Since we’re tossing out LA area recommendations, I heartily endorse a hole-in-the-wall named Rosarito in Pasadena. It’s at the corner of Foothill Blvd. and Craig Ave. (between Allen and Sierra Madre).
Pretty small, kinda run-down looking, but the food is fantastic and cheap. They make, IMO, the most perfect salsa I’ve ever had.
Oh Johnny, someone did, and it was awful! The name of the place escapes me at this moment (California-something?), but in about 1985, a girlfriend & I found this “Mexican” restaurant in London, and since we were jonesing for hometown cooking, we checked it out.
The line to get in was really long, because it was a novelty. They charged about $8 US for a Budwieser or Corona, because they were “imports.” The food was really bad. The English cannot get a grip on Mexican food.
I would say that you could make a fortune with a Mexican place in the UK, just from the expats alone, never mind the locals.
I’m from Texas, currently living in Rhode Island. I haven’t had good Mexican food in so long that Taco Bell is actually starting to appeal to me.
There is this one place in Newport, called “Tito’s.” They lost me when I once got enchiladas with ricotta cheese in them! Their beans are like library paste, except they don’t taste as good as paste. They actually make the Taco Bell (next door) look good! I’m just amazed they stay in business.
When I last went home to Texas to visit, I couldn’t scarf down enough authentic Tex-Mex.
Anyway, no matter how bad the UK is, New England can’t be much far behind.
Get some authentic Thai food, THAT will satisfy any cravings you have for some spice in your life. Ask for “Som Tam” and watch the waiter’s eyes bug out at the idea that you can actually eat this without being raised to it.
Trust me, this will definately satisfy your need for something that bites you twice, once on the way in and once on the way out. S
Regards.
Testy.
Well, I’ve never eaten at a Mexican restaurant in the UK, but I’ve eaten at a couple in Dublin. They’re … OK. One used to be quite good but then it got new ownership and now it’s pretty awful. The other is good if you don’t mind faux Mexican (i.e. the “enchiladas” are more like omelets) … oh and if you don’t mind stale chips and crunchy rice … nah come to think of it it’s shite. There is a takeout place that does burritos that are pretty good but much too small. And there’s a place called From Mexico To Rome which I refuse to even consider (being ethically opposed to cuisine-mixing in restaurants). There is one all-Mexican restaurant here I haven’t tried yet but I’m not getting my hopes up. At least the supermarkets sell Old El Paso products so I can make my own, but it’s just not the same sigh
A hot tip for the Irish and New Englanders:
Pick up a copy of Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen (Scribner’s) and do it yourself!* I’ve been using this cookbook for the past two months, and haven’t been disappointed with a dish yet.
*(If you can get your hands on fresh tomatillos and serrano chiles, that is.)
Hm. Saturday morning and I have to go out. Maybe I’ll grab a bowl of menudo.
I can only count on getting real Mexican food about three or four times a year, when I make a trip to visit friends in Las Cruces, New Mexico. I’ve eaten Mexican in LA, El Paso, Dallas, and Mexico itself, but Las Cruces is the reigning champion of quality Mexican food, cheap and in gut-busting volumes, properly served by family owned and operated non-franchise restaurant in questionable neighborhoods.
Yeah, in the UK the pickings are grim. reasonable food can be had at Poco Loco [Bourne End, BUCKS], Tequila’s in Nottingham. I remember being fairly satisfied by the Texas Embassy Cantina off Trafalgar Square, but that’s a risk cause i was drunk and it was expensive.
As a former resident of Chicago, i will confess that a pack-of-12 from Taco Hell sounds good to me. The only good authentic Mexican thing you can here buy is tortilla chips and even that not at big supermarkets, which limits the use of Bayless’ book [I have it].
To all the New Englanders: you have one thing to be happy about; you can get good salsa in Vermont-New Hampshire. I like Green Mountain a lot!
You betcha. You got Nellie’s and La Posta in Las Cruces, the town of Hatch (home of the best green chile del mundo) 30 minutes north and Juarez, Mexico 30 minutes south.
If I had to have a “last meal”, it would be soft pork tacos from Olvera Street… where the pork is salty, rich, and deep fried perfectly crisp outside, tender and delicious inside. The tortillas are PERFECTION…HAND MADE…by ancient Mexican ladies behind the counter, with stone tools, the sound of -slap-slap-slap as they toss the tortillas back and forth, coupled with fresh raw salsa, not chunky and watery, though. Perfect. And a plate of tender, slightly oily but yummy spanish rice on the side, with its own handmade tortilla. THAT is a great, real Mexican meal.
Failing the trek downtown… go to Carillos for insanely great tamales and more handmade tortillas which are about 80% as good as Olvera Street’s.
Oh…and Chile Rellenos… with a LIGHT, fluffy eggy batter on the outside, a gentle but tangy sauce, more cheese on top. YUM.
I love LA!!!
If you feel like making the drive, try the Edgewater Cafe in Magnolia, MA. Probably not quite as good as the real deal, but it’s still some good stuff. Not fast food-y at all. Call for reservations first, though. It gets mighty busy.
We had a maid come in occasionally when I was a kid in San Diego. I’d come home from school and hear the slap-slap-slap of her making tortillas for the enchilladas she’d make for dinner (shredding the meat with a fork, natch!). There was nothing so good as an after-school snack than a fresh hot tortilla with butter on it!
I’m from the Rio Grande Valley in TX and living in Cincinnati, OH. I found a great place in Fairborn called Bueno Rio, or something, that was truly wonderful.
Taco Bell is spanish-flavored white food.
Chi-Chis, Don Pablos, and the like are a step up, but if the waiters are anglo and everyone speaks English, you’re not getting the real thing
Holy skunk-sweat! I disappear for a weekend to do some convention stuff–and when I get back, my thread has gotten packed with posts. I think this is my longest thread ever.
Anyways–I think all of you would be happy to know that on my way back from Burbank, I ate with a friend at a little place in Pomona called ‘Casa Jiminez’ which is absolutely delicious. My craving for real Mexican food has been satiated…for now. I hope the same can soon be said for all of you. 
Oh–and Johnny, I’m in Redlands, near San Bernardino. North Hollywood was a pretty fair commute for me to see all of yer pretty faces. 
-Ashley
For my next trick, I’m pondering trying to find good, authentic British food. If there is such a thing. Anyone wanna help?
Ruadh, I spent a whopping three days in Dublin, but did have a pretty decent Mexican meal, at some restaurant in Temple Bar (I had to drag my Israeli and Australian acquaintances). Maybe it only seemed decent because I had spent the previous two months in Israel, though. You want to talk about lack of Mexican food, there you go. The Hillel intern was an Argentinean-American and during finals she made us salsa and located tortilla chips from somewhere. She put them on a table in the foyer of the school, where they were immediately surrounded by twenty kids from California, practically in tears. That is when you get to complain about no Mexican food, not because you are a doofus and went to a fast food chain in Southern California.
When my aunt picked me up at LAX after a year in Israel, she greeted me with burritos (I had requested immediate Mexican food, and she took me seriously). Now, of course, I crave a real falafel. Fuck you, fake Middle Eastern restaurants!
Ah, I didn’t realize that. Let me think… I used to work in San Bernardino (a helluva commute from the west side!) and there was a pretty good little Mexican place nearby. I don’t remember the street, but there was a “family diner” nearby. Also on the same street was a motel that seemed to cater to truckers and advertised “free XXX movies”. This was like the first or second exit off of the 10 from the northbound freeway (the 210?).
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For my next trick, I’m pondering trying to find good, authentic British food. If there is such a thing. Anyone wanna help?
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Well we are having the next Dopefest this wednesday at Ye Old King’s Head in Santa Monica. Great fish’n’chips and bangers’n’mash. They used to have “faggots and peas”, which were “paté” (i.e., liver) meatballs with gravy. They were good, but I don’t know if they still have them. Maybe they changed the name. I’ve also tried the brumfish cakes, shepherd’s pie and steak-and-kidney pie, but the fish’n’chips or the bangers are the best.
I thought this thread was about REAL Mexican food. To even mention Taco Bell,Del Taco or Tex-Mex is making me wanna throw up.
There’s so much more than tacos and enchiladas(antojitos) to Mexican food. How about a good mole negro from Oaxaca? Carne de puerco con calabacitas? Pollo con platano macho?
Come on over to my house and we’ll fix something muy sabroso y picante. I’m on my way to the kitchen for breakfast. Some real Huevos Rancheros con frijoles refritos,gustan?
That would be the Alamo, the place with the omelet-like enchiladas and the stale chips.
Funnily enough I’ve told my parents to do the same thing when they come get me at SFO later this year
Let us know when you’re coming to visit…we will have a BADfest in the Mission. Maybe SeaDiver will get drunk and sing with the mariachis again (I am so mad I missed that).