If you’ve ever had good Mexican food, you too would pine for it in New Zealand.
That’s my perception of it too. It’s my wife that’s uncomfortable with it, and I don’t make her do stuff she feels uncomfortable with.
We should do that.
calm kiwi writes:
> Being unable to find good Mexican food seems to be one of the major
> complaints of Americans in NZ. WHY?
I think that a really big complaint of Americans living in foreign lands is that these foreigners often have forty-year-old notions about what Americans eat. No, Americans do not consider McDonalds to be the height of great eating. They’re not even considered particularly good hamburgers. McDonalds is no longer even the most common fast food restaurant within the U.S. A few years ago, the number of Subway restaurants within the U.S. passed the number of McDonalds restaurants within the U.S. Americans find themselves homesick for “Mexican” (or “Tex-Mex” or whatever food) because it’s what they eat a lot when they’re in the U.S. (Similarly, to mention a country I know more about than New Zealand, possibly the most common food eaten when eating out in the U.K. is chicken tandoori at an Indian restaurant.)
If an American living in New Zealand starts to complain about the lack of food that he typically eats in the U.S., you’re well within your rights to say that now that he is in New Zealand he should take the opportunity to eat food more typical of New Zealand. Just don’t act as if McDonalds should completely satisfy his fast food urgings. That’s not, in general, typical of the sort of food he wants.
RTFirefly, do you have a choice for a Saturday or Sunday reasonably soon that we could do this?
Hmm a topic near and dear to my heart! Chicago is so rich in its’ depth and breadth of Mexican and other central American restaurants finding a single favorite would be nearly impossible for me. I’ll break it down a bit.
For Mexico City style street fare e.g. huaraches, tacos, birria, I genereally head down to Maxwell Street Market on Sunday mornings. There are a number of vendors that do amazing things with fresh masa and the ambience is fun! Check out the video, it’s worth the money. There is also a Oaxacan tamale vendor that serves amazing paperback sized tamales wrapped in banana leaves, forget pretty much everything you know about tamales when you go there.
For seafood I have two places near each other, Las Islas Marias and La Cazuela on North Clark Street. LIM does Nayarit style stuff like whole snapper, camarones aguascalientes, and empanadas. La Cazuela does much the same but not surprisingly I like their Siete Mares soup that overflows with crab, shrimp, mussels, all sorts of great stuff.
When I am in the mood for red meat, you cant beat the $12 strip or $10 ribeye at El Llano, a Columbian steakhouse. It comes on a wooden plank and is served with chimicurri, yucca (fried crisp, think large fries) potato, and plantain. Best steak deal in town. They have a couple locations as well as Brasa Roja which specialises in roasted chicken.
For a steak taco, it’s hard to beat La Pasadite Jsut south of the corner of Ashland and Division. Actually it’s hard to miss, there are three separate LaP restaurants on one block! There’s a sit down place at the south end of the block and two stands with limited seating facing each other at the alley. The steak is great but the salsa is what brings you back. As Magdalene so eloquently put it “It’s the perfect salsa verde delivery system”
For authentic Mexican food that isn’t just antojitos, I would recommend La Casa De Samuel. I would put him up against Rick Bayless any day and at a fraction of the price with no wait. For fancy shmancy Latin fusion I like Mas.
OK that’s enough for now.
Maxwell St Market
Corner of Canal and Roosevelt, Sundays 8-1pm
Las Islas Marias
6635 N. Clark St.
La Cazuela
6922 N. Clark St.
El Llano
7018 N. Clark
773-338-053
La Casa de Samuel
2834 West Cermak
Chicago, IL 60623
773-376-7474
Other locations:
2047 North Milwaukee, Chicago
2753 West 55th Street, Chicago
120 North Genesee, Waukegan
Mas
1670 W. Division
BLESS YOU! I routinely visit Lemon Grass Thai at 36 & Lancaster, and now I have to check out Zocalo! Wow, also…7th and Snyder…is this an actual eatery?
I always need a ‘spicy’ fix, and get it from Chinese, Indian or Thai. I usually only get my Mexican fix from visits to Southern Cal.
Oh, my Souther Cal favorite is Los Cabos in Orange.
Ooh, I’ve been there. I’m a west-end girl, which is why I didn’t think of it, it’s practically in another time zone! There are a couple around Bloor and Ossington but I don’t want to go in without a recommendation.
Which one? O Buzio (or whatever its latest incarnation is called) on College at Ossington? I’ve never been (as a veggie) but I’ve heard it’s spectacular.
You know, I think I’m going to start another thread for this. I never get tired of talking about tasty regional cuisine.
I think we’re well past the “Ooh, Ahh” stage when it comes to American fast-food outlets here. Those of us with own-transport take American visitors out to restaurants, cafes, wineries and all the et ceteras.
If you hear of NZers taking their American friends out to McDonalds only – we’ll need names so we can send the re-education squads out to have a wee chat to 'em. Ta. 
Anything particular about it that you like so much?
-Shrimp Diablo.
-Sauces in general: plenty, extra spicy. Enough and good enough to drink!
-A Fave of my Mexican friends in Fullerton.
-Unpretentious little place.
In Denver we went through a series of favorites, from Senor Pepe’s to Bluebonnet and the Brewery Bar, but our old standby was always Benny’s. The margs were terrible but everything else was reliable.
Here in the tiny hamlet of Port St Joe, the best Mexican restaurant is Pepper’s, the only Mexican restaurant. (We are very thankful it’s good.) Outstanding rellenos, and a tasty schrimp chimichanga.
I never ever thought of Tex-Mex as Cal-Mex. To me, they have always been two different schools of cooking, and I appreciate both interpretations. In my experience, Tex-Mex is heavier on the meat.
I don’t worry too much about how authentically “Mexican” the food is; if it tastes good, I’m there.
Americans living in NZ seem to seriously miss Mexican food. It can’t be helped. They moved here for a reason, bleating about the lack of Mexican food just seems silly.
JEEEEZ! If anyone from anywhere complained about missing McDonalds they need to a) find a map (Mickey D’s is around every corner) and b) develop a taste bud!
In this neck of the woods the Chinese/Korean/Veitnamese is going to be better and more plentiful then the pseudo-Mexican will be.
That was my point. I have never had good Mexican food. I have never felt the loss (I actually made chicken enchiladas for dinner tonight…I’m sure a Mexican or American would have hated them).
We have brilliant Asian food here, cause that is what our immigrants make.
Oneday Mexicans might discover NZ! I look forward to that day.
calm kiwi writes:
> Americans living in NZ seem to seriously miss Mexican food. It can’t be helped.
> They moved here for a reason, bleating about the lack of Mexican food just
> seems silly.
They bleat about Mexican food for the same reason that anyone who came to live for some substantial time in another country would bleat about things in their home country - they’re homesick. They might be trying to put a brave face on it by pretending that they’re merely criticizing the food in the country that they’re visiting, but the fact is that they’re lonely and scared. Many Americans are thoroughly ambivalent about visiting other countries for substantial periods. At one level they want to experience other cultures and learn about new things, but at another level it’s all too disorienting to them and they occasionally want to find a little piece of home to hang onto.
Are we talking about going for the food or the margaritas? I have yet to find the place in the city (Chicago) the has the best of both.
For Margaritas and atmosphere - Cesar’s on Clark
For Food - Taqueria Susupuato #2 on Broadway near Granville.