I grew up in New Mexico, we call the New Mexican food here Mexican. I moved to PA and later Maryland, I was very surprised at the difference in food and what was called Mexican. After I while I realized there was a huge difference between New Mexican, everything uses locally grown chile, similar to Anaheim chile. Versus the other stuff which uses a lot of poblano, and other types of chile.
And then there was the places that served white peoples Mexican food. Maryland crab enchilada was the worst I think.
If you are interested in exploring the multiplicity of Mexican foods, you should watch Pati Jinich. Her shows are travelogue/cooking, but her background is in poli-sci so it’s always as much about the culture as the food:
Fellow New Mexican checking in; our food always incorporates a hatch chile sauce of one (or both) colors, and hot damn is it tasty! Having chile with every meal is probably the thing I miss about NM the most (after my parents, ofc). New Mexican food is its own category, separate from Mexican food.
Doesn’t matter, the mexican restaurant in my 30% hispanic town owned by a Mexican family serves shit like this to cater to the rich white yuppies that come to my town to cosplay blue collar living. I go to the hole in the wall 2 blocks away to get legit food.
Was there a single person of hispanic descent who works there?
Everyone I saw working there appeared hispanic. I was visiting a very white part of Virginia though. The restaurant was called “Mr Pepe”:
Darn. That’s such a bummer. Good mexican food is top tier and incredible. Sucks to see the abomination that you posted.
Whenever I want good food in VA I go through Annandale. Best Salvadoran and Vietnamese food around.
I’ve been to plenty of Mexican restaurants staffed entirely by lationos that served white people Mexican.
Even specifying what you’d like doesn’t seem to help lol. You just have to accept it.
I grew up in New Mexico, we call the New Mexican food here Mexican. I moved to PA and later Maryland, I was very surprised at the difference in food and what was called Mexican. After I while I realized there was a huge difference between New Mexican, everything uses locally grown chile, similar to Anaheim chile. Versus the other stuff which uses a lot of poblano, and other types of chile.
And then there was the places that served white peoples Mexican food. Maryland crab enchilada was the worst I think.
If you are interested in exploring the multiplicity of Mexican foods, you should watch Pati Jinich. Her shows are travelogue/cooking, but her background is in poli-sci so it’s always as much about the culture as the food:
https://patijinich.com/series/patis-mexican-table-season-5/
https://patijinich.com/series/la-frontera-season-1/
Sounds interesting, found her on youtube too:
https://youtube.com/@patijinich
Fellow New Mexican checking in; our food always incorporates a hatch chile sauce of one (or both) colors, and hot damn is it tasty! Having chile with every meal is probably the thing I miss about NM the most (after my parents, ofc). New Mexican food is its own category, separate from Mexican food.
We do Lemitar, or San Antonio chile here. Hatch only when the other two are not available.
Haha yes fair. I was just being snarky.
Doesn’t matter, the mexican restaurant in my 30% hispanic town owned by a Mexican family serves shit like this to cater to the rich white yuppies that come to my town to cosplay blue collar living. I go to the hole in the wall 2 blocks away to get legit food.