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Old 06-11-2008, 02:11 PM
 
Location: Crafton via San Francisco
3,463 posts, read 4,622,952 times
Reputation: 1595

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Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianTH View Post
I agree in the general sense that restaurants need not be "authentic" to be good, and indeed would suggest the best chefs these days tend to borrow freely from multiple cuisines. But juliegt asked specifically about "real Mexican", so that is why we were discussing that particular topic.
Thanks! I love good food even if it isn't authentic. However, I live in an area known as "Little Michoacan" because so many people from this part of Mexico have moved here. I was wondering if there are any restaurants that serve the typical tacos from Mexico? Also, I do like central american cuisine, especially pupusas. Again, I'm guessing that there isn't much available in Pittsburgh.
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Old 06-11-2008, 02:28 PM
 
Location: Crafton via San Francisco
3,463 posts, read 4,622,952 times
Reputation: 1595
Quote:
Originally Posted by hildi200 View Post
Ok ok... so I am a Mexican (born and raised in Mexico City) Moved to the US when I was 20... lived in upstate NY for 8 years... the bay area for 5 and now in Pittsburgh (for 2 months..)... I have not tried any Mexican food here in Pittsburgh...and let me just say that authentic Mexican food in the US is a myth... not even San Diego, you really have to cross to tijuana to get the real deal... that is not to say that food not being authentic is not bad... I can do burritos and nachos but that is not Mexican food... California does have a variety of places but let me assure you that tacos like the tacos I am used to in Mexico and nowhere to be found... it puzzles me.. I keep telling my husband that a real Mexican restaurant would be such a good business... high Mexican cuisine like the restaurants you try in Mexico city....to begin with real tortillas..fresh... are nowhere to be found....

just my two cents...
Good points. Also, people should know that Mexico is a big country and there are regional cuisines there just like there are here in the US. And there is "high" and "low" cuisine as well. I live in Redwood City, CA and we have lots of hole in the wall places, taco trucks and street vendors who serve typical Mexican "street" food. Tacos, chicharones, grilled corn on the cob, paletas... Yum! We also have a fairly large central american population as well. I enjoy their cuisine too. I'm not familiar with Cuban or Puerto Rican or most South American cuisines as we don't have much immigration from those areas here. Although we have friends from Peru so I have had lots of Peruvian home cooking. Very different than Mexican food.

I probably won't be moving for a few more years. I'm hoping immigration to the Pittsburgh area increases during that time bringing the food & culture with it!
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Old 06-11-2008, 07:08 PM
 
Location: Foot of the Rockies
90,316 posts, read 120,219,944 times
Reputation: 35920
Meat-packing is not what is was in Omaha.

Omaha.com Business Section

Quote:
Meatpacking employment in the Omaha area is at its highest level in 40 years, according to labor statistics, but the comeback over the past two decades is well short of the packinghouse heyday of the 1950s.

At the peak of the city's meatpacking era — when Swift, Armour, Wilson and Cudahy operated around the clock, supplied by the world's largest stockyards — employment topped 10,000 workers. Furthermore, packing plant jobs represented a greater percentage of total jobs in the Omaha market than they do now.
I really don't know about St. Paul. I know in Northfield a lot of Hispanics work at the Malt O Meal factory. The point is, these places have jobs. To quote Bill Clinton, "It's the economy stupid".
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Old 06-12-2008, 01:38 PM
 
439 posts, read 1,467,861 times
Reputation: 154
Quote:
Originally Posted by hildi200 View Post
Ok ok... so I am a Mexican (born and raised in Mexico City) Moved to the US when I was 20... lived in upstate NY for 8 years... the bay area for 5 and now in Pittsburgh (for 2 months..)... I have not tried any Mexican food here in Pittsburgh...and let me just say that authentic Mexican food in the US is a myth... not even San Diego, you really have to cross to tijuana to get the real deal... that is not to say that food not being authentic is not bad... I can do burritos and nachos but that is not Mexican food... California does have a variety of places but let me assure you that tacos like the tacos I am used to in Mexico and nowhere to be found... it puzzles me.. I keep telling my husband that a real Mexican restaurant would be such a good business... high Mexican cuisine like the restaurants you try in Mexico city....to begin with real tortillas..fresh... are nowhere to be found....

just my two cents...
Renya in the strip district (Mexican/latin america grocery) makes their own tortillas, you might want to try theirs.
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Old 06-12-2008, 06:45 PM
 
2,410 posts, read 5,791,107 times
Reputation: 1916
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katiana View Post
Meat-packing is not what is was in Omaha.

Omaha.com Business Section


I really don't know about St. Paul. I know in Northfield a lot of Hispanics work at the Malt O Meal factory. The point is, these places have jobs. To quote Bill Clinton, "It's the economy stupid".

My only point was that many of the Somalis who were settled in both St Paul and Omaha were brought to those areas to work in the meat packing industry. Meat packing may have declined, as your quote above suggests, but here is an article from last year in the Omaha newspaper:


Accord clears way for Somalis' return to packing plant.

From: Omaha World-Herald (Omaha, NE) Date: May 24, 2007 More results for: somalis in omaha | Copyright information COPYRIGHT 2007 Omaha World-Herald. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.

Byline: Bill Hord

May 24--LINCOLN -- About 70 Somali meatpacking workers returned to work Wednesday at a Swift & Co. plant in Grand Island after Omaha community representatives intervened to help narrow a culture gap.

A delegation led by Mohamed Rage, chairman of the Omaha Somali-American Community Organization, met with company and union officials Tuesday to explain how union contracts and company policy conflict with Islamic prayer requirements.

"Management was cordial and understanding," Rage said.

Somali workers left their jobs at the Swift plant last week because they were unable to complete an evening prayer -- one of the five prayers required each day ...
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Old 06-12-2008, 07:00 PM
 
Location: Foot of the Rockies
90,316 posts, read 120,219,944 times
Reputation: 35920
From the link I provided:

Quote:
Before 2006, the last time meatpacking jobs topped 7,000 was in 1967, when there were 7,100 positions.
At that time, there were 100,000 fewer people in Omaha than there are now. It is not a meat-packing "mecca". The article you quoted talks of 70 people. In a city of 400,000 this is a minicule percentage. And the Somalis are not Hispanic.
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Old 07-06-2008, 05:55 PM
 
Location: RVA
2,420 posts, read 4,695,406 times
Reputation: 1212
Quote:
Originally Posted by Humanoid View Post
Or you have no idea what Mexican food is?


They do and they are okay places to eat. Unfortunately they don't make real Mexican food.

Anyhow, The supposed Mexican restaurants in Pittsburgh don't make real Mexican food because the people in the city don't want to eat it. Nothing wrong with that. Places serving authentic foreign foods are generally only successful in the areas where their are enough people from that region to eat it. Foreign foods are a required taste and that is why truly authentic restaurants don't do well in foreign areas unless their are people from the region around.
It's not real Mexican food if there's no tripe or brains on the menu. I learned that living in California. Since I quit eating meat at age 19, Mexican food has fallen pretty low on my list of favorites, so the lack of it in Pittsburgh doesn't bother me too much.
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Old 07-07-2008, 10:46 PM
 
2,269 posts, read 3,777,226 times
Reputation: 2133
Keep in mind that a lot of these "ethnic foods" found in the US are not actually from the native countries, but are foods created or popularized by folks from those countries living in America. Chow Mein is probably the most well known example, a food created in America, by people who had moved here from China.
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Old 07-08-2008, 04:10 PM
 
Location: RVA
2,420 posts, read 4,695,406 times
Reputation: 1212
Quote:
Originally Posted by Herodotus View Post
Keep in mind that a lot of these "ethnic foods" found in the US are not actually from the native countries, but are foods created or popularized by folks from those countries living in America. Chow Mein is probably the most well known example, a food created in America, by people who had moved here from China.
Also created by Americans: Fortune cookies and burritos.
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Old 07-08-2008, 08:43 PM
 
Location: Atlanta, GA
40 posts, read 159,515 times
Reputation: 19
Yes there's an issue there, in which, i have been exposed to on way more than one occasion...which is one of the reasons i left as soon as the opportunity came up.
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