quote:Originally posted by wingandaprayer
It has occurred to me that this topic could be narrowed to what style of Mexican food is your top pick. In Arizona, we get primarily Sonoran style Mexican food. Sonora is the Mexican state directly south of us and is the principal beef producing state in Mexico. Do not go there if you are a vegiterian. Most of the seasoning is done with the Poblano and Jalapino chiles. The tortillas of choice are Tortillas de Harina or flour tortillas as opposed to Tortillas de Maiz or corn tortills which are more popular farther south. Most of the best Sonoran style food involves wrapping meat in a huge flour tortilla. There are endless choices of ways to prepare the meat; carne asada, carne seca, birria (my favorite), chile verde, chile colorado etc. Most Sonoran style food is mildly spicy, at least to my taste. New Mexican style is a whole nuther story. The chile capital of the world is Hatch,NM and they grow some fire.
My favorites in Tucson are:
Mi Nidito on S. 4th Ave.- Birria (second only to my wife's)
Michas also on S. 4th- Machacca
Tania's on Grande- Pozole Colorado
Sanchez' on Craycroft- Chile Colorado
In Silver City NM:
Nancy's Silver Cafe- Chiles Rellanos
In Magdalena, Son Mex (on the way to San Carlos):
Taqueria Tres Diamontes- Tacos de Carne Asada
I have never had any good Mexican food in California, but remember that these are the people who convinced a nation that Taco Bell serves Mexican food.
Before you go dissing California's wealth of Mexican cuisines, just remember that Sonoran cooking isn't exactly held in high regard in Mexico [well, except in the northern states of Sonora & Chihuahua, perhaps] - and is more to blame for the beef & flour tortilla-centric menu that Taco Bell offers than anyone or anything in California or Mexico. (Wherever ANYBODY thinks that Taco Bell now serves Mexican food, blame ignorant gringos that got fooled by PepsiCo.)
When I long for real Mexican food, away from the burrito-philes, there are few places north of the border that will do except for a select group of places right here in California. Places that offer more choices than just chicken or beef, that don't substitute cheddar or jack for queso fresco just because they're cheeses, that don't use mole [whatever type it is] as just another sauce, that don't even offer combination plates. Most of the time, though, when I'm really jonesing for a quick fix (which means I can't make it to a local mercado/tienda to pick up supplies), I'm perfectly happy with a stop at a fruit vendor on a local corner to grab some prickly pear chunks['tunas'] or whatever fruit is on hand, topped with a squeeze of lime juice and chile powder; if there's a "paletero" ['popsicle vendor'] handy, I'll get something refreshing and not too sweet, like a cucumber (w/ chile!) popsicle. My own test for checking prospective places out: they have to serve fresh "aguas" [fresh {non-carbonated} soft drinks] like tamarindo, jamaica, horchata, etc. - and they really need to have a specialty that doesn't involve beef or flour tortillas [dry or wet...], like pozole, or menudo, or birria, or cecina or mariscos or alambres or really anything that isn't part of a combo....
As for what Bill Voss said ("They don't remember how their grandma fixed it in the old country, cuz , this is the only place they've known"), this isn't an entirely clear assessment of the situation - while in some areas of the U.S. are communities of immigrants from the same region in the 'old country,' there are also cases of non-homogeneous immigrant communities that couldn't sustain any single version of a home cuisine, so that some sort of culinary pidgin is developed. (And since it's fairly clear from the postings at Roadfood that few people here are sticklers for authenticity in their "Mexican" food, these experiments in "cocina mezclada" ['mixed cuisine'] are still considered fairly tasty by the hoi polloi.) And THIS is comepletely separate from the fact that a majority of the immigrants are men - who, like many of their gringo brethren, don't cook anything that doesn't require a huge fire and lots of meat. (BTW - THEIR MOMS were far more likely to cook for them than their grandmas)
Even in a decent-sized burg like San Francisco, we had people arriving here from the Yucatan for a long time before there were enough Yucatecos here to sustain a restaurant that served the specialities of back home (like pollo pibil or pok chuc). And as good as the food is, people keep coming in an asking for burritos....
Buen provecho,
Richard
Berkeley/SF, CA