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How Mexican food became more American than apple pie

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Gaborn

Member
The most popular restaurant in town that day was Taco John’s. I didn’t know it then, but Taco John’s is the third-largest taco chain in the United States, with nearly 500 locations. But what lured me that morning was a drive-through line snaking out from the faux-Spanish revival building (whitewashed adobe and all) and into the street. Once I inched my rental car next to the menu, I was offered an even more outrageous simulacrum of the American Southwest: tater tots, that most Midwestern of snacks, renamed “Potato Olés” and stuffed into a breakfast burrito, nacho cheese sauce slowly oozing out from the bottom of the flour tortilla.

There is nothing remotely Mexican about Potato Olés—not even the quasi-Spanish name, which has a distinctly Castilian accent. The burrito was more insulting to me and my heritage than casting Charlton Heston as the swarthy Mexican hero in Touch of Evil. But it was intriguing enough to take back to my hotel room for a taste. There, as I experienced all of the concoction’s gooey, filling glory while chilly rain fell outside, it struck me: Mexican food has become a better culinary metaphor for America than the melting pot.

Back home, my friends did not believe that a tater tot burrito could exist. When I showed them proof online, out came jeremiads about inauthenticity, about how I was a traitor for patronizing a Mexican chain that got its start in Wyoming, about how the avaricious gabachos had once again usurped our holy cuisine and corrupted it to fit their crude palates.


In defending that tortilla-swaddled abomination, I unknowingly joined a long, proud lineage of food heretics and lawbreakers who have been developing, adapting, and popularizing Mexican food in El Norte since before the Civil War. Tortillas and tamales have long left behind the moorings of immigrant culture and fully infiltrated every level of the American food pyramid, from state dinners at the White House to your local 7-Eleven. Decades’ worth of attempted restrictions by governments, academics, and other self-appointed custodians of purity have only made the strain stronger and more resilient. The result is a market-driven mongrel cuisine every bit as delicious and all-American as the German classics we appropriated from Frankfurt and Hamburg.

Food is a natural conduit of change, evolution, and innovation. Wishing for a foodstuff to remain static, uncorrupted by outside influence—especially in these United States—is as ludicrous an idea as barring new immigrants from entering the country. Yet for more than a century, both sides of the political spectrum have fought to keep Mexican food in a ghetto.

Some staples of the Mexican diet have been thoroughly assimilated into American food culture. No one nowadays thinks of “chili” as Mexican, even though it long passed for Mexican food in this country; meanwhile, every Major League baseball and NFL stadium sells nachos, thanks to the invention of a fast-heated chips and “cheese” combination concocted by an Italian-American who was the cousin of Johnny Cash’s first wife. Only in America!

From the right has come the canard that the cuisine is unhealthy and alien, a stereotype dating to the days of the Mexican-American War, when urban legend had it that animals wouldn’t eat the corpses of fallen Mexican soldiers due to the high chile content in the decaying flesh. Noah Smithwick, an observer of the aftermath of the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836, claimed “the cattle got to chewing the bones [of Mexican soldiers], which so affected the milk that residents in the vicinity had to dig trenches and bury them.”

In the course of this culinary blending, a multibillion-dollar industry arose. And that’s where leftist critics of Mexican food come in. For them, there’s something inherently suspicious about a cuisine responsive to both the market and the mercado. Oh, academics and foodies may love the grub, but they harbor an atavistic view that the only “true” Mexican food is the just-off-the-grill carne asada found in the side lot of your local abuelita (never mind that it was the invading Spaniards who introduced beef to the New World). “Mexico’s European-and-Indian soul,” writes Rick Bayless, the high priest of the “authentic” Mexican food movement, in his creatively titled book, Authentic Mexican, “feels the intuitions of neither bare-bones Victorianism nor Anglo-Saxon productivity”—a line reminiscent of dispatches from the Raj. If it were up to these authentistas, we’d never have kimchi tacos or pastrami burritos. Salsa would not outsell ketchup in the United States. This food of the gods would be locked in Mexican households and barrios of cities, far away from Anglo hands.

I’ll never forget the delight I felt a couple of years ago when I worked on a series of investigative stories on Orange County neo-Nazis. One of the photos I unearthed showed two would-be Aryans scarfing down food from Del Taco, a beloved California chain best known for its cheap and surprisingly tasty burritos. The neo-colonizers have become the colonized, and no one even fired a shot.

Full Story Here

Anyway, I think the full article is VERY well worth reading (and all the c/p'ing there is just from the first page). I think it's an interesting take that the bastardization of cuisine is actually a sign of cultural acceptance, but that it ALSO leads to an integration and innovation within the cuisine itself to create even tastier hybrid dishes. You could make the same point about what we Americans think of as "Pizza" and what passes for Pizza in Italy I suppose. I've been meaning to post this for a while but I kept going back and forth about doing it.
 

sphinx

the piano man
Good food knows no racial boundaries.

Mexican food is extremely delicious and satisfying and not everything has to be spicy, there is always something for everyone.

Regarding taste, it's far superior to what people would consider "local food" here in Germany. Then again, things here are healthier.

definitely one of the highlights of my country.

Why is apple pie supposed to be particularly American?

Donuts are far more american than pie. those and twinkies, oh the great twinkies.
 

BlueTsunami

there is joy in sucking dick
Why is apple pie supposed to be particularly American?

Seemed to become a symbol for us Americans in the early 1900s. Reading the wiki it was associated with the countries prosperity. A lot of Nor'Eastern states have expansive apple orchards too so its not surprising in that regard.
 

xbhaskarx

Member
The majority of people have terrible taste (see: tv ratings, music charts, movie box office, etc), so while America has countless small ethnic restaurants with wonderful food because we are such a diverse country, once those foods are accepted by the unwashed mainstream masses, we will of course get chains with Americanized bastardizations that are shit.
Of course no one HAS to eat at those places, there are still plenty of delicious authentic Italian/Mexican/Chinese etc restaurants out there for those with good taste, if they know where to look. I wonder what the next trendy chain with crappy fake ethnic food will be, perhaps Thai or Indian...
 

Centurion

Banned
I feel sorry for any place that doesn't have authentic Taco Truck burritos around.

edit: and Chipotle is a perfect example of a bastardized burrito, but still being great in its own way.
 

joe2187

Banned
I find it funny people crying about "Authentic" food.

Eating food you've cooked yourself or food made from your family is 100 times better than anything you would eat from any "Authentic" food place.
 

DynamicG

Member
Interesting article, but is the oppositional framework really needed? It's like he goes out of his way to deride people who are passionate about traditional Mexican food and then justifies his love of a tator-tot burrito by yammering on about the market.

It's like he feels persecuted by the invisible hand of elitist chefs he's never met and who have never actually stopped him from eating his fast food burrito.

I think Rick Bayless might have other issues with a cheaply made, mass produced tator tot burrito outside of it not being "authentic." I can see a capitalist angle to why Mexican food is so popular, but come on.
 
The majority of people have terrible taste (see: tv ratings, music charts, movie box office, etc), so while America has countless small ethnic restaurants with wonderful food because we are such a diverse country, once those foods are accepted by the unwashed mainstream masses, we will of course get chains with Americanized bastardizations that are shit.
Of course no one HAS to eat at those places, there are still plenty of delicious authentic Italian/Mexican/Chinese etc restaurants out there for those with good taste, if they know where to look. I wonder what the next trendy chain with crappy fake ethnic food will be, perhaps Thai or Indian...

Both have already been watered down.
 

Brera

Banned
Let's face it.

Chilli, Jalepneos and all round spice make everything better. Embrace the spice suckers!
 
I gauge the authenticity of my Mexican food by how fast I am either:
A. In the bathroom
B. Drifting into a food coma.
Or the rarely seen but never forgotten,
C. Both A and B at the same time.
 

LQX

Member
Meh, outside of Tacos I don't care too much for Mexican food. To much mashed up or shredded shit for my taste.
 

Gaborn

Member
Interesting article, but is the oppositional framework really needed? It's like he goes out of his way to deride people who are passionate about traditional Mexican food and then justifies his love of a tator-tot burrito by yammering on about the market.

It's like he feels persecuted by the invisible hand of elitist chefs he's never met and who have never actually stopped him from eating his fast food burrito.

I think Rick Bayless might have other issues with a cheaply made, mass produced tator tot burrito outside of it not being "authentic." I can see a capitalist angle to why Mexican food is so popular, but come on.

I don't think he's saying Rick Bayless can't critique cheaply made mass produced food. He's saying that if your major criticism of something is that it's inauthentic then you're missing the point. That doesn't mean a foodie can't level valid criticism at fast food, but rather that fusion of different cuisine types doesn't take away from the cuisine itself.
 

MC Safety

Member
I find it funny people crying about "Authentic" food.

Eating food you've cooked yourself or food made from your family is 100 times better than anything you would eat from any "Authentic" food place.

What if you or your family are bad cooks?
 

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
Too bad most Mexican places that I've tried has had food that is bland as fuck-all. :( Really dislike eating Mexican unless it tastes fresh to me. Which, around here is damn near impossible if you go out to eat and don't know someone that knows how to make traditional Mexican.
 

Mgoblue201

Won't stop picking the right nation
I think these strange concoctions owe more to America's "imagination" to merge together inconsistent and disparate food palates in all defiance of good taste.
 
Never took a liking to Mexican cuisine. Too spicy for my palate. I've also come to discover that they just can't do sweet baked/fried goods either. All the "pan dulce" I've ever sampled at the local mexican bakeries I've been to tend to be absolutely awful, other than the churro which is quite delicious.
 

Mistake

Gold Member
As a German i feel deeply offended by Hamburgers and Hot dogs. Why are you so racist America?
Do you have ham in your hamburgers?

and yeah, it's a shame, but this happens to just about every foreign dish to hit the US. It will just make traveling that more exciting when I get to it though.
 
It's similar to how "Indian" food is synonymous with British cuisine. Chicken Tikka Masala, which granted is about as Indian as Polar Bears are, was voted the most popular British dish.
 
It's similar to how "Indian" food is synonymous with British cuisine. Chicken Tikka Masala, which granted is about as Indian as Polar Bears are, was voted the most popular British dish.

Actually Chicken Tikka Masala was invented for British palettes because Indian chefs basically considered us pussies. So it IS pretty British!
 
Never took a liking to Mexican cuisine. Too spicy for my palate. I've also come to discover that they just can't do sweet baked/fried goods either. All the "pan dulce" I've ever sampled at the local mexican bakeries I've been to tend to be absolutely awful, other than the churro which is quite delicious.
The churro is an Iberian invention.

Chocolate_with_churros.jpg
sadly, the chocolate dipping part never took on in America
Try some fish dishes then. Mexican food can vary by zone so, it's kinda hard to get some dishes that aren't the typical ones.
 
Actually Chicken Tikka Masala was invented for British palettes because Indian chefs basically considered us pussies. So it IS pretty British!

The story I heard was a bloke that worked at a curry house in Glasgow put ketchup on his Chicken Tikka, and the chef was inspired from that. Of course, there's tons of people and places that lay claim to it's invention.
 
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