iff

A pea and carrot burrito... something is very, very wrong with that picture!

However, I'm chuckling at Eastbay1K's comment because "gerber" is a vulgar French word meaning "to puke".

kellio33

I should probably say that I was in Rocky Point (Puerto Penasco) which is not the fine dining capitol of Sonora Believe me, you definitely want to stay away from Italian restaurants here. RP is a not so sleepy anymore fishing town on the Sea of Cortez. Development unfortunately is creeping in but still has a fab fish market and great taquerias.

cj001f

"decent mexican" fajitas are not chicken breast & rice wrapped in flatbread with ketchup as I was served in Indonesia.

requirements
1) well spiced (but not necessarily spicy)
2) good quality tortillas
3) Salsas & Hot Sauce available
4) Decent quality cheese if used.
These are style independant requirements that many European, Asian and S. American Mexican places fail. So do quite a few in America, though the situation is improving.

ElkeNorEast

I was served "fajitas" at the Lone Star Cafe in London that were made with braised beef, onions, green peppers, baby corn and julienned carrots.

I kid you not. I should have been warned off when the waiter corrected my pronunciation of "fajitas" to "fah-jeee-tahs"

Jalepenos was another word they couldn't understand. "Ooooh, you mean j-al-a-pee-nose."

Should have walked out the door right there...

Mabuk dan gila

What I find funny as hell is in Indonesia you find signs touting "Rotiboy, The famous Mexican Buns from Malaysia". Because of course Malaysia is well known for it's Mexican buns Actually the Rotiboy buns are pretty good. They don't strike me as particularly Mexican but good anyway. It still cracks me up every time time see the slogan "the famous Mexican Buns from Malaysia" though. I've even seen it on billboards in Surabaya.

Being from Southern California I know good Mexican food. So when I find Mexican food on a menu in some really off the wall place you would never expect to find Mexican food, I always order it just to laugh at what inevitably creative, yet off the mark dish turns up on my plate.

nkedel

Having lived in Mexico, California, and back East, here's what I've found:

1) Mexico - good. Very regional, too, which is very cool but those used to US "tex/cali/mex" may find things rather different.

2) California - good tex/cali/mex trivially easy to find. Bay Area casual taco shops not that different from Mexico City ones, and often quite good. Good sit-down mexican matching any kind of regional cuisine harder to find, but not unknown.

3) Back east - good tex/cali/mex not TOO hard to find, but anything else basically unknown.

In my experience, good quality cheese is normally a sign of an (US)/"Americanized" Mexican place. During the year I lived down there, basically all the cheese I had on Mexican food (and often enough on attempts at Gringo or Italian food) was very bland queso blanco/fresco/ranchero which seemed to all taste the same and much weaker than the jack which usually substitutes for those in Mexican cooking on this side of the border.

Then again, I like super-sharp aged cheddar and blue cheese, etc.

You could also get kraft-singles-ish "American Cheese," and that was about it. The better italian places got decent cheeses somewhere, so it must have existed.

farenthold

Decent Mexican?

That's why I live in Texas... and have a house in Guadalajara.

Whataburgers* and good mexican food: No place but Texas.

* Mexican food at Whataburger is not good. Stay away from breakfast taquitos there. Best WB can do for breakfast is a breakfast on a bun ranchero (think sausage breakfast jack with jalapenos and picante sauce)

bensyd

First time I went to Texas, everyone was raving about Whataburgers, coming from Australia(where everyone has their favourite pie shop and chicken burger shop usually not chains) I was wondering how good could a chain restaurant be....FANTASTIC was the answer

Interesting about the breakfast tacquitos, I think I recall another thread very recently on FT saying their tacquitos were good, never tried them though.

Great state Texas too^

hobarthoney

Ahy yes the great state of Texas has plenty of great TexMex locations.

Sydney have a few good little Texmex restaurants. Nothing beats a night of Texmex, Corona and Tequila!

bensyd

Juanitas on Anzac Parade is my favourite. Although it pails in comparison to anything I have had in Texas, I have still managed a few big nights there

BamaVol

Growing up, there were not any Hispanics in my New England hometown of 50,000. Whatever has driven so many Mexicans (presumably the need for a better paycheck) to the US in the last 10-15 years, they seem to be everywhere. Certainly every town and city I have visited or lived in in that timeframe has a population that is large enough to support some specialty businesses catering to that population. My little town in AL (population around 25,000) has dozens of little markets and easily a dozen Mexican restaurants. Some are quite good, some are simply awful (but fool enough locals to stay open). I have not visited Mexico, but have lived in CO & CA and traveled through TX, AZ & NM, where I found "Mexican" restaurants that pleased visitors and locals, hispanic & gringo alike.

At this point, I'm led to wonder how small and remote must a town be to have no Mexican restaurant options. Is Mexican food as ubiquitous as Pizza and Chinese? And how many Mexicans before you get a restaurant? My hometown had no more than a handful of Asians, but 1 Chinese & 1 "Polynesian" restaurant.

dgwright99

Small Towns probably got Mexican food earlier than a many larger towns, because small towns tend to be surrounded by farms.

astanley

Bama, I grew up west of Boston, and as a kid, Latin food was pratically non-existant in the area. In fact, in our area, the first "Mexican" place was a Taco Bell two towns over.

Nowadays, there are a plethora of decent, well done places in the area. As the Brazilian community has become more diverse, we had 5 Brazillian places and a pile of Mexican (and, even regionalized and micro-regionalized places) before I left 15 months ago.

I think Mexican, and other Latin American cuisines are become easier to find, especially in the more parachoial, white-bread areas (like New England, where a dash of Tabasco would kill most WASP's).

Cheers,

-Andrew

mikey1003

I have found great Mexican food all over the US.

Hamilton and Fairfield Ohio seem to have many great restaurants.

akdude

The most northern city in the U.S.,Point Barrow,Alaska has had one for years.They also get regularly busted by INS for illegals.