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Which makes me wonder how many restaurants in the East do that. Tailor to the chief demographic in the area. IE: Mexican restaurants by real Mexicans that make Mexican food that more reflects the chief demographic in the area, like somewhere in The Bronx vs a Mexican restaurant in Pasadena that caters to, well, Mexicans.
I'd guess probably most. I'd imagine most places are going to be heavily influence by whatever the busiest restaurant in the neighborhood is doing.
It's not "nitpicking." New Jersey has whole towns that are almost 50 percent Italian. I doubt you could find a street in California that's 10 percent Italian.
And do you really consider pizza and tacos to be the pinnacle of Italian and Mexican food, respectively? Pizza and tacos are about as generic as a ham sandwich.
If the people in the Bronx know what they are doing and the people in SF don't, then nothing.
But the reason that the West Coast/Southwest is winning this thread IMO is that if you walked into a random Mexican restaurant in the West/SW, chances are it is pretty good. On the East Coast, if you aren't careful they'll try to sneak broccoli onto your burrito (true story!).
Quote:
Originally Posted by BajanYankee
Pizza is not the first thing that comes to mind when I think "Italian" (though it's funny that nobody's really mentioned anything about "Mexican" food beyond tacos, enchiladas and burritos). I think of sausage and peppers, palenta, fagioli, etc. That's "Italian" food. And you learn to distinguish the quality from the garbage by eating at your friend's house, not visiting the highest-rated restaurants on Yelp. Or "Italian" restaurants with Mexicans back in the kitchen.
You know you're dealing with a real food connoisseur when he posts a clip of a mobster movie to make his case. NE Italian = Americanized version of Southern Italian cuisine, prepared in an agriculturally weak region. Meh.
You know you're dealing with a real food connoisseur when he posts a clip of a mobster movie to make his case. NE Italian = Americanized version of Southern Italian cuisine, prepared in an agriculturally weak region. Meh.
You know you're dealing with real Mexican food connoisseurs when people bring up tacos.
It's not "nitpicking." New Jersey has whole towns that are almost 50 percent Italian. I doubt you could find a street in California that's 10 percent Italian.
You are an argumentative one.
But what you state is VERY true, at least with respect to LA metro. Surprisingly, I found that exclusively Hispanic Boyle Heights was an Italian enclave in the early 1900s, and that San Pedro, the port district, was heavily Italian earlier on. Many of the Italians' kids, as they grew up, bought homes and stayed. It's kind of industrial, but the ocean-side location is awesome. After WW2, Italians, many of them, were scattered all over the Southland. Italians had to get in their cars, and onto the freeway, to visit their paesano friends.
San Diego's Little Italy is among one of the bigger jokes ever, at the confluence of their gay neighborhood to the north and the encroachment of condo towers from downtown to the south.
San Francisco's North Beach is another fading icon. The Chinese have crossed over Columbus Avenue, which used to be the Chinese/Italian line of demarcation. They coexist peacefully. I think that Italian culture is so diluted in California, while Chinese culture is still much more intact.
But there's no arguing that Southern California is the mecca for Mexican food, at least in my opinion. Heck, California was once a PART of Mexico.
You know you're dealing with real Mexican food connoisseurs when people bring up tacos.
Tacos are beloved as any other food in Mexico and it's one of the commonalites that you'll find in all parts of Mexico. It's street food for the most part, but there's so many variations ranging from what you get in the Yucatan to what you get in in Baja or Jalisco. In Mexico City there's places that have been specializing in tacos al pastor that have perfected different versions of the marinade and would refuse to share their secret recipe for fear of competing establishments getting hold of it. More Mexicans probably end up eating tacos on average more often than they'd eat guisados or mole, and although it varies among regions and different segments of the population, it's as Mexican as any other dish.
BTW there are quite a few Cuban restaurants in LA, whole bunch of central american, peruvian, argentinian, only know of one Puerto Rican joint, no dominican place that I know of, also lots quite a few Chilean restaurants and a few Brazilian places also, mainly in and around Culver City.
Pizza is not the first thing that comes to mind when I think "Italian" (though it's funny that nobody's really mentioned anything about "Mexican" food beyond tacos, enchiladas and burritos). I think of sausage and peppers, palenta, fagioli, etc. That's "Italian" food. And you learn to distinguish the quality from the garbage by eating at your friend's house, not visiting the highest-rated restaurants on Yelp. Or "Italian" restaurants with Mexicans back in the kitchen.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BajanYankee
You know you're dealing with real Mexican food connoisseurs when people bring up tacos.
Regional varieties of Mexican have been discussed multiple times on this thread, by many of the same posters whom you're implying are ignorant with the above statements.
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