MPSIMS, but it’s food.
I only eat at TB every couple few months, as the nearest one is miles away.
I just came back from the local grocery store and they’re about to open a new TB.
Damn them! I can resist a taco if it’s miles away, but now it’s going to be right across from my grocery store, only a mile away. I could walk there! Damn them. I just know I’m going to grab a taco every time I go to the store.
I live in a town full of terrific Mexican restaurants, but I still eat at Taco Bell probably once every two months. It’s not really Mexican food, but I love their dollar and change bean burritos (green sauce and sour cream) and cheap Americanized tacos. Do not however, eat at the Taco Bell on the 395 on the way to Mammoth. How someone can fuck up a bean burrito so disastrously is beyond me! I remember when I was a kid and a taco was 25¢. Hell, even I could afford that.
I’ve heard that if you’re gonna eat fast food junk…then tacos really aren’t all that bad for you. I have no idea if this is true or not…but it might help relieve the guilt!
The area around my neighborhood is quickly developing. Previously, all we had was a Carl’s Jr. and a Sonic. Sonic is gross, and I’m usually not that interested in Carl’s Jr. too often. It’s usually a full meal.
Taco Bell OTOH, is so easy to grab a taco or tostada or burrito. There’s rarely a moment I couldn’t go for one or the other or all three. Every time I go to the store, it’s going to be there right in front of me, calling to me.
Heh Taco Bell more closely resembles the Mexican food I grew up on in New Mexico than most Mexican places I’ve been to East of Texas.
I gave up Taco Bell about a year ago. It wasn’t easy. There’s something wonderful about their seventy-nine cent mystery meat taco, with its cool, crunchy lettuce, and shredded government cheese. Don’t forget the slathering of fire sauce.
Every item I eat gets at least one packet of fire sauce, probably more.
I don’t consider Taco Bell to be Mexican food, but it’s cheap and fast, and when you’re in a hurry, it’s not too bad. It’s better than McDonalds, because it doesn’t make you feel sick to your stomach.
If I have a choice, I go to Pollo Loco.
I’ve always hated Taco Bell (smells and tastes repulsive), and because I thought it was actually representative of Mexican food, I therefore hated Mexican food. Until I tried real Mexican. Taco Bell is an abomination before the gods of food.
I’ve always considered Taco Bell to be it’s own sort of food. I mean, when I want mexican food, I’d hit up a taqueria, if I wanted a burger I’d go to a burger joint (and therefore never really ate much McDs or burger king) but Taco Bell is a different beast.
See, the only thing that comes close to Taco Bell are those microwave burritos you get at the convenience store. I therefore always considered TB to be the king of microwave burritos, and so have an appropriate place in my heart for them
I don’t know which part of that statement is more disturbing
No, it’s not authentic Mexican food. No one thinks so. It’s acceptable fast food for Mexicans (I see 'em there all the time), and it’s acceptable fast food for me. It’s so different from the burger chains, and their predominate flavors.
I don’t get it when people complain a fast food joint isn’t authentic. What part of fast food don’t you get? What is McDonald’s supposed to be authentic of?
I agree. Nobody claims Mc’D’s is a fine burger joint.
Nobody says TB is authentic mexican food. It’s food on the fly.
As long as it’s not flies on the food.
Oh, how I love nachos.
Driving home from work used to take me right past a Taco Bell that stayed open very late (I work evening shift). My car knew the route well. Now that I work elsewhere I no longer drive past a Taco Bell every night. That one little change was good for a twenty pound weight loss.
Good luck.
(I find the abbreviation to TB slightly disturbing. In my line of work that means tuberculosis.)
Perhaps Great Debates?
I have no problem with Taco Bell’s inauthenticity. I have a problem with their food. It’s one of only two fast food places I avoid at all costs, the other being Domino’s. (As for semi-rhetorical question aboutMcDonald’s, well – it is an authentic burger joint, marketed and franchised to the extreme. Their basic items are pretty much 30s-style hamburgers [thin griddled patty, topped with onions, pickles, mustard and/or ketchup and/or cheese.] It’s authentic American fast food–pretty much quintessential Americana. At any rate, it’s not a particularly important question for me.)
IRL I also call it Taco Barf, but I mean it affectionately. 
My taco bell says green sauce is being discontinued. I probably won’t eat there much anymore, if at all.
Unrelated, but I have actually eaten honest-to-goodness government cheese, and it’s fantastic.
Well, when people criticize TB for being inauthentic, it seems they’re saying “it’s not like mama made.”
McD’s is also not like mama made. I guarantee you mama never made McD’s food. She wouldn’t have the slightest idea how. McD’s is as representative of what mama would make as TB is to what a Mexican mama would make. There are websites that show you how to replicate McD’s, but I bet most people still can’t do it.
At least you can go to the store and buy a Taco Bell taco kit, and the tacos can come out pretty darn close to the original, if you do it right. As far as I know, you can’t get a McD’s food kit.
Do mamas make hamburgers and tacos? Sure. Neither of them makes Taco Bell or McD’s food.
I see it more as comparing them to taquerias (which is basically Mexican fast food) or Mexican street food, rather than what mama made at home. But that may be splitting hairs.