I ate lunch today at Del Taco. It was yummy and all. But it had to be one of the most incredibly bland dining experiences in my short, pitiful life.
“Zesty” tacos?! What the hell is this shit?! The only people I know who even -USE- the word ‘Zesty’ are pasty, hairless, smoothskin whities! And it’s no damn wonder! All of your cooking staff looks like they got right off the boat from Iceland!
“zesty” taco sauce, “Hot” sauce, and “Extra Hot” sauce. It all tastes like watered-down ketchup to me.
Ho-LEE GEEZUS! My tongue is practically -crying- to me here! I need something so hot it’ll burn my tongue while going in and rip up my insides while coming out! Something hot and spicy and greasy with lotsa tortilla chips! None of this whitey “McTacos” horsecrap!
WHY?!! WHY GOD, WHY??? My eyes are tearing up! My stomach is churning! My heart throbs painfully in my chest! My mouth is drying out! All because of that -wretched- “Mexican” food which was enough to completely break my spirit and drive me to my knees—weeping openly—drawing only enough strength amidst the burning pain of my mind, body, and soul to strike my fist upon the ground and wail, “Lord, oh Lord why hast thou forsaken me!!!”
But ya know, it was only about $3, and it was filling. So I guess it’s all good.
What do you expect for three dollars? You already got “yummy,” “bland,” and “filling.” You want authentic, too? (I’m not even going to address your self-contradiction.) Move to fucking Tijuana and partake of $3 worth of tamales from the street vendors.
Then wait 8 hours and then go post to the Wolf-ass thread.
You can get some good–and cheap–Mexican food at restaurants around Chi. REAL tamales, not the extruded crap. Cooked by REAL Mexicans.
Of course, much of our Chinese food is cooked by real Mexicans, but they do a real nice job. Then there is the Chinese joint where the couple who own it are Chinese and Polish. Sometimes there is a hint of Polish spicing. Goes really well.
Or my Siberian SIL’s “panini.”
“Oh, pot stickers,” says I.
“No, they’re panini.”
“Look like pot stickers. Taste like pot stickers. Pot stickers.”
“Shut up and put some sour cream on 'em and they’re panini,” says bro, who also puts on some soy sauce.
I guess I’m lucky… near my best friend’s house, there’re a series of very good Mexican restaurants. I’m not the biggest fan of VERY spicy food (it makes me sweat a lot, and being a fat shmoe, I’m sweaty enough already), but DAMN, this stuff is absolutely delicious. And it’s not much more expensive compared to Del Taco Bell.
On the other hand, their drinks are absolutely puny, so I always make a point of stopping at AM-PM to pick up a 64-oz drink.
Jesus Fucking Christ, you were at a fast food franchise. What did you expect? If you want authentic Mexican food, either go to some mom & pop taco stand (usually just as cheap and fast as the national chains) or take your ass south of the border! I don’t know where you’re from, but this thread reminds me of a lot of immigrants I’ve worked with in the past who were too fucking lazy to learn English before they moved to the USA, then when they did start to speak English, bitched about how evil Mr. Gringo was keeping them down by not making this a bilingual country.
I can’t order a fucking hamburger in English where I live. If you want to come to America; great, Welcome to America. If you want to speak your native tongue in your home, to your family and countrymen, feel free. We already have a culture here so don’t expect us to change it for every immigrant.
Actually, i’d just go to a friend’s house, or down to one of the mom and pop restaurants in a nearby town (which seems to have a taqueria on every corner). Besides, mexican food varies depending where the staff are from (most in my area seem to be from Jalisco or Queretaro). There is a nice coastal Mexican (Vera Cruzan) restaurant that actually has a Habanero sauce, so if you want hot, you go there ;).
You were at the Dopefest in North Hollywood, so you can’t be too far from good Mexican food!
For fast and cheap, try Tito’s Tacos on Washington Place at Sepulveda. Not “zesty”, but good and cheap.
For cheap and authentic, there are a lot of little “hole in the wall” Mexican restaurants around. I’ve been to La Fonda on Washington across from Sony Studios. It’s not bad, and fairly inexpensive. There’s another place on Venice in Culver City (I don’t remember the name) that’s okay.
If you need a chain, there’s Campos. El Torito and Acapuylco are good, but I question their authenticity and I think they’re overpriced.
If you get down to Orange County, there’s The Chili Pepper on Chapman. Good food, decent prices. Usually their specials involve fish. I tried the fish tacos there, but I prefer the ones from Rubio’s. I went to a little place near the southwest end of Van Nuys Airport that was good.
Do you remember Taco Viva? They used to serve up excellent Tacos with actual, meaty filling, plenty of shredded lettuce, cheese and, my goodness, real gosh darn piles of tomato chunks! All for around 50 cents additional per taco, and the tacos were 50% bigger!
Da Bell wiped them out because everyone wanted to save money and scarf down cheap tacos. Taco Viva used to have 3 sauces also; a pleasant, tasty mild sauce that did not burn holes in your guts, a peppery hot sauce that cleaned your teeth for you and a hot, hot sauce that was served in asbestos lined bottles, leapt smoldering from the bottle, melted the cheese on the taco, cleaned your teeth, gums, tongue, scoured your stomach and sizzled it’s way through your guts.
Dat’s a some mighty hot-a sauce!
Now, they’re gone because everyone wanted cheap, cardboard Tacos. Taco bell cut the amount to filling in half, and stopped putting tomatoes on the sale tacos.
Taco Viva used to play soft, Mexican music in the back ground, or easy listening to set the mood but every time I visit da bell, I get treated to kind of loud rap music, the connection to the Mexican ambiance of which eludes me.
Yeah, Jesus, I was about to say! When I read the OP I felt all sorry for ya, figuring you lived in Tree Frog, North Dakota, or Wonderbread, Rhode Island.
If you’re in southern California, my friend, and you can’t find any decent Mexican food, I’d have to say you weren’t looking very hard.
I dunno about Tree Frog, ND, Uke; I can’t find it on a map. Mayhaps you meant one of these burgs:
[ul]
[li] Frog, Texas[/li][li] Frog City, Florida[/li][li] Frog Eye, Alabama[/li][li] Frog Hop, Texas[/li][li] Frog Island, Mississippi[/li][li] Frog Jump, Tennessee[/li][li] Frog Level, North Carolina[/li][li] Frog Level, Virginia[/li][li] Frog Pond, Tennessee[/li][li] Frog Pond, North Carolina[/li][li] Frog Pond, Alabama[/li][li] Frog Town, Arkansas, or[/li][li] Frognot, Texas[/li][/ul]
I expect good authentic Mexican food is hard to come by in all of those mudpuddles.
“Tree Frog” is my default setting for when I need a random proper noun…I stealed it from the old underground comix, where every time a beer was mentioned it was “Tree Frog Beer.”
“Drink Tree Frog Beer! You’ll feel great and have lots of girl friends!” – teevee commercial in an old Gilbert Shelton “Freak Bros.” story
Y’know, I’ve also found that Baja Fresh is a pretty good, quick, and inexpensive place to get some Mexican food. And if it’s spicy you want, it’s spicy you’ll get, baby!
Check out a couple of places in the Newport Beach/Costa Mesa, CA area.
Mi Casa on 17th Street in CM is pretty good, owned by local white boys but still a good value if not totally authentic. The homemade chips & salsa used to be a meal in themselves when I had the munchies WAY back in the day.
El Matador on Newport Blvd- looks like a dive, but the best Mex in town for 20 years. Line forms in the early AM for a killer Sunday brunch.
Or get a nanny like mine and the one next door. Maria makes the most amazing food, I love it! The one next door, however, cooks the wierdest shit, even Maria won’t eat it…
And Uke, that’s a much nicer “misc proper noun” than the one I sometimes use, which is really crass and shouldn’t ever be uttered by a woman who calls herself a lady (B-F).
Nevertheless, I still use it to be shocking. I am DEAD when my son starts repeating things I say…
I’m not Mexican, but I’ve always thought it would be fun to open a California-Mexican restaurant in Dublin or London. I had a houseguest from Yorkshire once, who wanted to go to Taco Bell because he’d never had Mexican food. :eek: Yeah, fresh hot Cal-Mex in Dublin or London would be killer! Jalapenos! Guacamole! Ooh, yeah!
I had forgotten about Tito’s - but I used to go there a lot back in my college days. Fast and cheap for sure, plus a lot better than The Bell. I always ended up there at 2 a.m. after the bars closed. I was young then, you understand, and stayed up late.
You need to be careful driving into the parking lot, though, 'cause a lot of the pigeons are too fat to fly.
[sub]::Horrible supressed memory of feathers everywhere::[/sub]
