# Why does Mexican (or Tex-Mex) food suck so bad in most of America? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 25, 2004, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-mexican-or-tex-mex-food-suck-so-bad-in-most-of-america/226022 "2004-01-25T18:19:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-mexican-or-tex-mex-food-suck-so-bad-in-most-of-america/226022/41 "2004-01-27T23:44:42Z")
> [@Red Matrix](#): > > The Rio Grande River is a long river… you could be 10 miles away from the border, yet 250 miles away from me! 🙂 > > Check-it… i live in a little town called MISSION, MCALLEN, or EDINBURG to be vague. How about you? You in either of these counties?: Starr, Wilacy, Hidalgo, Cameron. ??? > 😃😃😃😃 Fellow Doper **Darth Nader** is from Weslaco. He was surprised when I knew where it was (given my extremely English accent). I worked in McAllen last year. ---
**Author:** ![BottledBlondJeanie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/0ea827/32.png) [@BottledBlondJeanie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BottledBlondJeanie)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2004, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-mexican-or-tex-mex-food-suck-so-bad-in-most-of-america/226022/42 "2004-01-28T00:29:39Z")
Yeah, well I’m trying to be vague, too since I’m now in a much smaller town. Let me just ask you **Red** does the term Taco Palenque mean anything to you? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![look\_ninjas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@look\_ninjas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/look_ninjas)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2004, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-mexican-or-tex-mex-food-suck-so-bad-in-most-of-america/226022/43 "2004-01-28T01:12:55Z")
Just a little anecdote to further explain how people in Michigan don’t understand Mexican food: I worked in a restaurant for a while. Basic food - burgers, sandwiches, really excellent breakfast. Sometimes, however, they would branch out for their daily specials. One day they decided to make burritos. Two of the regulars came in and looked at the special board. One asked, “What’s a burrito?” The reply was “It’s like a Mexican pasty.” Ah, Michigan. (For the uninitiated, a pasty is like a Polish burrito.) ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2004, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-mexican-or-tex-mex-food-suck-so-bad-in-most-of-america/226022/44 "2004-01-28T01:18:52Z")
> [@Thea Logica](#): > > I would have to say… > > 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. Smaller chains, especially those originally from border states, are okay. ---
**Author:** ![edwino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@edwino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwino)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2004, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-mexican-or-tex-mex-food-suck-so-bad-in-most-of-america/226022/45 "2004-01-28T06:16:22Z")
I’m a nearly life-long Houstonian. Here are my views. A beef fajita, done right, is perhaps the most exquisite food known to man. When I am out of town for longer than a few weeks, this is what I crave. This doesn’t diminish from the beauty of enchiladas or cabrito or any other Tex-Mex food, but the beef fajita and its cousin the taco al carbon will always have a special place in my heart. After sampling “Tex-Mex” in places like Baltimore and Northern California (yeeurrrrrrgh), here are my 3 reasons why Tex-Mex sucks everywhere else: 1. Fresh, good, homemade salsa. I have never found a store-bought salsa that compares to anything close. This applies as well to the guacamole and the pico de gallo. Fresh is especially crucial in key ingredients like the cilantro and the jalapenos. 2. Fresh homemade lardy tortillas. If a perspective restaurant is not making their own tortillas with a prominently displayed tortilla maker in the back, find a new restaurant. This is especially key in making top-notch chips which are of course complimentary and brought to your table with your water and cutlery. #1 and #2 are the sole reason why so many of us down here swear by Taco Cabana. Their meat sucks, they are kind of expensive for fast food, they often have terrible service, and you have to pay for chips, but they make excellent salsa and tortillas 24 hours a day. One can subside on that alone (with a bit of queso to break up the monotony). 1. Beef fajitas need to be made with real skirt steak. I’m not sure how available this is in the rest of the country – it is the diaphragm of the cow IIRC. People try too hard with the beef cut, the marinade, and the preparation. Marinate it with a bit of salt, perhaps pineapple juice for tenderization, and a few other seasonings, and grill it. Then carve and serve in fresh tortillas. Bit of heaven, that. There are many other smaller factors. Rice and beans are screwed up more often than one would appreciate. Real Mexican cheese (not Velveeta crap or even regular Cheddar) is probably difficult to find farther from the border. Perhaps there is some avoidance of using lard or beef tallow in preparation – other oils probably don’t fry hot enough, though, and thus perversely make the food seem greasier and more mushy. Especially with enchiladas and flautas and so forth. Of course, specialty ingredients like the aforementioned cabrito and _mole_ perhaps are difficult to find. In short, if a restaurant is buying Sysco tortillas and salsa, then you will never have good Tex-Mex. If a restaurant is advertising fajitas made out of Angus prime rib, then they have the wrong idea. And if there is any hint of the word “heart healthy” or “light” or “low fat” on the menu, pick a new place. This is the food of truncal obesity and gallstones. And my anecdote on barbacoa. I like barbacoa as much as the next white guy, and I know it is made from head, etc. There is a chain restaurant now expanding in Houston – Taqueria Arandas – where you get an enormous burrito, torta, or taco for around $4 with your selection of meat. On the menu are the standards – beef, chicken, pork, barbacoa, IIRC in some neighborhoods heart, but there is also “cabeza” listed, translated plainly as “head.” My first time there, I asked the waiter “What exactly is cabeza?” – I knew it wasn’t barbacoa because that was listed below it. He looked at me and said “I’ll be honest with you, man, I have no idea.” I stayed away from it… ---
**Author:** ![edwino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@edwino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwino)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2004, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-mexican-or-tex-mex-food-suck-so-bad-in-most-of-america/226022/46 "2004-01-28T06:31:38Z")
> [@Tijuana\_Golds](#): > > One type of mexican food that, surprisingly, has never caught on here are Tacos al Pastor, sometimes called Adobados in the north. They are probably the best type of taco there is and yet I’ve never seen them served in the US, especially in the mom & pop joints. They are pretty tedious to prepare so that’s probably a reason. That and tortas, sorta like mexican subs, but made with rounder bread. If you are ever in Houston, there is a place called 100% Taquitos that makes Tacos al Pastor. They are very adamant that they are not Tex-Mex. Their taquitos are not the standard deep-fried Taco Bell bastardization; rather they are small soft flour tortilla based tacos as sold from food carts in Mexico City. It is a great, cheap restaurant in a convenient location (right on US-59 inside the Loop 610). And you can’t throw a brick in Houston (at least in my neighborhood) without hitting two places which make reasonable tortas. [http://www.b4-u-eat.com/houston/restaurants/reviews/rsv1483.asp](http://www.b4-u-eat.com/houston/restaurants/reviews/rsv1483.asp) ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2004, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-mexican-or-tex-mex-food-suck-so-bad-in-most-of-america/226022/47 "2004-01-28T06:50:46Z")
I live in El Paso Texas, upon the banks of the Río Grande (currently an irregular patch of mud in these parts) so I don’t have a hard time finding good Mexican and Tex-Mex…though even along this border there are many places that are rather uninspired in their offerings. The “real stuff” is mostly served across the border. One factor is that to many Mexican and Central American people, the popular cuisine is often seen as “home cooking” and if its sold, its usually in sold street stalls and small taquerías, and not often considered proper “restaurant” food. The best food on this side I know of come from old ladies who spend their weekends in the kitchen, not take out places. I think thats why even in places with a lot of Mexican, Guatemalan, and Salvadorian immigrants - it often takes a while for authentic full service restaurants to develop. ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2004, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-mexican-or-tex-mex-food-suck-so-bad-in-most-of-america/226022/48 "2004-01-28T09:10:20Z")
> [@](#): > > Just a little anecdote to further explain how people in Michigan don’t understand Mexican food: I worked in a restaurant for a while. Basic food - burgers, sandwiches, really excellent breakfast. Sometimes, however, they would branch out for their daily specials. One day they decided to make burritos. Two of the regulars came in and looked at the special board. One asked, “What’s a burrito?” I wouldn’t consider this typical. My wife didn’t know what a pasty was until my parents introduced them to her. Pretty much everyone I know knows what a burrito is, I just don’t think they know what a GOOD burrito is. And yes, most people I know are addicted to Taco Bell. -shudder- > [@](#): > > There is a little hole-in-the-wall Mexican seafood restaurant in downtown Riverside, California that is just superb. Mmmmm… The only mexican place I’ve ever really liked doesn’t exist anymore and the best thing there was their mexican crab burrito. Plus, they made an excellent salsa. ---
**Author:** ![TERRA\_Rising](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TERRA\_Rising](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TERRA_Rising)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2004, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-mexican-or-tex-mex-food-suck-so-bad-in-most-of-america/226022/49 "2004-01-28T11:18:56Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > It is to my shame that I do not like authentic Mexican food. My sister, a big fan of the Real Stuff, has occasionally taken me to little family hole-in-the-wall places, the kind where we’re the only folks in the restaurant fluent in English, and every time I’ve been disappointed. It’s not that they’re too spicy (they’re not); it’s not that the salsas are bad (they’re often quite good). It’s two things: > > 1. They don’t exactly cater to pseudovegetarians like me, and > 2. They do unspeakable things to my gut. > > I’m a big fan of Mexicali, though: give me the high-vegetable black bean burrito with a spicy raw tomato salsa and a little bit of cheese, and I’m a happy guy. > > I also dig some of the weirder Mexican restaurants I’ve been to, the ones that serve spiced trout with jicama and bananas alongside the chunky guacamole, the ones whose rice dishes are flavored with fruits I’ve never heard of. These places are not, judging by the clientele, favorites with local Mexicans, however. I don’t know whether they’re from other regions in Mexico, or whether they’re too expensive for the mostly migrant labor Mexican population in my area, or whether they’re just a bunch of freaky quirky chefs with only nominal association with traditional Mexican cuisine. In any case, they’re yummy. > > Daniel I happen to live 22 miles from Mexicali. Where do you live? ---
**Author:** ![International\_Playboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/48db29/32.png) [@International\_Playboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/International_Playboy)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2004, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-mexican-or-tex-mex-food-suck-so-bad-in-most-of-america/226022/50 "2004-01-28T13:27:45Z")
> [@TERRA Rising](#): > > I happen to live 22 miles from Mexicali. Where do you live? I think \*\* Left Hand of Dorkness\*\* meant Mexican/Californian cusine. But if you mean Mexicali, Baja California, then were practically neighbors. I live about 63 miles away in Arizona. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2004, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-mexican-or-tex-mex-food-suck-so-bad-in-most-of-america/226022/51 "2004-01-28T13:54:39Z")
Yep – I live more’n 2,000 miles from Mexicali, here in snowdrenched Appalachia, NC. Mexicali is just what I call burritos with too many vegetables in them. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![TERRA\_Rising](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TERRA\_Rising](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TERRA_Rising)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2004, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-mexican-or-tex-mex-food-suck-so-bad-in-most-of-america/226022/52 "2004-01-28T14:24:49Z")
Oh. My mistake. 😃 Over here, we have a word for burritos with too many vegetables… CRAP! And IP: It’s cool that there are dopers in the Mohave desert! ---
**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2004, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-mexican-or-tex-mex-food-suck-so-bad-in-most-of-america/226022/53 "2004-01-28T15:34:01Z")
You sure y’all aren’t talking about…eggrolls? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2004, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-mexican-or-tex-mex-food-suck-so-bad-in-most-of-america/226022/54 "2004-01-28T15:37:21Z")
You sure y’all aren’t talking about…eggrolls? 😉 and try Floore’s Store in Helotes next time you’re around San Antonio. They used to be damned good. Haven’t been in awhile so, maybe somebody here can give me an update. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2004, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-mexican-or-tex-mex-food-suck-so-bad-in-most-of-america/226022/55 "2004-01-28T15:38:03Z")
Well, since you lumped Baltimore in with the original post, I’ll defend it a bit. Basically, I’ve found 4 types of “mexican” in this town. 1. Taco Bell & Chili’s. These crap-flows won’t enter into the discussion. 2. What I call “Tex-Mex”. This is La Hacienda, Holy Frijoles, Listas (maybe). This is also shit food. It’s the same slop in all of them: beans, rice and meat either in burrito form, chimichanga form, enchilada form, etc. The same Tex-Mex that’s everywhere. I’ll chow it from time to time but not really appreciate it. 3. “Fancy Tex-Mex”. Loco Hombre, Nacho Mama’s, maybe Joy America. I think these places are mostly just fancy food (differing degrees of quality there) with a Mexican style. At “JA”, they’ll peel an avocado and make guac for you with a mortar and pestle right at your table. Is “banana-tomatillo salsa over chili encrusted salmon” or “crab-chipotle quesadilla” really “mexican” food? I doubt it, but it doesn’t mean its not good. Maybe it’s more like Southwestern cuisine. 4. The “real” places. The places in North Fells point where no one speaks english and they’re playing spanish soap operas and they don’t serve things like ‘chimichanga’ but they serve a “pork chop” or “suckling pig” and it’s in their own style and you can get 2 pork chops for $10 and they’re 2 of the best chops you’ll ever eat. If you’d eaten at one of these places, I doubt you’d have many more complaints about Baltimore. that’s the wrap-up from here. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2004, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-mexican-or-tex-mex-food-suck-so-bad-in-most-of-america/226022/56 "2004-01-28T17:59:28Z")
> [@](#): > > Is “banana-tomatillo salsa over chili encrusted salmon” or “crab-chipotle quesadilla” really “mexican” food? Sounds more South American. As a near lifelong border resident, I can’t imagine having to give up my TexMex. Poppasitos and I go way back, not to mention several other local establishments. As mentioned, the norm I’ve encountered travelling outside Texas is that spice (heat) is often substituted for flavor. Screw that. In addition to a reasonable selection of authentic Mexican brews, gimme me some proper pica de gallo, jalapenos, guacamole, salsa verde and nopalitos anyday. Mmmmm… nopalitos. ---
**Author:** ![zut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zut/32/2875_2.png) [@zut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zut)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2004, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-mexican-or-tex-mex-food-suck-so-bad-in-most-of-america/226022/57 "2004-01-28T20:25:05Z")
> [@Odinoneeye](#): > > 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. Being from Detroit and also being a fan of Mexican food, I’d suggest that perhaps you re-evaluate _which_ Mexicantown restaurants you try. From what I’ve seen, the popularity of Mexicantown restaurants among the general gringo population is inversely proportional to the quality of the food.\* El Zocalo and Xochimilco, for instance, seem to garner a lot of the “best Mexican” awards, but I’ve found them pretty ho-hum standard the couple times I’ve eaten there. There are smaller places that _never_ get any press that are much better. We go to a taqueria a lot (Taqueria Tapatia) that has some really good fish and goat plates. We’re often the only non-Hispanics eating there (and rarely are there more than three or four other non-Hispanics), which seems to be a good indication. There’s probably other places if you want to experiment. Then again, my particular hole-in-the-wall cup of tea may not be your particular hole-in-the-wall cup of tea. \*The exeption to this rule being Evie’s Tamales, which really does have delicious tamales. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Matrix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/34f0e0/32.png) [@Red\_Matrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Matrix)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2004, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-mexican-or-tex-mex-food-suck-so-bad-in-most-of-america/226022/58 "2004-01-28T22:08:30Z")
> [@BottledBlondJeanie](#): > > Yeah, well I’m trying to be vague, too since I’m now in a much smaller town. Let me just ask you **Red** does the term Taco Palenque mean anything to you? 🙂 HELL YEAH! ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2004, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-mexican-or-tex-mex-food-suck-so-bad-in-most-of-america/226022/59 "2004-01-29T00:16:12Z")
I live in Seattle, which has a pretty good selection of decent-to-great Mexican-influenced places. Probably due at least in part to cultural spillover from the migrant population that works in our east-of-the-Cascades agricultural areas. We’ve got a wonderful hole-in-the-wall place in our neighborhood that specializes not in food from Mexico but Panama/Cuba/Venezuela. Delicious. But re Mexico, I’m on a lifelong quest to find a place that makes molé as good as the stuff I make myself. (We can get the spices in our larger grocery stores and in specialty shops. Probably part of the same influence as in my first paragraph above.) The perfect molé has to be sweet, but not cloying; it’s got to have a slight undercurrent of chocolate bitterness, but only a small amount; it’s got to have a rich, smoky body; it can’t be too oily; and it’s got to have some kick. Why is this so hard to find? ---
**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2004, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-mexican-or-tex-mex-food-suck-so-bad-in-most-of-america/226022/60 "2004-01-29T07:33:17Z")
**Trunk** reminded me of a place I used to go eat. A little ol mexican lady had converted her living room into a restaurant. She had about a half dozen small tables w/chairs and served from noon until 6. You’d go in and eat whatever she was cooking that day. $5 for plenty of great food and all the sweet iced tea or water you could drink. Damn…that was good, I’d forgotten all about it. (No bullshit, me and a buddy we’d go in grab a table and they’d fill it up w/ food. Good homemade chow too. We’d leave her a $10 and a good tip) She spoke no English, had a bunch of kids (they all lived in the rest of the house) 😃 …one of 'em was always around setting tables and serving. I guess you didn’t really need to speak. It’s not like she had a menu. A big smile and an empty plate said it all. She passed on about a dozen years ago. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-mexican-or-tex-mex-food-suck-so-bad-in-most-of-america/226022.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-mexican-or-tex-mex-food-suck-so-bad-in-most-of-america/226022.md?page=4)