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To be fair though, I think a lot of white Californians mistakenly think that California is the end all.
You could end your sentence here and it will apply for most things and be accurate. Even though Texans are bad about this too, it’s not nearly as bad as Californians.
Chicago has a huge Mexican population, but it's still a fairly recent immigrant community. Personally I rank the southwestern states (which have unique cuisines developed over 150+ years) higher.
Chicago is definitely way above freaking Philadelphia though!
Chicago has a huge Mexican population, but it's still a fairly recent immigrant community. Personally I rank the southwestern states (which have unique cuisines developed over 150+ years) higher.
Chicago is definitely way above freaking Philadelphia though!
I get what you're saying, but most of Los Angeles' Mexican population were also immigrants from Mexico, which came after the 1950's; a lot more similar to Chicago than one might imagine (Chicago's Hispanic population boomed mainly between the 1960's and 1990's). LA was a very small city in general 100 years ago, and believe it or not, was mostly white in its earlier days.
I agree that the southwest region, it's Mexican food is more ingrained, naturally, which makes sense given that at one point, that was all a part of Mexico.
Chicago has a huge Mexican population, but it's still a fairly recent immigrant community. Personally I rank the southwestern states (which have unique cuisines developed over 150+ years) higher.
Chicago is definitely way above freaking Philadelphia though!
That only makes sense if you prefer Americanized styles of Mexican food
My controversial take that goes against all conventional wisdom-
A city's geographic location near the U.S./Mexico border has absolute no bearing on how good or authentic their Mexican food is. The funniest thing is in San Diego where people insist that "fish tacos" are a primary reason for visiting, as if it couldn't be recreated anywhere else.
I've never been to Chicago but it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if they had better Mexican food than Southern California.
My controversial take that goes against all conventional wisdom-
A city's geographic location near the U.S./Mexico border has absolute no bearing on how good or authentic their Mexican food is. The funniest thing is in San Diego where people insist that "fish tacos" are a primary reason for visiting, as if it couldn't be recreated anywhere else.
I've never been to Chicago but it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if they had better Mexican food than Southern California.
Agreed. I don't know why people assume that being closer to the border automatically makes the food better.
Mexicans have migrated to many places nowhere near the border, such as Chicago, NYC, Detroit, etc.
Agreed. I don't know why people assume that being closer to the border automatically makes the food better.
Mexicans have migrated to many places nowhere near the border, such as Chicago, NYC, Detroit, etc.
I don't know how many thousands of internet comments I"ve seen from California expats that go like this, "well, I"m really liking it here in (insert city), but being from SoCal I'm used to having access good Mexican food!"
I lived in a part of southern California for 5 years that arguably has more Mexican influence than many parts of Mexico. The food was mediocre, and I always looked forward to going home to Pittsburgh because I know places there that work directly with chefs in Mexico City to compose their menu.
I was supposed to leave for Chicago on Wednesday but now CA residents are 14 day quarantined there. Not only would it not surprise me, but given their reputation for taking pride in culinary arts, I would actually expect them to have better Mexican food than San Diego.
I don't know how many thousands of internet comments I"ve seen from California expats that go like this, "well, I"m really liking it here in (insert city), but being from SoCal I'm used to having access good Mexican food!"
I lived in a part of southern California for 5 years that arguably has more Mexican influence than many parts of Mexico. The food was mediocre, and I always looked forward to going home to Pittsburgh because I know places there that work directly with chefs in Mexico City to compose their menu.
I was supposed to leave for Chicago on Wednesday but now CA residents are 14 day quarantined there. Not only would it not surprise me, but given their reputation for taking pride in culinary arts, I would actually expect them to have better Mexican food than San Diego.
They say that all the time here in New York too, because they don't know where to look. Either that, or it's too "ethnic" for them as they're more into .
NYC does have a drawback of it being kinda hard to find stuff that's not antojitos or the stuff that every Mexican restaurant sells (bistec a la mexicana, mole poblano, enchiladas, etc.). But that's still good, and there are exceptions (places that serve regional specialties or even haute Mex). Best I had so far was fish tacos & ceviche from a place called Los Mariscos Uno, it was a 10/10 experience.
I want to go to Chicago too, hopefully this covid stuff dwindles down
I also want to point out that because the Mexican cuisine is more ingrained in some states, that also means higher likelihood of mediocre, overly Americanized places. We don't have too much of that in New York, aside from these weird Chinese run places (mostly called Yummy Taco) that made Americanized Mexican food before Mexican immigration to NYC skyrocketed in the mid 90s and beyond.
Last edited by Foamposite; 07-14-2020 at 12:06 AM..
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