[Sca-cooks] Gorditas was New snack treat OT OP

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Sep 6, 2009, at 5:00 PM, Margaret Rendell wrote:

>> Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com> wrote:
>>
>> As for Taco Bell it's only *
>> 310 calories and 17 grams of fat for 89 cents. *
>>
>> Johnnae
>>
>
> Inter-Kingdom Anthropology:
> I'm used to it now, but when I first joined this list I was stunned  
> by the prices mentioned for Mexican ("Mexican"? :) food.
>
> Here, Mexican food is mostly sit-down restaurant stuff, with  
> restaurant prices. I never ate it as a student, couldn't afford it.  
> Our local ubiquitous/low end Mexican chain is called Taco Bill's: a  
> meal for four generally ends up over $100.

In general, Tex-Mex (which probably bears much the same relationship  
to Mexican food as the stuff on Chinese take-out menus and real  
Chinese food, which doesn't make it cheap or low-quality, per se)  
seems to cost somewhat less than real Mexican food, which can be quite  
refined stuff; I've seen some plates of mole poblano presented by some  
cooks of clearly non-Spanish Mexican ancestry with a panache that  
would give Jacques Pepin or Daniel Bouloud a run for their money.

Around here, after decades of there being no Tex-Mex or real Mexican  
food available, there's much more available, between informal Tex- Mex  
establishments, some pretty expensive, high-quality actual-Mexican- 
food restaurants, and legitimate Mexican fast food, often sold from  
trucks at key locations around the city. I mean, where do you go for  
that all-important tongue or sweetbread soft taco at 2 AM? Chowhound  
knows... and what they apparently think is it's about a quarter mile  
from my house. This type of food is infinitely better than Taco Bell  
and may even be cheaper.

I think my taco-eating-at 2AM days are past; I say this with only mild  
regret.

Adamantius






"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter