche on sale in specialty stores. (Budapest was odd, because it actually did have a very decent Tex-Mex restaurant even back in the 90s, started by some Mexican-Hungarian expat, I believe, from Texas. Like you could get decent Mexican style chorizo there. I was impressed, because everywhere else I’d been in Europe, it was more like the link from the blog above, and Central/Eastern Europe was the last place I’d’ve expected to find a good Tex-Mex joint in Europe.)
My daughter lives in Italy and travels frequently in her job (she is director for international marketing for Eataly, I believe Chicago has a store). She has commented on several very good taco places in Europe. One in London, if I recall, and the other surprisingly in Copenhagen. She has also encountered a few places that offer Mexican products such as masa harina. On our visits to Italy we have found it difficult to find quality ingredients. My wife and daughter always invite the Italian family and friends for a Mexican meal and it is a challenge to find the needed items. Our suitcases are always at the maximum weight allowed due things like tequila, canned and dried chiles, achiote, bottled sauces, masa harina, tostadas, tortillas, dried beans and other goodies.
My wife’s cochinita pibil was one of the most popular dishes among the Italians.
I froze dead in my tracks when I saw this poster at a Budapest tacqueria back in March.
And, yes, I did try it. It was a valiant effort, but I suspect nobody was ordering it and the meat just hung around for too long, because it was pretty dry and stringy by the time I got it. The spicing was in the ballpark: definitely had that citrus & achiote flavor to it. The pickled onions were a little bit lame, and I was hoping for some habanero salsa but no dice. Still, pretty impressive for me to see a mainstream taco joint in Eastern Europe trying cochinita pibil.
That’s pretty cool! My wife made 2 preparations of the cebolla desflemada. One with and one without (for the people not used to the heat) chile habanero.
BTW Clemente Jacques brand makes a very nice habanero relish type sauce. I’m sure you can find it in Chicago.
Oh, yeah, absolutely. I specifically said “American style tacos”; sorry for the confusion.