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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2016 10:01:46 GMT -5
I do not know why this wasn't a thing yet. But now it is.
This is where we discuss why this humble foodstuff, has somehow, either through delicate spice combinations, or the use of black magic, become the best thing from america to eat.
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Post by Il sole sotto la terra on Jan 3, 2016 12:00:00 GMT -5
Just like everything else, hipsters fucking ruined burritos. No, I don't want the citrus-braised pork, cilantro-lime rice, watery black beans and pineapple-mango-habanero salsa. I want chile colorado, orange Mexican rice, salsa taquera, refried beans made with lard, all wrapped up in a 2-foot diameter tortilla, also made with lard.
And stay away from my tacos. Meat, onions, cilantro, lime juice and salsa on two corn tortillas. Nothing more, nothing less. Don't mess with perfection.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2016 12:21:11 GMT -5
Mmmmmmmmm......Chile colorado.
Now that I have a crock pot, I have the ability to make this.
Also........TOUNGE BURRITOS.
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Post by Ben Grimm on Jan 3, 2016 14:12:18 GMT -5
Tacos al pastor are the best tacos. All other tacos are inferior. You can disagree with this only if you're ok with being completely wrong.
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Jan 3, 2016 16:46:49 GMT -5
I emphatically agree - Mexican food is the thing I miss the most while traveling and the main reason I don't think I could permanently settle outside North America. Personally, I like a fish or marinated chicken tacos on a flour tortilla, but otherwise I'm with Tom Baker. Also, can I get some love for tamales?
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Post by pairesta on Jan 3, 2016 18:26:20 GMT -5
We just had breakfast tacos with a fresh batch of homemade chorizo this morning. As great as tacos are, breakfast tacos are somehow something even more.
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Post by moimoi on Jan 3, 2016 21:44:28 GMT -5
For dinner I just got a chicken taco (w/ cilantro lettuce & tomato, hold the onion), chicken tamale, side of orange mexican rice, and an agua de jamaica from Taqueria El Asadero - a favorite of mine, as well as Anthony Bourdain's. Total meal cost $10.
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Post by Il sole sotto la terra on Jan 3, 2016 22:53:46 GMT -5
Also, can I get some love for tamales? Tamales are awesome. It's always a pleasant surprise to go into the panaderia or wherever and find that someone is running a tamale fundraiser. The correct answer is always "Hell yes, I want a dozen tamales."
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Smacks
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Post by Smacks on Jan 3, 2016 23:04:59 GMT -5
Mmmmmmmmm......Chile colorado. Now that I have a crock pot, I have the ability to make this. Also........TOUNGE BURRITOS. I don't really know what "tounge" is. But it reminds me of this Charlie Brown comic I was reading aloud to my Mom when I was a young Smacker, and Lucy said "try to catch snowflakes on your tongue" except I pronounced it as "tun-goo" and they laughed at me for like, 14 years. I make a killer shredded chicken burrito that has a lot of lime juice and cinnamon in the seasoning, and they are crazy good.
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Post by Nudeviking on Jan 4, 2016 0:56:58 GMT -5
BUT IT'S NOT EVEN TACO TUESDAY!!!
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Jan 4, 2016 1:46:45 GMT -5
BUT IT'S NOT EVEN TACO TUESDAY!!! I think Tuesday should just be renamed "Tacosday". Who cares about Tiw, the Old English equivalent of Mars/Ares? In this day and age, shouldn't we be celebrating tacos?
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Gumbercules
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Post by Gumbercules on Jan 4, 2016 8:58:15 GMT -5
Just like everything else, hipsters fucking ruined burritos. No, I don't want the citrus-braised pork, cilantro-lime rice, watery black beans and pineapple-mango-habanero salsa. I want chile colorado, orange Mexican rice, salsa taquera, refried beans made with lard, all wrapped up in a 2-foot diameter tortilla, also made with lard. And stay away from my tacos. Meat, onions, cilantro, lime juice and salsa on two corn tortillas. Nothing more, nothing less. Don't mess with perfection. Personally, I think being inventive with tacos is fine, as long as the flavor is right. If everything is big tastes (marinated meat, with mole, and citrus flavored rice) it doesn't work, and hipster locations tend to do that, as it reads nice and can rationalize higher prices. But as I don't eat meat, I like to try different variations. For instance, this was a fried plantain, refried bean, guacamole, and cotija cheese taco on the left, and a fried cheese, guacamole, and pickled red onion taco on the right. Both were delicious in their own way, and were vegetarian. Also, I always prefer corn tortillas to flour (as I haven't had the flour ones made with lard, for obvious aforementioned reasons).
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Post by pairesta on Jan 4, 2016 9:25:45 GMT -5
My daughter is also a taco addict. Nothing fancy, unfortunately. But she's off from school today, and I'm taking her to lunch later. I asked where and her response was "anyplace that has tacos".
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Jan 4, 2016 9:56:17 GMT -5
Random taco and burrito thoughts:- Breakfast tacos and burritos are the world's most perfect food. Scrambled eggs, cheese, your choice of meat, maybe some potatoes (but not always), maybe some peppers (but not always). Just heaven. (Naturally, pairesta beat me to this one.) - I dig the traditional corn tortilla, meat, onion, cilantro thing when done well, really I do, but if liking fancy gringo tacos makes me a hipster, then bring it on. More can be less, but more can also be more. Torchy's Tacos out of Austin has a taco called the Dirty Sanchez with scrambled eggs, deep-fried poblano pepper, guacamole, escabeche carrots and shredded cheese, and this taco shames any traditional taco you will ever have. - The one thing my boondock town of Wylie has over much of the rest of Dallas is a Chiloso, which is a burrito joint like Chipotle only WAY GOOD. Mainly because they have barbacoa, and most chain burrito places don't. - Speaking of, besides eggs, barbacoa is the king of taco meats. Followe closely by chincharron, but quality there is less reliable I find. - Chipotle is hot garbage. Its cultural ubiquity irrationally angers me. - I like both flour and corn tortillas depending on the filling or just my mood. The Kroger near my house actually makes really good flour tortillas in-house, more like you'd find at a good restaurant and not at all like typical store-bought stuff. Since I have a gas stove top, I'll usually toast them up a little bit right over the flame. Yes, I set them on fire all the time. - Tacos were one of like five things my parents cooked. Taco night at the Snapes consisted of ground beef cooked in the microwave in a colander over paper towels to drain and catch grease. The beef was then tossed with potatoes which had been cubed and boiled. Seasoned with salt. Then toppings: lettuce, diced tomato, guacamole if the avocados were in season, shredded colby jack cheese. The one great thing about taco night was the tortillas: corn tortillas fried in a cast iron skillet until puffy and just crunchy, but still a little greasy in a satisfying way. I have a lingering affection for this meal, so I still make it sometimes, but I amp it up in almost every way. I brown the beef with onions and garlic, then flavor it with my house chile powder, onion powder and whatever else feels right at the time, plus a little beef stock to make it saucier. I sautee the potatoes to get them a little crusty, too. We skip the lettuce and tomato, but I'll do a little red onion, plus some sliced avocado if in season. Then, cotija or queso fresco. If I'm feeling indulgent, though, I'll still go for those fried tortillas. That's a part my dad got absolutely right. Random taco story:One day at work we were trenched in a 4+ hour meeting which threatened to run over lunch time. Rather than break, Boss called her daughter and asked her to pick up some tacos from this good place nearby. She called in the order. Thirty minutes and five phone calls later between Boss and daughter later, we still have no tacos and are growing imminently concerned. Finally Boss hops on the phone with the cashier while her daughter is at the restaurant, as it seems our order has gone missing. But no, in fact. They don't have our order, because she is not at the right restaurant. We're ordering from the other taqueria in that same strip center. Apparently she came to the corner and just walked into the first taqueria she saw. When she arrived with our tacos finally, she said, "How was I supposed to know there'd be two taco places on the same corner?" My response: "In East Plano?"
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Post by pairesta on Jan 4, 2016 10:12:06 GMT -5
Random taco and burrito thoughts:- Breakfast tacos and burritos are the world's most perfect food. Scrambled eggs, cheese, your choice of meat, maybe some potatoes (but not always), maybe some peppers (but not always). Just heaven. (Naturally, pairesta beat me to this one.) I didn't get over to East Plano much, but one abiding frustration I had in living there is that there were no good breakfast taco places. And Plano-ites seemed actively hostile to the idea: you'd have a place open for breakfast, then shortly after either closing entirely or dropping breakfast service because nobody came. For a brief, glorious year, Chito's had fabulous breakfast, but we were always the only ones there when we went, and they finally stopped. The last year or two of living there, our most reliable spot for breakfast tacos was Torchy's. Our corner of the burbs here in Houston is lacking in many things, but breakfast tacos and great taquerias are not one of them.
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Gumbercules
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Post by Gumbercules on Jan 4, 2016 11:03:06 GMT -5
Random taco and burrito thoughts:- Breakfast tacos and burritos are the world's most perfect food. Scrambled eggs, cheese, your choice of meat, maybe some potatoes (but not always), maybe some peppers (but not always). Just heaven. (Naturally, pairesta beat me to this one.) - I dig the traditional corn tortilla, meat, onion, cilantro thing when done well, really I do, but if liking fancy gringo tacos makes me a hipster, then bring it on. More can be less, but more can also be more. Torchy's Tacos out of Austin has a taco called the Dirty Sanchez with scrambled eggs, deep-fried poblano pepper, guacamole, escabeche carrots and shredded cheese, and this taco shames any traditional taco you will ever have. - The one thing my boondock town of Wylie has over much of the rest of Dallas is a Chiloso, which is a burrito joint like Chipotle only WAY GOOD. Mainly because they have barbacoa, and most chain burrito places don't. - Speaking of, besides eggs, barbacoa is the king of taco meats. Followe closely by chincharron, but quality there is less reliable I find. - Chipotle is hot garbage. Its cultural ubiquity irrationally angers me. - I like both flour and corn tortillas depending on the filling or just my mood. The Kroger near my house actually makes really good flour tortillas in-house, more like you'd find at a good restaurant and not at all like typical store-bought stuff. Since I have a gas stove top, I'll usually toast them up a little bit right over the flame. Yes, I set them on fire all the time. - Tacos were one of like five things my parents cooked. Taco night at the Snapes consisted of ground beef cooked in the microwave in a colander over paper towels to drain and catch grease. The beef was then tossed with potatoes which had been cubed and boiled. Seasoned with salt. Then toppings: lettuce, diced tomato, guacamole if the avocados were in season, shredded colby jack cheese. The one great thing about taco night was the tortillas: corn tortillas fried in a cast iron skillet until puffy and just crunchy, but still a little greasy in a satisfying way. I have a lingering affection for this meal, so I still make it sometimes, but I amp it up in almost every way. I brown the beef with onions and garlic, then flavor it with my house chile powder, onion powder and whatever else feels right at the time, plus a little beef stock to make it saucier. I sautee the potatoes to get them a little crusty, too. We skip the lettuce and tomato, but I'll do a little red onion, plus some sliced avocado if in season. Then, cotija or queso fresco. If I'm feeling indulgent, though, I'll still go for those fried tortillas. That's a part my dad got absolutely right. Random taco story:One day at work we were trenched in a 4+ hour meeting which threatened to run over lunch time. Rather than break, Boss called her daughter and asked her to pick up some tacos from this good place nearby. She called in the order. Thirty minutes and five phone calls later between Boss and daughter later, we still have no tacos and are growing imminently concerned. Finally Boss hops on the phone with the cashier while her daughter is at the restaurant, as it seems our order has gone missing. But no, in fact. They don't have our order, because she is not at the right restaurant. We're ordering from the other taqueria in that same strip center. Apparently she came to the corner and just walked into the first taqueria she saw. When she arrived with our tacos finally, she said, "How was I supposed to know there'd be two taco places on the same corner?" My response: "In East Plano?" I love it when a plano comes togethero
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Jan 4, 2016 11:09:42 GMT -5
Smacks tongue is ... exactly what it sounds like. Beef tongue meat. Lengua, it's called. Popular in more authentic taquerias. Kinda squicks me though. I love me some tacos. I'm all about the simple al pastor or steak with onion and cilantro, but I like fancy tacos too. There's a place out in the far west suburbs that has amazing little tacos served tapas style. (All of their food is awesome.) We also do what my husband calls "old school" tacos sometimes - ground beef with the seasoning packet and shredded cheese on top. And, I'm quite fond of breakfast tacos when I want eggs and carbs but we have no bread.
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Post by The Sensational She-Hulk on Jan 4, 2016 12:16:40 GMT -5
Lengua is delicious! It tastes just like, well, regular beef. When it's cooked properly it's very tender and meaty and delicious. I also love pork belly tacos because I'm disgusting and love pork belly. My favorite taqueria always has both of those on hand, along with pastor.
I love tacos and burritos and fajitas and nachos, from the fancy expensive kind to the white-trash at-home kind. It's one of the few types of foods where I'm not super hung up on authenticity because it's all delicious to me. Hell, I'm doing fajitas tonight, actually, and they are definitely nowhere near authentic. I just like being able to roll up all the good things in life - marinated grilled meat, onions and peppers, sour cream, guac, salsa, and cheese - into a big soft white tortilla and shove it in my face.
Confession: I hate corn tortillas. They're always dry and disgusting to me and I've never in my life had a good one, even at the most legit Mexican restaurants.
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Jan 4, 2016 12:18:45 GMT -5
The Sensational She-Hulk I suspect if someone served me lengua without telling me, I'd eat it without complaint. I just don't like looking at the whole tongue
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Post by Liz n Dick on Jan 4, 2016 12:58:01 GMT -5
Authenticity is not at all a concern for me with tacos either. I'm totally down with stupid hipster tacos, California-style burritos, meticulously authentic street-food tacos, and my own shitty at-home weekly taco night burritos. It's all good to me! Like many others here, I grew up with pretty questionable tacos overseen by my mother. We call them "Boomer Burritos" because, well, her name is Boomer and she's a really terrible cook but has a good sense of humor about herself. Tacos in my house were ground beef, pre-shredded cheddar cheese, diced fresh tomato, and shredded iceberg lettuce, layered in a hard shell and topped with what Hugs calls "Red Gold": I remember the shockwaves that went through our household when Mission soft flour tortillas were suddenly available in our grocery store; it was like the most exotic foodstuff known to man! I went off beef in high school, so there was an addition of diced, sauteed chicken breast to taco nights, and then the even more amazing Ortega taco seasonings were added to the meatstuffs to make things even more dizzyingly ethnic... Yeah, Boomer was a child of the Midwest in the '50s. This was all very spicy and adventurous for her. Anyway, so, yeah, Fridays are taco night at stately Dick n Hisses Manor, and now I'm the cook, so we have Boomer Burritos filtered through my sensibilities. We still do those shitty pillowy flour tortillas because dammit, that's what I want my at-home burritos to taste like, okay? SUE ME! But the base is always some variety of heirloom bean from Rancho Gordo, and I mix up the other protein options, make fresh salsas, quick-pickle red onions, have homegrown hot sauce, do my own spice blends, and so on. The cornerstone of modern-day Boomer Burritos, though, is a homemade version of Red Gold. Hugs makes adorable labels for all the things I can, and after she put a tiger on one of the early batches of our taco sauce, it's become known as Taco Tiger. No true shitty inauthentic homemade taco night is complete without Taco Tiger!
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Jan 4, 2016 13:08:59 GMT -5
I didn't get over to East Plano much, but one abiding frustration I had in living there is that there were no good breakfast taco places. And Plano-ites seemed actively hostile to the idea: you'd have a place open for breakfast, then shortly after either closing entirely or dropping breakfast service because nobody came. For a brief, glorious year, Chito's had fabulous breakfast, but we were always the only ones there when we went, and they finally stopped. The last year or two of living there, our most reliable spot for breakfast tacos was Torchy's. Our corner of the burbs here in Houston is lacking in many things, but breakfast tacos and great taquerias are not one of them. Were you still around when Chito's moved to its new location along 75? We loved it and went pretty often when it was next to that gas station, but we never have been to the new location. It looks huge. Good for them.
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Post by Hugs and Hisses on Jan 4, 2016 13:50:56 GMT -5
Adding to Liz's report of Boomer Burritos, I was so excited when I found out an authentic tortillaria opened two blocks from my office. I want so badly to be that person who flounces down the street to pick up fresh, authentic tortillas every Friday for that night's dinner. But I just can't quit those fake Mission flour tortillas. I had a bit of a hard time adjusting when Liz switched us from store-bought stock to homemade (where's all the salt go?!) but I did it and now can't imagine life otherwise. I had a bit of a hard time adjusting when Liz switched us from canned beans to Rancho Gordo dry beans (but the old ones were always black beans and were always perfectly mushy!) but I did it and now can't imagine life otherwise. But it seems I am just completely unwilling to budge on the tortillas. ::sobs into a jar of Taco Tiger and stuffs mouth with fake "tortillas"::
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Post by pairesta on Jan 4, 2016 14:29:16 GMT -5
Were you still around when Chito's moved to its new location along 75? We loved it and went pretty often when it was next to that gas station, but we never have been to the new location. It looks huge. Good for them. No it happened like right after we moved. We knew the owners and would talk to them for a bit every time we went in and they never mentioned it. We were there when they had the Allen location for a bit and then closed it. I am happy for them getting a bigger location. There were times we went when there were people standing around at the doors waiting for a table.
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Post by ganews on Jan 4, 2016 19:32:13 GMT -5
Allow me to stick up for the Salvadorean pupusa, which is stuffed and made on the griddle. They're great and cost about a buck each. Put shredded cabbage and salsa on top.
I don't even know where to get good tacos this side of the Mississippi. I expect you westerners would say I can't. It's hard to get a good burrito, too. I would probably pick one up from a Salvadorean or Peruvian place, which are much more common here than real Mexican joints.
Burritos were a staple in grad school. So easy to throw stuff in the pan. I've made tortillas before as well, but it's not worth the effort vs. the price.
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Smacks
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Post by Smacks on Jan 4, 2016 20:11:39 GMT -5
I grew up with the "house taco" or Boomer Burrito if you will. My Mom was a great cook, but not an original or creative one. Still, I loved taco night. I'll make some pedestrian tacos with your basic ingredients from time to time, but I always always always season the meat myself. Throw away that gross packet that comes in the box. It's cumin. It's just cumin that makes tacos taste like tacos. Add whatever else you like, I add garlic, some chilies maybe, some chili powder, onion powder, a little smoked paprika is good, maybe a dash of hot sauce, whatever you got on hand. But as long as you got cumin, you got taco meat.
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Jan 4, 2016 20:14:22 GMT -5
Allow me to stick up for the Salvadorean pupusa, which is stuffed and made on the griddle. They're great and cost about a buck each. Put shredded cabbage and salsa on top. I don't even know where to get good tacos this side of the Mississippi. I expect you westerners would say I can't. It's hard to get a good burrito, too. I would probably pick one up from a Salvadorean or Peruvian place, which are much more common here than real Mexican joints. Burritos were a staple in grad school. So easy to throw stuff in the pan. I've made tortillas before as well, but it's not worth the effort vs. the price. I don't know about your area, but anywhere with a reasonable Mexican population should have a taqueria, no? Hell there was good Mexican in Henderson, Ky.
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Post by ganews on Jan 4, 2016 20:44:33 GMT -5
Allow me to stick up for the Salvadorean pupusa, which is stuffed and made on the griddle. They're great and cost about a buck each. Put shredded cabbage and salsa on top. I don't even know where to get good tacos this side of the Mississippi. I expect you westerners would say I can't. It's hard to get a good burrito, too. I would probably pick one up from a Salvadorean or Peruvian place, which are much more common here than real Mexican joints. Burritos were a staple in grad school. So easy to throw stuff in the pan. I've made tortillas before as well, but it's not worth the effort vs. the price. I don't know about your area, but anywhere with a reasonable Mexican population should have a taqueria, no? Hell there was good Mexican in Henderson, Ky. We have one good Mexican place quite near us, but it's a nice sit-down place. Even crappy chain-type Mexican places are relatively few in number. While there is a good-sized Latino population around here, much (most?) are not Mexican. I don't know of a local taqueria that isn't also a pupuseria. It's OK though, because Peruvian rotisserie is the highest plane of chicken existence, and the Latin bakery near us makes awesome pastries for $1.19 each.
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Jan 4, 2016 21:58:11 GMT -5
I don't know about your area, but anywhere with a reasonable Mexican population should have a taqueria, no? Hell there was good Mexican in Henderson, Ky. We have one good Mexican place quite near us, but it's a nice sit-down place. Even crappy chain-type Mexican places are relatively few in number. While there is a good-sized Latino population around here, much (most?) are not Mexican. I don't know of a local taqueria that isn't also a pupuseria. It's OK though, because Peruvian rotisserie is the highest plane of chicken existence, and the Latin bakery near us makes awesome pastries for $1.19 each. Yeah, this is what bummed me out about DC. No decent taco joints (the food trucks serve that hipster crap) - only good upscale places like Casa Oaxaca for diplomatic types. No offense to El Salvadorans, but pupusas got nothing on tacos. Problem is the Northeast has much bigger Puerto Rican, Central, and Latin American populations. Mexican restaurants seem to follow the beef trail, hence the sizable population in Chicago.
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Post by Ben Grimm on Jan 4, 2016 22:08:51 GMT -5
Florida's the same way - there are a handful of decent Mexican places, but Cuban and South American places are more common than good Mexican places.
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Jan 4, 2016 23:12:50 GMT -5
I will say we don't have a lot of non Mexican Latin food, proportionally .. There's a great Arepas place in Oak Park, though.
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