I love outstanding Tex-Mex, Mexican, Guatamalan, and especially Southwestern food, but it’s hard as hell to find The Good Stuff in America’s southeast, mid-Atlantic, midwest, or north. Fact is, most such food served is mediocre at best–and the salsa usually sucks harder than a Dyson.
Why?
It’s not like there’s a shortage of Mexican/Central Americans here in the U.S. and Mexican-inspired cuisine (at least that which most Americans like) doesn’t quite approach the complexity of French cuisine, so it would seem that a hungry diner should be able to find as good food in, say, Charlotte, Baltimore, Des Moines or Carson City as is easily found along the Texas-Mexican border.
FTR, I’ve been all over Texas and SoCal. There simply is no comparison.
P.S. My memory fails. I’'m guessing the folks in SoCal don’t call it “Tex-Mex.” Do they instead call it “Mexicali” or “Cali-Mex” food?
My wager, as this is responsible for most cuisine suck, is that when introduced to the area in the way that the food is preferred by those who originated it the local tastes don’t match up. Restraunts change the way they make the food to bring the flavor into line with the local preferences. Then when someone used to the “real” stuff comes and tries it he thinks it is terrible.
I live in Arizona, right across the Colorado River from California and just minutes from the Mexican border. I have friends that have moved to Phoenix who have to eat Mexican food whenever they visit here as they say the food in Phoenix just isn’t as good. They have even had me bring rolled tacos from a local drive-in when I visit them.
The theory is that the further you get from the border, the less authentic the food is. Most of the cooking around here is “Sonoran style,” as that’s the Mexican state that butts up against Arizona.
Mexicali is a large city in Baja California, about an hour or so from where I live. I have never heard Californian style Mexican food refered to as that.
Funny about your observations. In the 1980s, I helped a friend move to Lubbock, Texas. In New Mexico, I had a Mexican meal and was quite disappointed that it was nothing like the good food around here. Being from a restraunt in the mountains along a major highway probably didn’t help.
The salsa I find in most restaurants is terrible–little cilantro, cardboard tomatoes, too watery and heavy on the onions.
All too many restaurants are heavy on the cheese. Maybe this is what Americans want but gag! it’s just too damn much.
Last night, I had refried beans that were tasteless and almost watery, and tamales that had way too much masa and too little pork.
And then there’s Chi Chi’s…
I’m definitely not a food snob. I just want outstanding Mexican or Tex-Mex food. I think what’s evident, however, is that millions of Americans in the heartland just don’t know what good Mexican food is like, and so they have no point of reference.
My experience with Mexican/Tex-Mex food is perhaps the exception that proves The Tim’s rule. There’s a great Mexican restaurant in, of all places, York, PA. I’ve been told that, for some time, it wasn’t so great. But the demographics of York have been changing for some time, and there’s now a large Mexican-American population in the area. They started coming to the restaurant, the owners changed the menu and cooking to suit their tastes, and, bingo, a great restaurant.
I’m going to have to agree with The Tim on this one. I bet if you look hard enough, you can find pretty decent Mexican places in most cities throughout the US, but whether or not they are popular is another thing altogether. I grew up in New Mexico so I never had a shortage of good Mexican food, but I recently moved to north Denver and had trouble finding a good place close by. Out of luck I stumbled upon a Mexican restaurant that actually has very good food, decent prices, and “authentic” Mexican restaurant atmosphere. After having lunch I decided to take some friends (also from New Mexico) there on saturday night. We arrived around 7, only to find out we were the only ones there. Not one other person came to the restaurant the whole time it took us to have dinner. We were all pretty surprised, as this place was the only decent Mexican restaurant we had tried in the area. I guess this goes to show that just because the food tastes “how it’s supposed to” does not mean it will be popular everywhere. Incidentally, on the way home we passed one of those On The Border type places, and the line was out the door, naturally. :rolleyes:
There are probably several reason that one could use to explain the OP. I know I don’t expect to get good seafood in…say Odessa, wouldn’t even try.
I figure the competetion is probably the main reason. When there are several good restaurants in an area that specialize in the same cuisine you have to be better than the rest to stay in business. I’ve seen this everywhere I’ve ever lived, in Texas especially, when it comes to Tex-Mex. They just don’t make it if the food sucks. Also the population probably has a bit higher expectation in this matter.
There is a family owned restaurant here that has two other establishments in a nearby towns. They are great or were until the son took over managing one of them. It was finally HIS restaurant…he made a few cuts here and there. He was out of business within a year. The other two still going strong. His Dad and Uncle know what’s up!
Simple as that, IMHO
Not to say you CAN’T get good Mexican food elsewhere. I just haven’t had much luck finding it either.
The vast majority of restaurant food is mediocre. You’re more likely to know the exceptional places in your own neck of the woods than you are to stumble across them in other areas.
There are still lots of regional differences in the U.S. There are probably more restaurants serving great Cuban food in Miami or Vietnamese food in Southern California than in El Paso.
Mexico is a large country with a diverse cuisine, so just because Mexican food is different than you’re used to doesn’t mean it’s objectively worse or less authentic.
Not necessarily, I live in Chicago - pretty goddamn far from the border - and there is some awesome Mexican food here. I love it! (I lived in Michigan before and the Mexican food there was for shit.) There are several taquerías and a panadería (mmm…pandulce…) within a few blocks of my apartment. It’s good to live in a city with a large Latino population.
Also, there may not be any decent Tex-Mex because there is no demand for it.
I was raised in Texas and acquired a love for red-top picante sauce and (ok, not really Tex-Mex) fajita flavored hot pockets.
I’ve lived in Central Florida for five years now, and it was only a year ago when grocery stores started stocking red-top picante sauce (all they had was green and yellow tops) and I have yet to see anything in stores related to fajitas. The reason is simple marketing: stats show that people in my current neck of the woods just don’t go for spicy Tex-Mex food, perhaps because of all the retirees. Why sell something in an area that only one or two people will buy?
BTW, have California restaurants started serving iced tea in huge glasses? Or are they still serving tea in those stupid half-sized tumblers with a straw?
New Mexican cuisine is distinctly different from Mexican or Tex-Mex. I think the latter are heavier while New Mexican is lighter and much hotter. I recently had Mexican food in restaurants in Tucson, AZ and Nogales, Sonora, and they were okay, but very bland. I know these guys serve a lot of tourists, but even the gringo restaurant in Mesilla, NM (La Posta) had my guests gulping water. But it’s not just about heat: a jalapeno can be hot, but it is not as flavorful as a Hatch or Sandia chile, in my opinion.
Forget chain restaurants. Find the little family-owned hole-in-the-wall where the owners speak broken English and the wait staff next to none.
This is where the good food is, no matter what ethnicity the cuisine comes from. In these places, if Grandma is probably doing most of the actual cooking, and if not, she is still definitely very much in charge of the kitchen, and everybody knows nobody can cook like Grandma. This goes for Mexican, Chinese, Thai, Indian, West African (Og, do I miss the Horn of Africa), Jamaican, Middle Eastern and Soul food. (
Back in Indiana, a friend of mine found this cute little family owned hole-in-the-wall Tex-Mex place just around the corner from the library. The food was just to die for. I made it a Sunday morning ritual to have breakfast there- the breakfast tacos, which came in three varieties, and I couldn’t decide which one I liked best, so I would always have one of each, were consciousness-alteringly good. After a while, the wait staff got to know me, and would bring me the salsa brava without my having to ask for it. One time, my waiter confessed to me that if a customer they didn’t recognize came in and ordered the salsa brava, the wait and kitchen staff would hide behind the kitchen door and watch the customer eat it, then reach for the ice water…
Actually, here in Vegas, I have found that there are a couple of chains that serve up good authentic Mexican food. Tacos Mexico and Roberto’s both have excellent, totally un-Americanized Mexican food. But then, it seems that all the franchises are owned, operated, and staffed by actual Mexicans. And Grandma is probably in the kitchen…
I don’t know about it being Mexican food but it’s damn sure the best late night drunk food ever invented. Taco Bell and po boys, two best things to eat when drunk in the AM before going to sleep.
Having had both of the above late at night and in quite inebriated states, I’ll say that a good kebab like you can get in the UK with chili sauce is right up there with Taco Bell and any kind of po-boys (fried oyster po-boys are the best!)
Taco Bell…fried oysters and chili…on top of jalapeno peppers, super HOT picante sauce and about a half gallon of gold cuervo at 2:00 in the AM. :smack:
God dammit boys…y’all need to come to Texas and let’s go party sometime. Except y’all can leave that damned Taco Bell for yourselves. Looks and smells like a damned stinkin’ baby diaper.
I’ll grill y’all some Cabrito and make ya some homemade tortillas and some REAL chili. You can also bet your ass I’ll have plenty of tequila.
Aw hell, I just checked Ol Long Roads profile…damned coonass, I shoulda knowed it. Talking ‘bout dem damn oyster Po Boys. Yeah…I been down n’orleans way. Matter o fact I lived on Bodinger Blvd. underneath de bridge for a couple a years. Got kinfolks down dere. Goes by the name of Lege’. Out Gretna way.
I’ve lived in Michigan most of my life with a few years in Chicago and in all that time I’ve only liked one Mexican restaurant. It was called Don Carlos and was a small chain in Detroit a few years ago.
I think part of the problem is that Mexican food fans (at least around here) seem to equate spice with flavor. They don’t understand that food can be really spicy but still have no taste to it. In Detroit, there is a Mexican village where everyone tells me has the best mexican food. I’ve ordered out there three times, from two restaurants and all three times were a disappointment.
