I’m guessing it’s still the same flavours and beans/rice/meat, but what are the actual dishes like?
Classic TexMex taco: Hard shell, ground beef, lettuce, tomato, cheddar cheese, (maybe) sour cream
Classic Mexican street taco: Corn tortilla (sometimes flour), barbacoa (beef) or carnitas or al pastor (pork), diced onions, cilantro, salsa, (maybe) queso fresco, and avocado (sometimes)
Synthesis: Tacos with flour tortillas, onions, cilantro, tomato, jalapenos, shredded white cheese, a tiny bit of sour cream, a pinch of lettuce, and any meat, especially lengua and cabeza, are like, so fucking good. Slip some refried beans in there. Try to find room for avocado. Mex-Tex. Ungh.
I used to go to a build your own tacos place that served roughly 50/50 mexicans and anglos, so they had all the stuff available. Oh man.
Feel like shit just want them back.
Edit: Who the fuck is downvoting me, I actually hate you. This was my favorite restaurant and I went practically every week for years, until March when it was fucking instantly killed by COVID and the Mexican immigrant employees had to go pick up plastic bottles. What the fuck is wrong with yall.
Hard shelled tacos are an abomination. Street tacos are a compelling argument for the existence of god.
I like Mexican food but cilantro tastes like soap to me and it seems like it's in everything :sadness:
Quesadillas do not have cheese on them by default in Mexico.
To really pill you about Mexican food, different regions have different foods and 'Mexican food' is a very broad term.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_cuisine
This wikipedia page will give you some good information. Pay special attention to the 'Regional cuisines' section.
After pandemic, I would highly recommend taking a trip to Mexico City. They have all of the regional cuisines and lots of culture. Very cool stuff for leftists as well, especially if you're a trotskyist haha.
Very cool stuff for leftists as well, especially if you’re a trotskyist haha.
I'd say the crowning piece would be the famous icepick, but the kid of the Mexican secret police guy who swiped it because "lol why not" is holding onto it to try and sell it at a profit.
Quesadillas do not have cheese on them by default in Mexico.
im going to kill this chilango
Quesadillas do not have cheese on them by default in Mexico.
Sometimes cultural appropriation brings benefits.
You must be from Mexico City ;) I have some Mexican friends and they were poking fun at the chilangos saying things like "sopa seca" and "¿Quieres quesadilla con o sin queso?".
Actual Mexican food rules.
My wife and I went to Mexico City for our honeymoon and literally every food cart smelled amazing.
Street Tacos and Tortas (sandwiches) are everywhere. My wife is a big fan of Horchata (she's half Mexican and grew up in LA), that and Agua Fresca could be bought from most restaurants and there was a ton of street carts selling various kinds.
I'd argue that even though people in the united states weren't the first people to BBQ stuff, BBQ could be considered "American cuisine". And much like people elsewhere in this thread are stating with "Mexican Food" and "Chinese Food" varying wildly based on the location in Mexico/China, BBQ in the states can vary wildly based on the location it is cooked in as well.
Prob tamales. There are variations that I like that have a cool history in the US. Like Hot tamales that were made when mexican migrant workers got together with African americans in the south and exchanged recipes when working with each other. Heard this on good eats and I like them.
My dad was born and grew up in Mexico and I've lived in Southern California right next to the border as well as Texas.
Traditional Mexican food is very region-specific. My dad's village he grew up in was known for their dried shrimp, which you wouldn't think of as a Mexican food staple. Areas near the coast (Baja) the food is a lot more seafood focused (Mariscos) with shrimp cocktail, whole fried fish, octopus (pulpo, holy shit I had some amazing pulpo at a coastal restaurant in Mexico once, one of the best things I've ever had), fish tacos, ceviche, aguachile, etc.
There's street tacos, tamales, birria, lengua, carnitas, menudo, there's homestyle fried tacos, chorizo, frijoles, flautas, tortas, sope...there's A LOT of different mexican dishes and styles out there.
The thing about Mexican food in the US is that there are a lot of Mexicans that live here, so you can absolutely find authentic and traditional food, especially near the border (but then region will come into it again, SoCal Mexican is different than San Antonio Mexican). I've also noticed that sometimes people not near the border will confuse Peruvian/Argentinian/Colombian and Mexican food too.
Fuck I love Mexican food, I'm gonna make some frijoles de olla right now.
If any of y'all are ever in San Diego, please, I beg you, go to Quatro Milpas in Chicano Park. Get a taco, some rolled tacos, a bowl of the beans/rice/chorizo and some flour tortillas and experience what it would feel like for your abuelita to feed you and nourish your soul. Get there early, there is always a line. Cash only, and try to speak some Spanish.
That's like asking what real "European" food is like. American Chinese food is loosely based on the food from where most early Chinese immigrants were from (Fujian), adapted to new ingredients and new tastes. There really isn't a unified "Chinese food" to describe.
There isn't one Chinese cuisine, it is regional. I'd recommend going for a place that says they're Hunan rather than Chinese if you want authentic stuff.
Also think that the inauthentic stuff isn't necessarily bad, just that you should try to expand your horizons when it comes to flavour other than the stuff that has been made to be palatable to Americans.
Chinese Cooking Demystified is a great channel that goes over tons of different regional recipes. Most dishes look pretty dang easy to make too, provided that you have a wok and a good Asian Supermarket that you can visit.
Some Chinese friends once made some “real” Chinese food for me. It was cubes of tofu covered in spice and fucking AWESOME.
I gotcha fam. Gonna make a post referencing real Chinese food by region.
https://www.youtube.com/c/DemiRanchoaTuCocina
This might give you an idea of how it differs.
There's even more than one cuisine in mexico! It's a huge topic and I am wholly unqualified to speak about it.
I'm Mexican and I'll be honest, I prefer a lot of the bastardized western versions of dishes more than the traditional Mexican food. Tacos and Tamales are big exceptions tho and there isn't nearly enough cilantro on everything, spices are a real weakpoint of TexMex in general.
Going to be traveling/working in mexico then central america and am eagerly anticipating the food.
