[QUOTE=devilsknew]
Straying a bit from the OP, but Florida has really bad Chinese and Mexican food. Seriously, They can’t do ethnic in the South or something. I live in BFE, Ohio and can go to the worst local restaurants of the chinese and mexican varieties and get superior food in quality and taste than some of the supposed best restaurants of these types in Florida. It just seems like the Chinese and Mexican regional style that has sprung up in Florida is all lowest common denominator type food or something.
<snip>
Is the Mason-Dixon line some kind of impenetrable culinary barrier to decent Mexican and Chinese? Are the only things that get better past its demarcation BBQ and Biscuits?
[/QUOTE]
I’ll have to admit that a lot of the Chinese and Mexican places in a good portion of Florida are bad to awful as far as offerings go. I’d say one of the reasons that Mexican food is so bland has to do with the abundance of Cuban food around here; it’s also a bit bland, but flavored with very different things.
There are a handful of good Asian restaurants in my area; most of them are near the ocean (Tamarind in Deerfield Beach on US1) or tend toward the Japanese end of things (the museum where I volunteer has an excellent Japanese restaurant, but there are two or three others in the Boca Raton area that are pretty good).
I’ve gotten to the point where there are very few chain restaurants that I really enjoy. Most fast food isn’t palatable to me anymore (I can’t eat french fries these days 'cause they’re too greasy, and Wendy’s seems to be convinced that I want a ketchup-flavored burger), so I tend to go to the “fancy sandwiches” end of fast food or (like today) Pollo Tropical. <— Their chicken is abysmal, but their shrimp skewers are not bad at all. When it comes to sit-down restaurants, I find that a lot of places don’t provide enough options that are somewhere between vegetarian and carnivorous without it being some sort of iceberg lettuce salad with a handful of chicken tossed on and ranch dressing (blech!) as the preferred dressing option. Most places seem to oversalt their food too, especially [it seems] to the point that all you can taste is salt. I end up going to places like Stir Crazy because I can choose to have a dish that’s got more vegetables than meat on it, but still has enough meat to be satisfying.
Is it to hard to ask for a variety of vegetables and fruits as part of a normal meal in a restaurant? If I wanted a baked potato or french fries as my only accompaniment, I’d make it at home, damnit!
