re: Do you have a "home base" Mexican restaurant?

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Mexican food, the whole Mexican restaurant experience has been bastardized. A plate of shitty food that was only ever considered acceptable because it was $7.99 with free chips/salsa is now twice that, your watered down premixed house Rita is over $10. Opposite end of that is $5/tacos, $15 “family style” street corn and $20 kiwi peach margaritas. And likely nobody from Mexico involved in the production. So no, I don’t have a home base Mexican restaurant. Sad because I used to be perfectly content with it, it’s just not worth the price

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Tell me you don’t know the difference between the various regional Mexican cuisines, without telling me you don’t know

Tex-Mex was and is authentic. Created by Tejanos…the Mexicans who fought against Mexico. And by Islenos. And by Germans and Anglos.

It’s a real local creation, evolved from another. Like Cajun food. Like Creole.

It changed things out based on locale. Based on what was geographically available. And it changed things based on what the tastes of their customers preferred.

Do you knock the Mexicans for loving something like Tacos Al Pastor? Invented by Lebanese immigrants? The Lebanese also brought the Trompo (aka doner) to Mexico.

What about enchiladas suizas? The Mexicans, circa 1890-1920, were huge into European cuisine, and began to introduce flavors and sauces from Europe.

Bollilo rolls? Pan dulce? Mexican desserts? French immigrants

Mexican lager? German immigrants

All the heavy spices in Mexican cuisine? Heavily influenced by Europeans who loved adding it in. And by the Lebanese who treated their al pastor like they did shawarma

Aztecs and pre Columbian natives were more into stewing, into hearty fare, cultivated less spices, and had simple fare like rice/beans/tortillas

And yea, the flour tortilla is authentically Mexican. And like every food in the world, there are crappy store-bought versions of it