re: Mexican food in New Orleans

Dammit. ETA: I think the reason for this is because of inherent competition. What I mean by that is that Mexican food is generically speaking usually low priced (see: best tacos in Houston @ $1.50). In Houston, for instance, its obviously more of the traditional food type, whereas its not in NOLA and thus has to compete with the traditional food types that already exist. Its not a matter of quality of one food type versus the other, its just what's ingrained into the culture in that area (philly cheese steaks, deli sandwichs, hotdogs/pizza, etc). In addition, "up-scale" Mexican food seems like it is just really hard to pull off. I've been to Hugo's 4 or 5 times and I've always thought it was just okay even though the menu looks great. TexMex doesn't count in my mind, meat + pounds of cheese + sour cream + free chips and salsa is marginally different from one place to another as far as I'm concerned.