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I eat at authentic Mexican restaurants all the time, and no way is it as cheap as Taco Bell over here. But I know that Texas in general (and most of the US) has a much lower cost of living/doing business than NYC.
3 tacos and a drink at a hole in the wall place in a heavily Mexican neighborhood in Brooklyn or Queens would cost me about 10 dollars, Taco Bell I can fill myself up with 5 dollars or less.
I have no problem paying more for actual Mexican food, though.
A taco from my favorite Mexican spots here ranges from $1.25 to $1.50. 3 tacos and a drink run around $6.
I eat at authentic Mexican restaurants all the time, and no way is it as cheap as Taco Bell over here. But I know that Texas in general (and most of the US) has a much lower cost of living/doing business than NYC.
3 tacos and a drink at a hole in the wall place in a heavily Mexican neighborhood in Brooklyn or Queens would cost me about 10 dollars, Taco Bell I can fill myself up with 5 dollars or less.
I have no problem paying more for actual Mexican food, though.
I can't speak for New York, but in California you can find a $1 carne asada tacos without even trying hard. We are within walking distance of a Mexican restaurant that sells large carne asada tacos, tamales, enchiladas or chile rellenos for $2.75 each. Two of any of those along with unlimited free homemade chips with salsa and black bean dip fill us up much better than Taco Bell.
The best chain taco/tex mex place I have ever eaten at is Taco Cabana. They use REAL ingredients that are cooked to order, too, but they only have them here in Texas.
I want to see someone use imaginary ingredients... because if you can hold it, I'm pretty sure it's real
I don't think I've been in a Taco Bell the last 20 years. Growing up in TX and now living near a town with a population of Spanish, Mexican, Columbian, and Brazilian, I get all the good food I need.
Perhaps large majority of Americans simply don't have access to quality Mexican (or similar) fare of quality meals?
The menu in Sonora is nothing like the menu in Oaxaca. The menu in Quintana Roo is nothing like the menu in Jalisco. Tex-Mex has more in common with the adjacent "authentic" cuisine in northern Mexico than northern Mexican cuisine has with other parts of Mexico.
If you consider the paradigm of "Mexican cuisine" as a heterogenous food culture arising from the use
and combination of typical food ingredients and source cultures of the region, which includes Spaniards, Native Americans, Lebanese, Anglo-Americans, and the French, as opposed to the cuisines strictly contained within a set of arbitrary borders resulting from competing statecrafts, then Tex-Mex is absolutley related to Mexican cuisine as a whole.
So true. Even in America, "American" food varies by region. Traditional Deep South cuisine is different from traditional Midwestern or Northern cuisine. New England seafood and the way it's cooked is different from Gulf Coast seafood and the way it's cooked, etc.
We have a "real" Mexican restaurant here, that has been owned and operated by the same Mexican family for many years.
We went there once years ago, and have never been back. OK, our taste buds have been ruined by Taco John's and Guadalajara, but we found the food to be not to our liking, the service was barely adequate, and we, as Caucasians, did not feel welcomed.
So, when we have a yen for Mexican, it is Taco Treat, Taco John's, or Guadalajara.
But never Taco Bell.
Taco Bell - it is what it is. If you go there expecting real Mexican or Tex Mex food, you won't get it. But if you go there expecting cheap, fast food that tastes pretty good for what it is, then you'll get it.
I live in Texas and I LOVE me some Tex Mex food and authentic Mexican dishes. We have an abundance of taquerias and other authentic restaurants, family owned and operated, all over the place here and believe me, I have my favorites. I also often grocery shop at the supermercados around here.
But once or twice a year, I just want some Taco Bell, so I go get some. Can't eat the beef stuff though - it upsets my stomach! I stick with the chicken.
Saying Taco Bell is Mexican is like saying McDonald's is European.
It's not?
Isn't it McDonald's?
Sounds Irish to me! I'm calling you out on this.
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When my husband and I were driving cross-country we stopped in a "Mexican" restaurant in Utah. This is the only 'Mexican' restaurant I've ever been to in my life that was LOWER QUALITY than Taco Bell. I didn't even think it was possible. You know those Ortega taco shells you buy at the store? Yes, those, but stale. The "taco" meat was...well, never mind, LOL. The 'chips' were out of a bag, too. A not very recently first-opened bag. Even with their mass-produced shells and the like, the Bell can't compare in 'ick' factor to Los Tres Amigos, LOL.
Other than that I've probably never eaten at a less Mexican Mexican place than Taco Bell but it is what it is. Sometimes, we just want junk food. I don't always snack on foie gras, sometimes I snack on Doritos, you know? I can see that it's listed as "a favorite" and as far as authentic...well, we here in SoCal and some in Texas have given our opinions on that but really...what's authentic? Even Mexican cuisine in Mexico has changed over time. The Bell and Del Taco only hold the loosest associations with a generous interpretation of 'Mexican' food but while people are mentioning what "IS authentic," the fact is, even no two restaurants in Mexico serve exactly the same cuisine, and they never did. And the Bell I am sure doesn't think of itself as authentic anything. They know they're a junk food place.
Not standing up for Taco Bell (as I said, I suspect it's actually Soylent Green) but if you're talking "favorite" anything you have to be speaking of a chain, and that all by itself is going to but a giant like Taco Bell in the running for Winner. I don't think it's that everyone in the nation is super low-class or anything, or doesn't realize that it isn't "authentic" - and I KNOW it doesn't bill ITSELF as authentic. Just look at the ads, they are tongue in cheek and make fun of themselves all the time.
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I don't always snack on foie gras, sometimes I snack on Doritos, you know? I can see that it's listed as "a favorite" and as far as authentic...well, we here in SoCal and some in Texas have given our opinions on that but really...what's authentic? Even Mexican cuisine in Mexico has changed over time. The Bell and Del Taco only hold the loosest associations with a generous interpretation of 'Mexican' food but while people are mentioning what "IS authentic," the fact is, even no two restaurants in Mexico serve exactly the same cuisine, and they never did. And the Bell I am sure doesn't think of itself as authentic anything. 
They know they're a junk food place.