# Why isn't Mexican food more popular in Spain? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [August 4, 2019, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-mexican-food-more-popular-in-spain/838149 "2019-08-04T00:57:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2019, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-mexican-food-more-popular-in-spain/838149/41 "2019-08-06T18:17:53Z")
(oh, forgot to add : the “authentic” places are also where you’ll find chefs who have actually heard spices mentioned once or twice in a food-related conversation. Dishes labelled as “caution : very hot !” in a Frenchified Chinese joint would barely ping the Texan-o-meter. But you should probably call the fire brigade in advance should you try the “caution : very hot !” dishes at an authentic southern Chinese restaurant however. Bastards measure their chili peppers by the truck, I swear 🙂 ) ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2019, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-mexican-food-more-popular-in-spain/838149/42 "2019-08-06T20:25:02Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > . . .there aren’t really any large South American “enclaves” anywhere that would make serving food “like in the old country” to nostalgic Latinos/as profitable in the short run. Specifically, there aren’t any _ **Mexican** _ enclaves. You can find a “Mexican” fast food outlet at most mall food courts in Colombia, but you will be extremely hard put to understand what the hell it is that they are serving you. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2019, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-mexican-food-more-popular-in-spain/838149/43 "2019-08-06T23:06:39Z")
According to my SO, who is technically Australian (but he hasn’t lived there in decades), Mexican food is considered “gourmet” in Oz, and would be accorded the same respect as, say, a French restaurant in the US. I worked with Australians in Indonesia for over 7 years and never picked up on that. Perhaps one of our Australian Dopers could comment? ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2019, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-mexican-food-more-popular-in-spain/838149/44 "2019-08-07T21:18:26Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > […] what most people call patatas bravas… […] I happened to be part of the first taste-test group 😃 (they were invented by a bar-owner in my hometown in the summer of 1984)[…]. I beg your pardon in case this was sarcasm and I missed it, but no. [Jamás](https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patatas_bravas) de los jamases. Patatas bravas predate you and me for sure. By centuries. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2019, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-mexican-food-more-popular-in-spain/838149/45 "2019-08-07T21:48:45Z")
I believe the biggest problem with Mexican cuisine in Europe is that Europeans are much more into wheat than into corn. [Maize](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maize) is the most widely grown grain crop throughout the Americas, it is more often used as feed in Europe. The only traditional dish that comes to my mind is polenta. I would guess that we eat more chick-peas or lentils or beans or potatoes than corn, and I would also guess that in the Americas it is the other way around. Though my observations may be biased. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2019, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-mexican-food-more-popular-in-spain/838149/46 "2019-08-07T21:54:09Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > I believe the biggest problem with Mexican cuisine in Europe is that Europeans are much more into wheat than into corn. [Maize](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maize) is the most widely grown grain crop throughout the Americas, it is more often used as feed in Europe. The only traditional dish that comes to my mind is polenta. I would guess that we eat more chick-peas or lentils or beans or potatoes than corn, and I would also guess that in the Americas it is the other way around. Though my observations may be biased. When Mexican food started becoming very popular in the United States, flour was a very common substitute for corn meal. Corn (maize) was not considered mandatory. ---
**Author:** ![Plumpudding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Plumpudding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plumpudding)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2019, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-mexican-food-more-popular-in-spain/838149/47 "2019-08-08T04:29:00Z")
Off the top of my head I can think of three good Mexican places in Oslo. Various hot sauces on the table, different meats prepared by various means, at least one of them has seafood and serves michelada. Oslo counts as European, right? Edit: I just thought of three more, though two might not still be open. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2019, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-mexican-food-more-popular-in-spain/838149/48 "2019-08-08T11:53:31Z")
> [@Dorjan](#): > > They may already do/have something of the kind, because what you describe is not Mexican food. If I went to a Mexican restaurant in Europe and they served tacos on flour tortillas with lettuce, tomato, and sour cream, I’d have the same poor opinion of Mexican cuisine in Europe as the OP. Thank you. That reminded me of my mother’s 1950s “taco night” recipe. Re: Chinese food, most have experienced the dumbed down American variety (an old roommate of mine liked to order “Gen. Tee Sao”.) I read somewhere about immigrants to the US bringing their local ~Chinese cuisine to the US, e.g. Ecuadorian Chinese, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2019, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-mexican-food-more-popular-in-spain/838149/49 "2019-08-08T11:56:37Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > I beg your pardon in case this was sarcasm and I missed it, but no. [Jamás](https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patatas_bravas) de los jamases. Patatas bravas predate you and me for sure. By centuries. Not the current style, eaten by itself; that there were other dishes by the same name I won’t deny, but salsa brava was invented by the owner of Estrella II. Do you also believe that pacharán was widely available everywhere? Patatas a lo pobre are oven-cooked at the same time as whatever you’re roasting, it’s a completely different thing from what’s called patatas bravas anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2019, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-mexican-food-more-popular-in-spain/838149/50 "2019-08-08T12:04:09Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > You could ask the same question about any country in Europe. Why should Mexican food be any more popular in Spain than, let’s say, England or Poland? Exactly. The reasoning many people have is that Mexico stemmed from the Spanish breeding with the locals during the time of the Conquistadores, so they are somehow connected culturally. The few Spanish I’ve met, a Basque in particular, look down on Mexicans, considering them culturally inferior hybrids of the real thing, if you will. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2019, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-mexican-food-more-popular-in-spain/838149/51 "2019-08-08T12:24:44Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > One reason could be that Spanish food is very good. Another is Spain is very locally culture orientated and they like their regional foods as part of their heritage. People are not so much from Spain but from their region of Spain, and that’s what they are proud of. We’re proud of our food in a “please don’t rape our recipes” kind of way (Madrid is particularly famous for doing things to other people’s recipes that should carry penalty of garrote vil), but any of us who likes food at all is perfectly happy to have other region’s specialties and to let anybody who asks know which are those. One of those idiots who think that they can cause trouble by Just Asking specific Questions once asked The Basque Team which of the four Basque capitals had the best food. Looks of intense confusion, then a slew of questions: “why are you only counting four? They’re seven”, “do we have to limit ourselves to the capitals?”, “does anybody know which town is having a Week of Veggies or a Week of Pinchos or a Week of Whatever this week?”, followed by each of us telling each of the other six (all from different towns) places in their town that we’d liked. For example, the girl from Vitoria wasn’t telling us places she liked in Vitoria: the rest of us were telling her about places we’d liked there and she’d ask if we’d tried this or that specialty (not of Vitoria: of that bar). I’ve had similar experiences with other people, minus the JAQass. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2019, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-mexican-food-more-popular-in-spain/838149/52 "2019-08-08T12:27:20Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > Exactly. The reasoning many people have is that Mexico stemmed from the Spanish breeding with the locals during the time of the Conquistadores, so they are somehow connected culturally. The few Spanish I’ve met, a Basque in particular, look down on Mexicans, considering them culturally inferior hybrids of the real thing, if you will. That Basque sounds like a complete jackass, says this Basque. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2019, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-mexican-food-more-popular-in-spain/838149/53 "2019-08-08T14:04:19Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > Thank you. That reminded me of my mother’s 1950s “taco night” recipe. I still like those kinds of tacos … and I know I’m not alone 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2019, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-mexican-food-more-popular-in-spain/838149/54 "2019-08-08T14:12:46Z")
> [@Dorjan](#): > > They may already do/have something of the kind, because what you describe is not Mexican food. … _touché_ – but those were only incidental details, anyway. Switch up the thought experiment, then: we’ll go with soft corn tortillas, barbacoa\*\* or carnitas, diced onion, cilantro, and the fixings for pico de gallo. Tougher to make at home in Paris, Warsaw, or Brussels than it is to do the same in the U.S. (due to item availability or any other factor)? And would the end result be less likely to win over European friends than American ones? \*\*\* well, an ersatz barbacoa, anyway, that can be done in an oven or crock pot. Trying to stick with items readily done in the home.\* ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2019, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-mexican-food-more-popular-in-spain/838149/55 "2019-08-08T14:14:51Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > **DrDeth** , what most people call patatas bravas… well. It’s pretty watered-down. I’ve even encountered people who called “brava” a sauce which was a mixture of pot-mayo and ketchup. I happened to be part of the first taste-test group 😃 (they were invented by a bar-owner in my hometown in the summer of 1984); while they certainly wouldn’t be considered extremely spicy by any mexican, they were a lot zingier than most of what people serve. I think you owe Dr\_Paprika a huge apology! 😉 We visited Spain a few years ago and that was my first experience with patatas bravas. We liked them so much, we’ve made them several times since. I don’t know the recipe we’ve settled on off the top of my head, but it’s quite a bit of paprika (we grow and dry our own paprika peppers, along with a dozen more varieties of peppers). So good! ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2019, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-mexican-food-more-popular-in-spain/838149/56 "2019-08-08T14:49:15Z")
Agreed on Mexican food in the UK. I was there a couple months ago and was like, “WTF is this?” I also wasn’t overly impressed with their Indian food. Maybe I had too high expectations. Then again, if I try something, and like it, that becomes the de facto “standard” of what a food _should_ taste like, so there’s that. I do agree it’s kind of a strange question. Might as well ask why English food isn’t more popular in the U.S. There is “English food” in the US (e.g. Fish and Chips), but it’s served in normal, non-Englished themed restaurants. “English restaurants” are a rare thing in the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![Weedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/weedy/32/301_2.png) [@Weedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weedy)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2019, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-mexican-food-more-popular-in-spain/838149/57 "2019-08-08T23:54:07Z")
Regarding Indonesian food in the Netherlands, there were a whole bunch of Dutch citizens living in the Dutch East Indies, including families that had been there for generations. Many moved back to the Netherlands when Indonesia became independent, bringing their food with them. > [@bordelond](#): > > … _touché_ – but those were only incidental details, anyway. > > Switch up the thought experiment, then: we’ll go with soft corn tortillas, barbacoa\*\* or carnitas, diced onion, cilantro, and the fixings for pico de gallo. Tougher to make at home in Paris, Warsaw, or Brussels than it is to do the same in the U.S. (due to item availability or any other factor)? > > And would the end result be less likely to win over European friends than American ones? > \*\*\* well, an ersatz barbacoa, anyway, that can be done in an oven or crock pot. Trying to stick with items readily done in the home.\* When we first came back to Australia, my mum could not get tortillas anywhere. Eventually she found a restaurant wholesaler (the only one in the state) that would sell her some. No pre-packaged spice mixes. She used to make a dip with refried beans that amazed people, because no one knew what they were. Tortillas and packaged spice mix are now standard in Australian supermarkets, but getting soft corn tortillas is hit and miss (pre-fried corn taco shells are common). Pinto beans are rare. I’ve started to see black beans just in the last year or two, but they aren’t common. You can often find fresh jalepenos (very rarely habaneros), but most of our chillies are Asian style, and never smoked. For hot sauce, we have tabasco. I’ve heard that the Mexican versions of coriander, oregano and mint are different to the ones you get here, but I’m not sure of the details of that. I don’t know how similar the situation is in Europe, but these are the kinds of problems you can run into. Also, most people have never eaten even vaguely authentic Mexican food. They don’t know how it’s supposed to taste, so they can’t create the flavour profile. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2019, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-mexican-food-more-popular-in-spain/838149/58 "2019-08-09T04:47:40Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > \*\*\* well, an ersatz barbacoa, anyway, that can be done in an oven or crock pot. Trying to stick with items readily done in the home.\* Why would you do _barbacoa_ in an over or crock pot? It requires a _barbacoa_ or a grill… at least make it on a _plancha_, damnit… _twitch_ (it cracks me up that the French for _plancha_ is _plancha_; we’re so used to borrowing food terms from other people that we’re always surprised when other people borrow ours). > [@wguy123](#): > > I think you owe Dr\_Paprika a huge apology! 😉 Oops. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2019, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-mexican-food-more-popular-in-spain/838149/59 "2019-08-09T04:55:53Z")
> [@Weedy](#): > > Pinto beans are rare. I’ve started to see black beans just in the last year or two, but they aren’t common. Both available in Spain (more commonly as dry goods than pre-cooked, specially _pintas_), but I’ve very rarely seen them in other European countries; I expect that at least black beans would be available in Portugal, don’t know about pintas. Both available in bodegas and Spanish-specialty stores through Europe, just not so much in regular supermarkets; there was one in Liege where you could clearly see which were the items the local Spanish population got homesick about, and beans were a big chunk of their stock. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2019, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-mexican-food-more-popular-in-spain/838149/60 "2019-08-09T10:37:00Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Why would you do _barbacoa_ in an over or crock pot? It requires a _barbacoa_ or a grill… at least make it on a _plancha_, damnit… _twitch_ (it cracks me up that the French for _plancha_ is _plancha_; we’re so used to borrowing food terms from other people that we’re always surprised when other people borrow ours). Because _barbacoa_, before Europeans had their way with it, referred to slow-cooking meat in a covered pit. How that word because associated with a grate or pan over open flame, or to a cooking device used for a completely different process, I don’t know. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-mexican-food-more-popular-in-spain/838149.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-mexican-food-more-popular-in-spain/838149.md?page=4)