back to Spanish Recipes homepageSouth of the Border - Mexican Food
Cental American & Caribbean DishesA Taste of South AmericaA Treat from Spain The number of restaurants called "Mexican" which has sprung up in the past two decades in the United States is phenomenal. Many people profess to be passionate about Mexican food, but they would probably be both surprised and disappointed to know that there is really very little authentic Mexican food in the United States (except where the immigrant population is very high).
Witness the experience of my husband when we first moved to the United States (New Mexico, no less). Some co-workers took him to a "Mexican" restaurant for lunch. He recognized several names on the menu, and ordered accordingly. However, when the waitress brought him his food, he politely protested that he had been brought the wrong plate. When the waitress asked him what he had ordered, he answered with, what to her, was exactly what she had brought him. Being confused (and imagining that, once again, he had misunderstood something), he decided to eat what he had been given. Needless to say, his co-workers were just as amazed as the poor waitress had been. When they explained to him that what looked like a folded tostada with (yikes!) hamburger meat and some weird yellow cheese was a taco, he stared at it in disbelief. Even worse was one co-worker's suspicion and disdain of him ("Are you a real Mexican?") when he couldn't figure out what she was ordering at having told him she would have the con queso (that's what was on the menu; con queso simply means "with cheese"). When people ordered burritos, my husband wondered if they were having donkey meat. While burritos can be found along the border (and given Mexican business acumen, they are now available in some tourist places as well, as is the once largely-unknown margarita), the average Mexican in the interior has never heard of such a thing. Mind you, my husband is well-educated (a doctor), born and raised in Mexico City, and at 30 years of age, he certainly had never heard of them. There are burritas in places like Mexico City, but they are a food sold mainly in grocery store snack bars. They consist of ham, manchego cheese, and pickled jalapeños in a folded flour tortilla which has been grilled. The list of foods thought to be so typically Mexican (nachos being a prime example that comes to mind) and the butchering of the Spanish language on restaurant menus (pollo fundido - "melted chicken" - is one of my favorites) have unfortunately isolated people who don't venture very far from the border from the world-class taste of really good Mexican food. What do Mexicans think of what the neighbors to the north have done with our cuisine? Perhaps the fact that Taco Bell quickly went out of business in Mexico says it all. So, if you came to these pages looking for a new way to season the ground beef you put in your "taco" shell, get ready for a delicious surprise, and try some tacos tonight! Kathy S. de Cano Elementary.Spanish@nau.edu |