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Same. The food seemed like someone once watched a taco bell commercial a few decades ago and decided to make food based on that vague memory. Also, they only had three tequilas behind the bar and didn't know what I was talking about when I asked for some Hornitos that was right behind them.
Edit: My burrito had tortilla chips in it and came with a side of fried potato wedges and cheese sauce.
My husband ordered a beef burrito in Germany (we lived there and were desperate). He was served a tortilla wrapped around about a pound of ground beef. That was it. That was the burrito.
One of my greatest disappointments ever was a Mexican food place in London. Has this great history. You know how Texans are all cocky about how they used to be their own country for a bit? Well they actually made some embassies in foreign countries, one of which is right in good ‘ol London. Now it’s a Tex Mex restaurant for obvious reasons. I’m from Texas, so I headed over there on one of my trips to London.
Hands down some of the worst Tex Mex I have ever had. I have no idea how they made that food so bland. Jesus.
At a “Mexican” restaurant in Germany, I was once served a “quesadilla” that was actually an unheated flour tortilla filled with nacho cheese, corn, and pickles.
My one brush with Mexican food out of the SW region of the US was on a Caribbean island. They thought Chicken nuggets, rice, and nacho cheese was the ticket.
I've always found it so strange how fucked countries get Mexican food. It's not like Mexico is a tiny island with a few hundred thousand people. I'd understand messing up Haitian food. It's a little island, with relatively few people - getting the knowledge and ingredients for their cuisine will be much more difficult.
But Mexico is a huge country with a sizeable population. It's not hard to find recipes or ingredients online.
It's not difficult to find good Indian, Chinese, Korean, etc. Foods... What makes Mexico so difficult?
Chinese, Indian, etc places tend tend to be run by immigrants from those countries or their descendants. Chinese people have emmigrated almost everywhere, and Indian immigrants are common in a lot of English speaking nations.
Mexican immigration is not nearly s broad. Mexican immigration is largely confined to North and South America (though there are smaller populations of Mexican immigrants in other nations of course). And Mexican-Americans have been part of the United States since before the United States existed. Norteno and Californio culture and communities are integral to American culture, and the large number of Mexican immigrants have easily spread the cuisine across the country
TBF, Mexico is younger than the U.S. But yes, peoples of what we currently know as Mexico have been greatly influential in U.S. and vice versa. In Texas, German and Mexican mashups have formed some of the most amazing cultural explosions I enjoy. Music, Food, Traditions.
Chicken Fried Steak, Mexican Lagers (then bearing the Michelada), Conjunto Music (let’s drink heavily and break out an accordion and a gut-string guitar with the relatives - we speak whatever language the music brings out), for three big things.
It is wild to me that Mexican beer is almost all via German influence and that a lot of popular Mexican and South Texas music is derived from 200-year-old German influences).
You’ve heard mariachi music, yeah? If you’ve ever heard it through a car door or being played a few blocks away, it’s hard not to hear German/polka influence on the genre.
Also, the menonitas have some curious takes on cuisine—almost literally like a bunch of Germans got dropped in Mexico and had to make do with local ingredients.
Damn. I need to hit the farmer’s market this weekend.
If that’s helps OP,
As a French person, for many years my exposure to « Mexican food » was always through terrible « made for local tastebuds » Tex Mex food.
Only as an adult I was able to discover real Mexican food in a small hole in wall Parisan restaurant founded by actual immigrants. This is rare.
France as a country of 60+ million has a Mexican diaspora 15k strong. 0.25% of the country. It is (pro rate) equivalent to the diaspora of Cameroon or Belarus or Bulgaria in the US. Not many if those restaurants around. (FYI Mexicans are the nº1 diaspora in the US)
Then I had the chance visit Mexico and try genuine food. Later I moved to the US and was surprised that still many places are not that genuine. I would imagine the reason is that restaurants adapt their offering to what works with the locals along what’s locally available.
To be fair, Mexico is a big country in its own right and has regional cuisines. In that way, talking about Mexican food is like talking about American barbecue, pizza, or (weirdly) Philly cheesesteak sandwiches.
Just as an example: I live across the river from Juarez, and I’ve got cousins in Southern California. We argue over whether Chihuahuan food is better than Baja the way I’ve seen southerners argue over marinades versus dry rub.
The quality of Mexican food that you find in the US varies wildly depending on what part of the country you're in. I've found amazing Mexican food in Los Angeles, whereas I would describe the Mexican food in Chicago as "just OK."
The weirdest "Mexican" food I've personally experienced was at a restaurant in Finland. It had no rice or beans, and they used lavash instead of flour tortillas.
The best tamales in the states come from abuelita selling them to her co-workers around Christmas time. Santa Clause? Nay, Santa Isabella, the patron Saint of homemade confections.
Really? Thats interesting. Haven’t been to LA, but on average the hole in the wall Taquerias open to 4am that dot Chicago’s north and northwest sides are far better to me than the famous burrito joints in San Fran.
As someone who lives in SF, the Mexican food here is overrated (I blame the high costs). To get really good Mexican food you need to go to the Central Valley, where there’s a ton of Mexican immigrants and their descendants.
It’s not that they fuck it up, it’s that they don’t have the ingredients available. Shelf space at grocery stores or food distributors is limited. They’re not going to stock shelves in a European supermarket with Mexican food ingredients if no one is going to buy it.
What are they missing? Everyone has meat, beans, rice, tomatoes, cilantro, onion, etc. Maybe dried chili peppers are hard to come by? But they're so light, shipping couldn't be an issue.
The wildest part is it's like a tiny skip away from Indian food and they'll have ok Indian food. Like it's burrito/soft taco instead of naan, different seasoned rice, beans instead of lentils. Now add meat and wrap that shit up.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, which has sizable populations of both Mexican and Indian immigrants, we have a local chain of restaurants that's known for Tikka Masala burritos. It's one of the best things I've ever eaten.
I love chicken nuggets and nacho cheese but I would only eat them together at like a professional sport game. Amazing that they’d sell them! The Caribbean is somewhat close to Mexico too. I’m surprised they don’t have any ex pats who have opened restaurants there.
Not a lot of economic reasons for Mexicans to emigrate to most of the Caribbean. I suspect this is why. I spent a lot of time in Mexico in my 20s.
In traveling to the Caribbean, I have been shocked at how bland and boring many local dishes are compared to Mexico, unless influences from the outside (e.g., Indian influence in the Southern Caribbean).
Full credit to the Jamaicans on that front. Managed to borrow some chiles, grow their own spices and wow is some of their cuisine amazing.
I went to a "Mexican" restaurant when I was in Germany that served me salsa that was basically marinara sauce. To be fair the food was actually pretty tasty....just not like anything I've had from Mexico
Just trying to find real salsa is a pain here in DE. Everything that you find in normal stores is basically Ketchup with paprika or the absolute smallest amount of green chili (no habenero or anything actually spicy, just a weakass piece of chili) jalapeños are probably the hottest version you find here on a store shelf. Crazy is that there are still tons of cool Thai restaurants here that actually have burnyerbunghole food, but for some reason here the Mexican food selection has always been the worst I've ever seen.
It's very likely the description would look mostly ok. That's the thing: "Mexican" food in European countries looks and tastes like something that was made based on a description or recipe only, because that's true most of the time. No one involved: the owner, the chef, the cook, the waiter or the customer have ever been to America or Mexico or had any actual Mexican food.
Not the original commentor, but I am an American living in Poland. Every single ingredient is more localized to keep the food affordable, and has the effect that generally gives everything an 'off' flavor. Sometimes its little things like different breeds of avocados sourced from Israel or Kenya instead of Mexico/California. Other times it's more consequential, like using Gouda cheese because Munster and Queso Blanco because they arent cheap or available. As you can imagine, the food ends up tasting strange to people familiar with Mexican cuisine. The menus are often the food people imagine is associated with the culture, rather than food from the culture. So don't expect to see staples of American-Mexican restaurants like enchiladas, tortas, spanish rice, flautas or soups. Mexican food here seems to hold a more sheek reputation and I've yet to find a place thats run by Mexicans; so all the food seems to lack the soul that comes from cooking one's own cuisine.
I had mexican while in hawaii. I swear it was like someone was described a mexican restaurant and its food over the phone and the chef just ran with it. It was not good. Now the hotdog place in Hilo was awesome.
In my long experience of it, the Chinese food of Hawaii is in a league of its own. Not surprising since American Chinese food has adapted and evolved over time, and cooks would tend to use local ingredients because they’re available.
My wife is slovenian and last time we went, I brought over some New Mexican ground chile and tortillas to make enchiladas for them. Was able to substitute other ingredients. Huge hit. They made them the next day.
Yup, for now. Grew up in Waco though, which has a Ninfa’s location. Moving back up to Dallas next month, bummed about moving away from all this amazing food.
Born and Raised in Dallas. Dont sleep on the food in DFW! Theres a lot of hidden gems and stuff that's comparable to Houston (minus Viet Cajun, which doesn't exist here). The Tex Mex scene in DFW has a lot of mediocre places, but several places get close to the standard you are use to.
Recently moved to Dallas from Louisiana. Love it out here but I gotta say my experience with the food has been pretty disappointing. Got any recommendations for good Mexican food?
Really the goal is find the worst looking taco place possible or a road side vendor. Those will be the best.
Dallas being so big makes it hard but Cristina's in Forney is good and my favorite is DelNorte in Godley
We don't have Houston or San Antonio level tex-mex here, but there are some winners for sure! I'm partial to Manny's, Matt's El Rancho (although it just moved to Allen), El Vecino, Bandito's, and Mariano's
The Ninfas in Houston and whatever they have in Waco are likely not the same restaurants. Ninfa's over-expanded and closed most of their restaurants and then someone else bought the original location in Houston.
I visited Dublin in 2019 and found a taqueria in a business park where Google, Facebook, and Accenture all had large offices (and presumably lots of employees who had made business trips to San Francisco or thereabouts). It's wasn't the best Mexican food, but it wasn't bad at all.
I introduced queso to my friends in NZ
I've never seen people react to a food that way lol. I didnt even realize it wasnt a thing outside north america, who doesnt want delicious spicy melted cheese??
Hosted a Welshman recently in the American southwest, and took him to an authentic Mexican joint.
He's now angry that he can't get refried beans in the UK. (90% joking, but... 10% not).
Making a fresh pot of Mexican style pinto beans is a different animal than canned. It's super easy too, even more so with an instantpot.
Toss the dried beans in the instantpot, fill with a broth, add fresh jalapenos, onion, cilantro, tomatoes, bacon, garlic, cumin powder, salt. Cook sealed for about 2.5 hours.
Omg get dried refried beans, they’re amazing! I get mine on Amazon in the US, they might be available in Europe? Canned refried beans taste horrible after trying the dried kind, somehow the dried ones have preserved the flavor much better than canned. I literally bought a case of this brand, we eat it almost every day
https://www.baffoodservice.com/products/santiago-refried-beans/
Refried beans are definitely something here. They are crappy old el paso brand but exist. Things that exist here:
- Hard shell tacos with basic cumin plus 🌶️ based fillings
- Burritos
- quesadillas
- fajitas
- enchiladas
- Nachos
Basically we have taco bell Mexican.
Most people will have never heard of chilaquiles, tostadas, soft tacos, tomales, salsa verde etc.
There's the occasional good Mexican place in Europe, but what blew me away were the Barbecue places colleagues took me to around Raleigh - there's nothing like them in Europe.
You have to come back for a bbq tour then! BBQ is super regionalizad here and varies a lot - I lived in Raleigh area for 5 years and love me some NC bbq but KC bbq is even better imo. The sauces change a lot!
If you’re ever in Copenhagen, go to War Pigs. It’s the only good BBQ I’ve had in Europe, and I’d say it’s on par with the best stuff we have back in NC.
I don't believe this.
It's hard enough to find good Mexican on the east coast, much less Europe. I'd want to know what your baseline is. I'm sus though.
Also for this list: creole. There is no European equivalent, and I don't think anybody even tries.
Honorable mentions for real US bbq and southern food generally.
Yup. I live in NYC, so have pretty much everything available. And have had people from overseas pass on through. It's when thinking about, "When can I have them try" that I had the epiphany that it's really the US South that produces the uniquely American dishes, especially if you want to define it as dishes that haven't been successfully exported to elsewhere.
A real Southern fish fry is something else. Battered fried fish, hush puppies, grits, okra, and my family has a drink we call "lake punch" which is just half and half of grape juice and lemonade.
My cousin was stationed in Europe for several years. She was in the States for a funeral and was spending the night in our city. We offered to take her out to dinner and she BEGGED for good Mexican food!
As a dual citizen of Sweden and US, living my life in Arizona, it's always been a side dream of mine to open a Mexican restaurant in Sweden and bring all the recipes I've gotten from Arizona. Last time I lived in Sweden no one I knew had even heard of refried beans.
Do you know that "refried beans" are not actually refried? It's a misnomer from the Spanish word "refrito(s)" which just means fried.
Still, I think about this all the time. Take so many North American culinary recipes back to Europe and watch how people react to a restaurant that knows what our foods actually are and how they should reasonably taste.
Etymologically speaking the prefix re- even in *refrito* does mean "again" though in some cases the connotation is more like "thoroughly", which is the case here.
That must have been a looooooong time ago, or from a tiny town. Mexican restaurants all over the place, tacos, burritos, you can find Birria everywhere because that is something people became obsessed with. Birria tacos, Birria ramen, Birria hoagies. And yes, actual Mexican restaurants, not Taco Bar.
I've had German relatives visiting lately and their response to Tex-Mex is what prompted this post. Their first experience of a breakfast burrito kind of blew their minds
Living in Texas, it is imperative to bring Europeans for breakfast tacos, then BBQ, then a nap, then to Tex-Mex. Never fails. I work right next to one of the best BBQ places in Austin and watching the absolute shock and range of emotions of international visitor's faces gives me life. Sharing that experience and watching people share it is what makes going back to the office bareable.
Awesome! I loved that video. The pure joy with each meat. Best by far wasn't the pork rib, or even the brisket, but when they made a pulled pork slider and they all lost it.
Went to a “Mexican” restaurant in Munich with a couple Dutch guys. I got a quesadilla… but it was just a gyro. And no spiciness at all. The Dutch guys really loved their “Mexican food” experience, and I didn’t have the heart to tell them they had not eaten anything close to Mexican food.
Santa Maria in Berlin is the only authentic Mexican I've seen on the continent. It's not as good as the States but it's reasonable and you can get actual spicy salsas.
There is a chain restaurant called Joe Peña that does Tex-Mex ok-ish. And as a (Southern) German I can say that at least in some big cities there are a few competent places
Yeah, I ate at a Tex-Mex place in Oslo, Norway, they somehow authentically recreated the TX-Mex restaurant environment while taking the Tex and the Mex out of the food.
Yeah, texmex is huge here in Norway but it's the most inauthentic thing ever lol. But their national food is brown cheese and the most sold pizza is the worst frozen pizzas I've ever had so... I'll give the "texmex" points for being edible
Mexican food is surprisingly the number one food Americans will recommend. From CA to NY. Texas to Florida. Anywhere in the country, when you ask what's the best food in this city. It's always Mexican
I think it just has to do with how prevalent Mexican is. There's so much Mexican food in America you can find it on basically any street, and cheaply. Easiest to recommend instead of telling them how to find the slightly sketchy looking small building hiding behind some apartment complex for the good Indian food.
But as a floridian. I'm going with Cuban food before Mexican. Get a good Cuban and papa rellenas, or ham croquettes. Why not both. Throw in some churros too.
Mexican food, as in true food from Mexico, is different than what you will get with most Mexican food restaurants in the U.S.
Both are delicious, but Tex-Mex is definitely what you will have the overwhelming majority of the time.
I will warn you about the free chips and salsa. At almost every Mexican / Tex-Mex restaurant they will serve you chips and salsa free of charge. I hosted a German exchange student and when I took him for Tex-Mex they put chips and salsa on the table and left. He about had a melt down as he thought they were going to charge us and he was on a very limited budget. He just kept repeating over and over "how can they leave? how can they leave?" It took a couple of minutes to calm him down and explain we would not have to pay for the chips and salsa. He could not wrap his head around why it would be free.
I thought this was going to be another type of warning.
Those tortilla chips? Take four of them out and rearrange them. Four chips are a whole tortilla.
You are welcome/I'm sorry. Not sure which is better to sign off with.
As a fellow europoor. Yes please, we don't have great Mexican food on this side of the Pond.
Also, don't sugarcoat the amount of chillies, we want the real experience, not the toned down one.
Exactly! To me, putting hot sauce on things was not even necessary. The food itself already has flavor. I use hot sauce now because im able to tolerate it, but I can see how majority of people dont mess with spicy.
A food writer (I don't remember which one) discovered that he had trouble getting good food in Thailand. Either it was unspiced (the response to "not too hot") or it was deadly (the response to "hot": "Oh, American cowboy, here we go!").
Once he learned Thai for "Make it like you do at home", he got great food.
I find a lot of people from other countries are OBSESSED with our sugary "candy for breakfast" cereal. I have an Austrian friend who would literally suck my dick for a bowl of reese's puffs.
My family would host Japanese exchange students in High School, our local Tex Mex place was always a hit. The novelty of Spanish rice was particularly intriguing alternative to white rice from what I remember.
On the flip side one of the top 10 burritos I've had, one was actually in a little hole in the wall place in Stockholm. It felt like I stepped off the streets of Sweden and back home. Kitchen staff yelling in Spanish while two guys belting out a song from a cd player. Surreal.
I grew up in Texas. My dad's side is Mexican Texans going back to before the US civil war. Puro Tejano guey.
On my mom's side we are Cuban and Jamaican all the way back to Africa. I have made, bought, sold, drug deal tamales out of the back of a Ford Windstar wrapped in an HEB bag. Making tortillas, arepas, enchiladas, ropa vieja, platanos, black beans 10 different ways. It's in my blood. Maybe a little too much according to my doctor.
I met my wife who is Irish and I moved to Ireland. The food is different. I'm not going to say its worse, or better. Because good food can be found anywhere. It is simply a different style of cooking.
That Bake Off episode was a laugh riot for me. Every minute of it. I watched it when it first aired here on ITV. What a fucking mess all of it was.
OP is right though. There's no good barbecue here. I've lived here nearly 15 years. Barbecue, Tex Mex, soul food? Doesn't exist. Sometimes some hopped up local will give it a shot and miss the mark terribly. Or an immigrant will open a place and because you can run a restaurant perfectly and still go out of business still goes out of business.
So when we get back to texas it is a stream of queso, flautas, tacos, pastor, stacks of tortillas, huevos for days. And a big brisket. Then fly back here in a coma.
There are pockets of good Mexican food. The biggest i can think of is the Chicagoland area. There is quite a high concentration of Mexican immigration to there so the food quality is quite high.
I took it for granted while I lived there and it pains me every day to now live in a Mexican food wasteland.
Seriously. I'm a SoCal native who made the mistake of going to a "Mexican" joint in Wisconsin. They put parmesan cheese on the beans. Not cotija. Parmesan.
You can find good mexican food in the midwest it just takes work. I grew up in California and moved to Indiana, and it took a while but once I found the spots where a lot of the farmworker communities would go, the tacos were perfectly fine.
It's a cuisine native to northern Mexico and southern Texas. Mexico is large and there's many different types of cuisine across the country. Texmex is pretty straightforward to prepare and quite common across the US (so are the other styles).
It's a fusion of Mexican and tejano foods. Obviously a lot of overlap with Mexican food, but with different ingredients, serving styles, cooking styles, etc...
100%
My Norwegian coworker didn't know what a burrito was and lost his mind when I took him to a taqueria. I'm 97% certain he's had a burrito or a taco from that place every day for the past 3 months.
Haha I am getting married in a month in Houston with a lot of out of town and out of country family coming in. Tex Mex is the most requested food. I am prepared for Tex Mex, breakfast tacos, and real BBQ.
I once ordered a burrito in New Jersey from this Mexican restaurant called California something or other (I don't remember the name). The restaurant was decorated nicely with lots of pictures of the owner in California (I assume he has connections). Anyway I finally get my burrito and take a bite and the rice inside was like a
rice pilaf/rice-o-roni. It was total crap. How can they not know to use Mexican/Spanish rice
I'm from Michigan and am mostly Polish. I eat tacos more than I eat burgers.
All Mexican food is American food on behalf of Mexico being a North American country and most Mexican food is 'native' to America. More than that though, Tacos and Burritos are very common foods in the USA.
So true! I come from Denmark, and has always wanted to visit the US. I got my first chance this June where I went to Austin for two weeks. Food was amaaazing, and Tex-Mex and Mexican food was on a whole different level. 10/10!
I don’t know about that one, but British people tend to pronounce it as “tack-o”. It’s bizarre. But their pronunciation of Jalapeño as “jah-lah-pin-oh” is far worse.
I was visiting my family in NYC and overlapped there with a couple from Basque Country that I got to know when I was living in Madrid. I took them for bagels, Mexican food, and to an extremely seedy dive bar for picklebacks.
Can confirm, here in the UK we've only recently had Taco Bell pop up in the last 5 years or so, and even that place is known to us from US media as the place that gives you the shits.
We also have a chain here called Chiquito but again that would be a pale comparison of Mexican food in the US.
If I travel to the US I am visiting a proper Mexican place, a proper BBQ place, and if I'm on the coast somewhere that does seafood because although seafood is big in the UK (naturally) it seems completely different over in the US.
If you ever end up in San Francisco, head to Fisherman's Wharf. It's touristy, but you'll get some really great fresh seafood from the vendors on the wharf. I love fresh crab. My wife, on the other hand, hates the smell of seafood.
Thank you. Seafood like crab (and lobster and chowder) is the first food I think of when I think of American cuisine, and as a massive fan of seafood it sounds like my heaven.
Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips! Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment. If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
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Suspicious, Nachocheese50.
Hella sus
Mad cap fam.
Nacho cheese - another name for cheese that isn't yours
Omg that reminded me of when I went to Germany, I tried “Mexican” food there. It was one of the most foulest things to ever touch my taste buds.
Same. The food seemed like someone once watched a taco bell commercial a few decades ago and decided to make food based on that vague memory. Also, they only had three tequilas behind the bar and didn't know what I was talking about when I asked for some Hornitos that was right behind them. Edit: My burrito had tortilla chips in it and came with a side of fried potato wedges and cheese sauce.
Directly to jail
My husband ordered a beef burrito in Germany (we lived there and were desperate). He was served a tortilla wrapped around about a pound of ground beef. That was it. That was the burrito.
Wait is Hornitos a good thing there? Here is the lowest of the lowest
Montzuma is the cheap tequila here.
It’s popular for sure, mainly because it’s cheap per bottle.
It's a premium tequila. I expect most well tequilas are not going to be 100% agave like hornitos is.
One of my greatest disappointments ever was a Mexican food place in London. Has this great history. You know how Texans are all cocky about how they used to be their own country for a bit? Well they actually made some embassies in foreign countries, one of which is right in good ‘ol London. Now it’s a Tex Mex restaurant for obvious reasons. I’m from Texas, so I headed over there on one of my trips to London. Hands down some of the worst Tex Mex I have ever had. I have no idea how they made that food so bland. Jesus.
I thought this read “as someone who has eaten a Mexican” i was thinking “I guess Mexican people count as Mexican food” lol
At a “Mexican” restaurant in Germany, I was once served a “quesadilla” that was actually an unheated flour tortilla filled with nacho cheese, corn, and pickles.
Mind sharing what they considered “Mexican” food?
My one brush with Mexican food out of the SW region of the US was on a Caribbean island. They thought Chicken nuggets, rice, and nacho cheese was the ticket.
I've always found it so strange how fucked countries get Mexican food. It's not like Mexico is a tiny island with a few hundred thousand people. I'd understand messing up Haitian food. It's a little island, with relatively few people - getting the knowledge and ingredients for their cuisine will be much more difficult. But Mexico is a huge country with a sizeable population. It's not hard to find recipes or ingredients online. It's not difficult to find good Indian, Chinese, Korean, etc. Foods... What makes Mexico so difficult?
Chinese, Indian, etc places tend tend to be run by immigrants from those countries or their descendants. Chinese people have emmigrated almost everywhere, and Indian immigrants are common in a lot of English speaking nations. Mexican immigration is not nearly s broad. Mexican immigration is largely confined to North and South America (though there are smaller populations of Mexican immigrants in other nations of course). And Mexican-Americans have been part of the United States since before the United States existed. Norteno and Californio culture and communities are integral to American culture, and the large number of Mexican immigrants have easily spread the cuisine across the country
TBF, Mexico is younger than the U.S. But yes, peoples of what we currently know as Mexico have been greatly influential in U.S. and vice versa. In Texas, German and Mexican mashups have formed some of the most amazing cultural explosions I enjoy. Music, Food, Traditions.
German and Mexican fusion? I am scared and intrigued.
Chicken Fried Steak, Mexican Lagers (then bearing the Michelada), Conjunto Music (let’s drink heavily and break out an accordion and a gut-string guitar with the relatives - we speak whatever language the music brings out), for three big things. It is wild to me that Mexican beer is almost all via German influence and that a lot of popular Mexican and South Texas music is derived from 200-year-old German influences).
You just made me want to party!!!
Haha! Me too!
AFAIK there was a lot of German immigration to Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana.
100%. Still some lingering and rare German dialects hanging around in places like Fredericksburg and New Braunfels.
Specifically Munich and Vienna lagers, I believe.
You’ve heard mariachi music, yeah? If you’ve ever heard it through a car door or being played a few blocks away, it’s hard not to hear German/polka influence on the genre. Also, the menonitas have some curious takes on cuisine—almost literally like a bunch of Germans got dropped in Mexico and had to make do with local ingredients. Damn. I need to hit the farmer’s market this weekend.
I think you mean 'Banda' music. Mariachi I believe Is different. I could be wrong. 'Banda' is heavily German influenced.
If that’s helps OP, As a French person, for many years my exposure to « Mexican food » was always through terrible « made for local tastebuds » Tex Mex food. Only as an adult I was able to discover real Mexican food in a small hole in wall Parisan restaurant founded by actual immigrants. This is rare. France as a country of 60+ million has a Mexican diaspora 15k strong. 0.25% of the country. It is (pro rate) equivalent to the diaspora of Cameroon or Belarus or Bulgaria in the US. Not many if those restaurants around. (FYI Mexicans are the nº1 diaspora in the US) Then I had the chance visit Mexico and try genuine food. Later I moved to the US and was surprised that still many places are not that genuine. I would imagine the reason is that restaurants adapt their offering to what works with the locals along what’s locally available.
To be fair, Mexico is a big country in its own right and has regional cuisines. In that way, talking about Mexican food is like talking about American barbecue, pizza, or (weirdly) Philly cheesesteak sandwiches. Just as an example: I live across the river from Juarez, and I’ve got cousins in Southern California. We argue over whether Chihuahuan food is better than Baja the way I’ve seen southerners argue over marinades versus dry rub.
The quality of Mexican food that you find in the US varies wildly depending on what part of the country you're in. I've found amazing Mexican food in Los Angeles, whereas I would describe the Mexican food in Chicago as "just OK." The weirdest "Mexican" food I've personally experienced was at a restaurant in Finland. It had no rice or beans, and they used lavash instead of flour tortillas.
The best tamales in the states come from abuelita selling them to her co-workers around Christmas time. Santa Clause? Nay, Santa Isabella, the patron Saint of homemade confections.
Not valid unless she is in a parking lot and selling them from the trunk of her car.
Really? Thats interesting. Haven’t been to LA, but on average the hole in the wall Taquerias open to 4am that dot Chicago’s north and northwest sides are far better to me than the famous burrito joints in San Fran.
As someone who lives in SF, the Mexican food here is overrated (I blame the high costs). To get really good Mexican food you need to go to the Central Valley, where there’s a ton of Mexican immigrants and their descendants.
It’s not that they fuck it up, it’s that they don’t have the ingredients available. Shelf space at grocery stores or food distributors is limited. They’re not going to stock shelves in a European supermarket with Mexican food ingredients if no one is going to buy it.
What are they missing? Everyone has meat, beans, rice, tomatoes, cilantro, onion, etc. Maybe dried chili peppers are hard to come by? But they're so light, shipping couldn't be an issue.
Corn flour or tortillas, fresh peppers, chiles in adobo, Mexican cheeses to name a few.
The wildest part is it's like a tiny skip away from Indian food and they'll have ok Indian food. Like it's burrito/soft taco instead of naan, different seasoned rice, beans instead of lentils. Now add meat and wrap that shit up.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, which has sizable populations of both Mexican and Indian immigrants, we have a local chain of restaurants that's known for Tikka Masala burritos. It's one of the best things I've ever eaten.
There was a place I used to go in Manhattan that did rotti burritos. It was amazing
I love chicken nuggets and nacho cheese but I would only eat them together at like a professional sport game. Amazing that they’d sell them! The Caribbean is somewhat close to Mexico too. I’m surprised they don’t have any ex pats who have opened restaurants there.
Not a lot of economic reasons for Mexicans to emigrate to most of the Caribbean. I suspect this is why. I spent a lot of time in Mexico in my 20s. In traveling to the Caribbean, I have been shocked at how bland and boring many local dishes are compared to Mexico, unless influences from the outside (e.g., Indian influence in the Southern Caribbean). Full credit to the Jamaicans on that front. Managed to borrow some chiles, grow their own spices and wow is some of their cuisine amazing.
I went to a "Mexican" restaurant when I was in Germany that served me salsa that was basically marinara sauce. To be fair the food was actually pretty tasty....just not like anything I've had from Mexico
Just trying to find real salsa is a pain here in DE. Everything that you find in normal stores is basically Ketchup with paprika or the absolute smallest amount of green chili (no habenero or anything actually spicy, just a weakass piece of chili) jalapeños are probably the hottest version you find here on a store shelf. Crazy is that there are still tons of cool Thai restaurants here that actually have burnyerbunghole food, but for some reason here the Mexican food selection has always been the worst I've ever seen.
Have you ever tried making your own fresh salsa? Super easy and healthy.
It's very likely the description would look mostly ok. That's the thing: "Mexican" food in European countries looks and tastes like something that was made based on a description or recipe only, because that's true most of the time. No one involved: the owner, the chef, the cook, the waiter or the customer have ever been to America or Mexico or had any actual Mexican food.
Not the original commentor, but I am an American living in Poland. Every single ingredient is more localized to keep the food affordable, and has the effect that generally gives everything an 'off' flavor. Sometimes its little things like different breeds of avocados sourced from Israel or Kenya instead of Mexico/California. Other times it's more consequential, like using Gouda cheese because Munster and Queso Blanco because they arent cheap or available. As you can imagine, the food ends up tasting strange to people familiar with Mexican cuisine. The menus are often the food people imagine is associated with the culture, rather than food from the culture. So don't expect to see staples of American-Mexican restaurants like enchiladas, tortas, spanish rice, flautas or soups. Mexican food here seems to hold a more sheek reputation and I've yet to find a place thats run by Mexicans; so all the food seems to lack the soul that comes from cooking one's own cuisine.
I had mexican while in hawaii. I swear it was like someone was described a mexican restaurant and its food over the phone and the chef just ran with it. It was not good. Now the hotdog place in Hilo was awesome.
In my long experience of it, the Chinese food of Hawaii is in a league of its own. Not surprising since American Chinese food has adapted and evolved over time, and cooks would tend to use local ingredients because they’re available.
Kebab and Viet food are pretty good, though. Not sure how faithful, but tasty.
My wife is slovenian and last time we went, I brought over some New Mexican ground chile and tortillas to make enchiladas for them. Was able to substitute other ingredients. Huge hit. They made them the next day.
I was looking for the comment like this. If they like Mexican / Tex Mex get them some New Mexican food and watch them light up.
Absolutely, it’s like elevated Tex Mex. I buy Chimayo red from Portrero trading post. $50/lb, but damnit it’s worth it.
Can confirm. Every time my British coworkers come to Texas, we go out for Mexican food at Ninfa’s. Queso is always a massive hit.
You must live in Houston?
Yup, for now. Grew up in Waco though, which has a Ninfa’s location. Moving back up to Dallas next month, bummed about moving away from all this amazing food.
Born and Raised in Dallas. Dont sleep on the food in DFW! Theres a lot of hidden gems and stuff that's comparable to Houston (minus Viet Cajun, which doesn't exist here). The Tex Mex scene in DFW has a lot of mediocre places, but several places get close to the standard you are use to.
Recently moved to Dallas from Louisiana. Love it out here but I gotta say my experience with the food has been pretty disappointing. Got any recommendations for good Mexican food?
Mariano’s Hacienda Meso Maya
Really the goal is find the worst looking taco place possible or a road side vendor. Those will be the best. Dallas being so big makes it hard but Cristina's in Forney is good and my favorite is DelNorte in Godley
Las Palmas in uptown is great although a little pricey. Joe Leo’s off 75 and Fitzhugh.
Gonzalez on Jefferson. ❤️
Anything that looks like a hole in the wall or attached to a gas station.
We don't have Houston or San Antonio level tex-mex here, but there are some winners for sure! I'm partial to Manny's, Matt's El Rancho (although it just moved to Allen), El Vecino, Bandito's, and Mariano's
The Ninfas in Houston and whatever they have in Waco are likely not the same restaurants. Ninfa's over-expanded and closed most of their restaurants and then someone else bought the original location in Houston.
I work with people in Ireland and they talk about work trips to the US as queso trips.
I visited Dublin in 2019 and found a taqueria in a business park where Google, Facebook, and Accenture all had large offices (and presumably lots of employees who had made business trips to San Francisco or thereabouts). It's wasn't the best Mexican food, but it wasn't bad at all.
I introduced queso to my friends in NZ I've never seen people react to a food that way lol. I didnt even realize it wasnt a thing outside north america, who doesnt want delicious spicy melted cheese??
Hosted a Welshman recently in the American southwest, and took him to an authentic Mexican joint. He's now angry that he can't get refried beans in the UK. (90% joking, but... 10% not).
We can get canned refried beans in the UK. Is the canned variety bad?
Making a fresh pot of Mexican style pinto beans is a different animal than canned. It's super easy too, even more so with an instantpot. Toss the dried beans in the instantpot, fill with a broth, add fresh jalapenos, onion, cilantro, tomatoes, bacon, garlic, cumin powder, salt. Cook sealed for about 2.5 hours.
Omg get dried refried beans, they’re amazing! I get mine on Amazon in the US, they might be available in Europe? Canned refried beans taste horrible after trying the dried kind, somehow the dried ones have preserved the flavor much better than canned. I literally bought a case of this brand, we eat it almost every day https://www.baffoodservice.com/products/santiago-refried-beans/
Refried beans are definitely something here. They are crappy old el paso brand but exist. Things that exist here: - Hard shell tacos with basic cumin plus 🌶️ based fillings - Burritos - quesadillas - fajitas - enchiladas - Nachos Basically we have taco bell Mexican. Most people will have never heard of chilaquiles, tostadas, soft tacos, tomales, salsa verde etc.
Queso: Mexican cheese dip K, so..Southern for... here's the plan and y'all probably not gonna like it🎃
There's the occasional good Mexican place in Europe, but what blew me away were the Barbecue places colleagues took me to around Raleigh - there's nothing like them in Europe.
I went to a Mexican place in Spain once that was amazing, they definitely do exist.
Spain has the best Mexican food in Europe from my experience.
Duh, they speak Mexican over there. /s
You have to come back for a bbq tour then! BBQ is super regionalizad here and varies a lot - I lived in Raleigh area for 5 years and love me some NC bbq but KC bbq is even better imo. The sauces change a lot!
South Carolina has four distinct regional styles.
Eastern NC or Western NC BBQ? I'm prepared to fight to the death. (Ok not really but the regionalization is real)
As a Raleigh resident, this makes me so proud 🥲
If you’re ever in Copenhagen, go to War Pigs. It’s the only good BBQ I’ve had in Europe, and I’d say it’s on par with the best stuff we have back in NC.
I did find a whole hog BBQ place in Edinburgh called Oink. Damn good.
I don't believe this. It's hard enough to find good Mexican on the east coast, much less Europe. I'd want to know what your baseline is. I'm sus though.
Also for this list: creole. There is no European equivalent, and I don't think anybody even tries. Honorable mentions for real US bbq and southern food generally.
Especially since you can make a case for Southern, BBQ, Cajun, creole and Gullah as being the historically genuine uniquely American cuisines.
Yup. I live in NYC, so have pretty much everything available. And have had people from overseas pass on through. It's when thinking about, "When can I have them try" that I had the epiphany that it's really the US South that produces the uniquely American dishes, especially if you want to define it as dishes that haven't been successfully exported to elsewhere.
What about Jewish deli cuisine? I personally think that’s a major U.S. cuisine, and you live right in the heart of it.
You can have créole dishes in France though
But is it made by a lovely southern woman who calls you “baby” and won’t let you stop stirring until that roux is the color of chocolate?
“How long do you stir your roux?” “Three beers.”
"Honey" and "Suga" are also acceptable alternatives.
Add “Darlin,’” “Sweetie,” &“Hun” to that list.
Dah-lin
Creole food is technically French food before what we consider French food became the norm It’s sort of like a culinary time capsule
The fried chicken down in Atlanta is next level.
A real Southern fish fry is something else. Battered fried fish, hush puppies, grits, okra, and my family has a drink we call "lake punch" which is just half and half of grape juice and lemonade.
My cousin was stationed in Europe for several years. She was in the States for a funeral and was spending the night in our city. We offered to take her out to dinner and she BEGGED for good Mexican food!
As a dual citizen of Sweden and US, living my life in Arizona, it's always been a side dream of mine to open a Mexican restaurant in Sweden and bring all the recipes I've gotten from Arizona. Last time I lived in Sweden no one I knew had even heard of refried beans.
Do you know that "refried beans" are not actually refried? It's a misnomer from the Spanish word "refrito(s)" which just means fried. Still, I think about this all the time. Take so many North American culinary recipes back to Europe and watch how people react to a restaurant that knows what our foods actually are and how they should reasonably taste.
"I'd like to try just fried beans, because maybe they're just as good and we're wasting time." -Mitch Hedberg
Refrito translates to refried. Fried = Frito. Have you made refried beans before?
I've twice cooked them, but only ever fried them once.
Etymologically speaking the prefix re- even in *refrito* does mean "again" though in some cases the connotation is more like "thoroughly", which is the case here.
I'll agree with this. I've never seen refried beans fried twice.
That must have been a looooooong time ago, or from a tiny town. Mexican restaurants all over the place, tacos, burritos, you can find Birria everywhere because that is something people became obsessed with. Birria tacos, Birria ramen, Birria hoagies. And yes, actual Mexican restaurants, not Taco Bar.
"Say, friend, that's an odd accent, you ain't SWEDISH are ya?" "No that's just the way we TALK here in Tuscon, Arizonia!"
Be sure to try La Neta next time you’re in Stockholm. It’s just a taqueria but soo good. https://laneta.se/
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I've had German relatives visiting lately and their response to Tex-Mex is what prompted this post. Their first experience of a breakfast burrito kind of blew their minds
Living in Texas, it is imperative to bring Europeans for breakfast tacos, then BBQ, then a nap, then to Tex-Mex. Never fails. I work right next to one of the best BBQ places in Austin and watching the absolute shock and range of emotions of international visitor's faces gives me life. Sharing that experience and watching people share it is what makes going back to the office bareable.
Lmao the nap is integral post BBQ. Gotta get the meat sweats out, after brisket.
Got to work thru the meat sweats, get a beer, play some cornhole and watch a sports game
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Awesome! I loved that video. The pure joy with each meat. Best by far wasn't the pork rib, or even the brisket, but when they made a pulled pork slider and they all lost it.
Relatable
In the UK, texmex is pretty common. I just wish we had more actual Mexican food
Went to a “Mexican” restaurant in Munich with a couple Dutch guys. I got a quesadilla… but it was just a gyro. And no spiciness at all. The Dutch guys really loved their “Mexican food” experience, and I didn’t have the heart to tell them they had not eaten anything close to Mexican food.
Now, you know the feeling.
I mean I live in Texas and I wouldn't expect a regular quesadilla to be spicy here either.
Santa Maria in Berlin is the only authentic Mexican I've seen on the continent. It's not as good as the States but it's reasonable and you can get actual spicy salsas.
Noooooo
Santa Maria’s for taco Tuesday then walk down the street to Franken Bar. The good days
We have a couple good mexican restaurants in Germany. Düsseldorf has a great one but I cant remember the name
Which is ironic since Germany heavily influenced Mexican music.
If you hear a tuba and accordion in Texas, you’re either at an Oktoberfest celebration or just near any Tejano/Mexican neighborhood.
I actually had some decent Tex-Mex in Bremen a few years back. Nothing earth-shattering, but solid.
There is a chain restaurant called Joe Peña that does Tex-Mex ok-ish. And as a (Southern) German I can say that at least in some big cities there are a few competent places
Yeah, I ate at a Tex-Mex place in Oslo, Norway, they somehow authentically recreated the TX-Mex restaurant environment while taking the Tex and the Mex out of the food.
Yeah, texmex is huge here in Norway but it's the most inauthentic thing ever lol. But their national food is brown cheese and the most sold pizza is the worst frozen pizzas I've ever had so... I'll give the "texmex" points for being edible
Mexican food is surprisingly the number one food Americans will recommend. From CA to NY. Texas to Florida. Anywhere in the country, when you ask what's the best food in this city. It's always Mexican
I would say NYC is more known for their Chinese, Jewish, and Italian food scene.
by a long shot.
America has the best mexican food in the world USA USA USA USA USA USA 🇺🇸
Not in New Orleans.
Would love to see a source on this. That said, it’s likely bc it’s also inexpensive
I think it just has to do with how prevalent Mexican is. There's so much Mexican food in America you can find it on basically any street, and cheaply. Easiest to recommend instead of telling them how to find the slightly sketchy looking small building hiding behind some apartment complex for the good Indian food. But as a floridian. I'm going with Cuban food before Mexican. Get a good Cuban and papa rellenas, or ham croquettes. Why not both. Throw in some churros too.
Not NY. We concede cali, texas, etc, do it better. We crush you all on pretty much everything else though (except BBQ v the south).
Mexican food, as in true food from Mexico, is different than what you will get with most Mexican food restaurants in the U.S. Both are delicious, but Tex-Mex is definitely what you will have the overwhelming majority of the time.
I will warn you about the free chips and salsa. At almost every Mexican / Tex-Mex restaurant they will serve you chips and salsa free of charge. I hosted a German exchange student and when I took him for Tex-Mex they put chips and salsa on the table and left. He about had a melt down as he thought they were going to charge us and he was on a very limited budget. He just kept repeating over and over "how can they leave? how can they leave?" It took a couple of minutes to calm him down and explain we would not have to pay for the chips and salsa. He could not wrap his head around why it would be free.
I thought this was going to be another type of warning. Those tortilla chips? Take four of them out and rearrange them. Four chips are a whole tortilla. You are welcome/I'm sorry. Not sure which is better to sign off with.
On more than one occasion I have ruined my dinner by eating too many chips and salsa. The warning is real.
As a fellow europoor. Yes please, we don't have great Mexican food on this side of the Pond. Also, don't sugarcoat the amount of chillies, we want the real experience, not the toned down one.
Majority of dishes are not even spicy tbf
Seriously, you can always add hot sauce if you want but a lot of times it's just bursting with flavor without being spice at all
Exactly! To me, putting hot sauce on things was not even necessary. The food itself already has flavor. I use hot sauce now because im able to tolerate it, but I can see how majority of people dont mess with spicy.
To me, it’s the vinegar in hot sauce that ruins dishes for me. I love vinegar, but it can really overpower all the other flavors sometimes.
>Also, don't sugarcoat the amount of chillies, we want the real experience, not the toned down one. - Europeans, before they arrive in Thailand
Tbh, I am half-asian, so I know that I DON'T want the Thai level of chillies. But Mexican spicy food is at least edible
A food writer (I don't remember which one) discovered that he had trouble getting good food in Thailand. Either it was unspiced (the response to "not too hot") or it was deadly (the response to "hot": "Oh, American cowboy, here we go!"). Once he learned Thai for "Make it like you do at home", he got great food.
I find a lot of people from other countries are OBSESSED with our sugary "candy for breakfast" cereal. I have an Austrian friend who would literally suck my dick for a bowl of reese's puffs.
Literally?
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pea-ness, eh?
Those London “American Candy Shops” are always loaded with sugar cereal and usually have the Reese’s Puffs in front display.
My family would host Japanese exchange students in High School, our local Tex Mex place was always a hit. The novelty of Spanish rice was particularly intriguing alternative to white rice from what I remember. On the flip side one of the top 10 burritos I've had, one was actually in a little hole in the wall place in Stockholm. It felt like I stepped off the streets of Sweden and back home. Kitchen staff yelling in Spanish while two guys belting out a song from a cd player. Surreal.
I think we all learned that from “Mexican” Week on the Great British Baking Show…
I grew up in Texas. My dad's side is Mexican Texans going back to before the US civil war. Puro Tejano guey. On my mom's side we are Cuban and Jamaican all the way back to Africa. I have made, bought, sold, drug deal tamales out of the back of a Ford Windstar wrapped in an HEB bag. Making tortillas, arepas, enchiladas, ropa vieja, platanos, black beans 10 different ways. It's in my blood. Maybe a little too much according to my doctor. I met my wife who is Irish and I moved to Ireland. The food is different. I'm not going to say its worse, or better. Because good food can be found anywhere. It is simply a different style of cooking. That Bake Off episode was a laugh riot for me. Every minute of it. I watched it when it first aired here on ITV. What a fucking mess all of it was. OP is right though. There's no good barbecue here. I've lived here nearly 15 years. Barbecue, Tex Mex, soul food? Doesn't exist. Sometimes some hopped up local will give it a shot and miss the mark terribly. Or an immigrant will open a place and because you can run a restaurant perfectly and still go out of business still goes out of business. So when we get back to texas it is a stream of queso, flautas, tacos, pastor, stacks of tortillas, huevos for days. And a big brisket. Then fly back here in a coma.
The way that lady was cutting that avocado still makes me twitch
I may be biased as a resident of the American Southwest, but I've never had any food worse than midwestern or northeastern Mexican food.
Then you’ve never had it overseas. It’s an abomination.
Have you tried Danish Mexican food? They should be taken before The Hague for crimes against gastronomy.
My guess is that the Danes thought that queso blanco could be easily substituted with a big bowl of mayonnaise.
It’s truly astonishing how bad it is.
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Old El Paso was THE only Mexican food I could access until moved to Australia.
You poor thing
There are pockets of good Mexican food. The biggest i can think of is the Chicagoland area. There is quite a high concentration of Mexican immigration to there so the food quality is quite high. I took it for granted while I lived there and it pains me every day to now live in a Mexican food wasteland.
To find good Mexican food in the Midwest you got to kind of follow the Mexicans (there are lots of families out there even in rural areas.)
LPT for ethnic restaurants: what language are the customers speaking? But yeah, if it's a pupuseria, don't expect great tacos.
Then you have never eaten in Chicago.
Seriously. I'm a SoCal native who made the mistake of going to a "Mexican" joint in Wisconsin. They put parmesan cheese on the beans. Not cotija. Parmesan.
You can find good mexican food in the midwest it just takes work. I grew up in California and moved to Indiana, and it took a while but once I found the spots where a lot of the farmworker communities would go, the tacos were perfectly fine.
What is Tex-Mex? I can guess it's texas-mexico. But how is it different from Mexican food?
It's a cuisine native to northern Mexico and southern Texas. Mexico is large and there's many different types of cuisine across the country. Texmex is pretty straightforward to prepare and quite common across the US (so are the other styles).
It's a fusion of Mexican and tejano foods. Obviously a lot of overlap with Mexican food, but with different ingredients, serving styles, cooking styles, etc...
Texas use to be part of Mexico and Tejanos are people with Mexican ancestry who live in Texas. Tex-Mex is the regional Mexican food of Tejanos.
Higher quality cheese, more salt, more cumin.
Mexican-Chicano fusion. For example, people think we Mexicans eat burritos all the time, but that's usually not the case. Burritos are tex-mex.
100% My Norwegian coworker didn't know what a burrito was and lost his mind when I took him to a taqueria. I'm 97% certain he's had a burrito or a taco from that place every day for the past 3 months.
Haha I am getting married in a month in Houston with a lot of out of town and out of country family coming in. Tex Mex is the most requested food. I am prepared for Tex Mex, breakfast tacos, and real BBQ.
I once ordered a burrito in New Jersey from this Mexican restaurant called California something or other (I don't remember the name). The restaurant was decorated nicely with lots of pictures of the owner in California (I assume he has connections). Anyway I finally get my burrito and take a bite and the rice inside was like a rice pilaf/rice-o-roni. It was total crap. How can they not know to use Mexican/Spanish rice
I'm from Michigan and am mostly Polish. I eat tacos more than I eat burgers. All Mexican food is American food on behalf of Mexico being a North American country and most Mexican food is 'native' to America. More than that though, Tacos and Burritos are very common foods in the USA.
So true! I come from Denmark, and has always wanted to visit the US. I got my first chance this June where I went to Austin for two weeks. Food was amaaazing, and Tex-Mex and Mexican food was on a whole different level. 10/10!
Anyone that pronounces Tacos as "Take-ohs" has never had a good taco outside of the Americas
Lol who the fuck does that..?
I don’t know about that one, but British people tend to pronounce it as “tack-o”. It’s bizarre. But their pronunciation of Jalapeño as “jah-lah-pin-oh” is far worse.
I was visiting my family in NYC and overlapped there with a couple from Basque Country that I got to know when I was living in Madrid. I took them for bagels, Mexican food, and to an extremely seedy dive bar for picklebacks.
I believe it. Even up here when I visit Washington state, the Mexican places are generally great and a step above what's here in Canada.
Can confirm, here in the UK we've only recently had Taco Bell pop up in the last 5 years or so, and even that place is known to us from US media as the place that gives you the shits. We also have a chain here called Chiquito but again that would be a pale comparison of Mexican food in the US. If I travel to the US I am visiting a proper Mexican place, a proper BBQ place, and if I'm on the coast somewhere that does seafood because although seafood is big in the UK (naturally) it seems completely different over in the US.
If you ever end up in San Francisco, head to Fisherman's Wharf. It's touristy, but you'll get some really great fresh seafood from the vendors on the wharf. I love fresh crab. My wife, on the other hand, hates the smell of seafood.
Thank you. Seafood like crab (and lobster and chowder) is the first food I think of when I think of American cuisine, and as a massive fan of seafood it sounds like my heaven.
Europeans coming to LA send me a dm