quote:
Originally posted by XS650:
Mexican food in the US is mostly variants of what the poor people in Mexico eat.
Mexican food varies a lot by region, as much as American food. It also varies by class of the person eating it, more so than American food.
Middle-Upper class Mexican food is much like a spicier version of European food. But not as spicy as good Tex-Mex.
If you go to an small family owned Mexican restaurant in the US, the food is usually something like the lower-middle classes eat in the region the owners are from.
Low end-middle Chinese food is better in the Western US that it is in China. The best Chines food in China is supurb though.
This makes perfect sense when you realize that most immigrants to the US that start restaraunts are from the poor classes where they came from.
Another example is the "red sauce" Italian cooking, from Naples region, the largest source of immigrants from about 1880 to 1920. Somehow, the Germans and Poles started making pizza in the Midwest after WWII completely ruined it. A thick, soft mess, some with cornmeal in it, yuck!
As for Mexican cooking, you have to come to places like Los Angeles or Tucson and you will find plenty of authentic cooking, not TexMex. Except for the salsas on the side, the food itself is not overly hot. My favorite place is owned by a family from Jalisco. Just like the Naples, Italy example, most early Mexican immigration was from the state of Sonora, the northern desert part of Mexico, so that style is most common here.
The worst Mexican meal I had in the US, worse even than Taco Bell, was at a fancy place in a suburb of Denver. They must have been taking Swanson Mexican TV dinners and transferring them to a plate. People were lining up out the door for this slop! The second worst was in Washington, DC, but that was to be expected.
