¡Ask a Mexican! tackles BurritoGate

Well to be fair Illinois doesn’t really have a ‘food’ that it can call it’s own - everything popular here is just a tweak on other foods - Chicago dogs - copy of Nathans with shit piled on it, - Chicago Pizza - yeah again trying to ‘outdo’ New York.

They have fried catfish - that’s not especially unique to the state really - it’s a bland food paradise out here.

I’m completely on board with taking the best from other food traditions and making it your own. I’m not so much on board with a racially pejorative term for rotten or discolored fruit being used to describe children.

In the UK we have a big issue in that “Indian” food is mostly meat-based from North India. People miss out on the spectacular and delicious array of gorgeous vegetarian foods!

A lot of restaurants are seemingly employing eastern europeans behind the scenes to cook. No issue with them per se, but I reiterate my comment on heritage.

I always try to look into the kitchen.

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Ah yes. That’s the nice thing about the US–There’s a lot of Indians that came over here, and it’s not a trendy food to eat for a nice dinner (unless you’re actually Indian), so menu items tend to have lots of regional specialties and not much different than how they are in India. Actually the hottest curry I’ve had was in Naperville, IL and I’ve been to Bangalore and Chennai.

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Unsure what you are getting at - I don’t think you can ‘appropriate’ food - it’s food - in terms of the taco truck I wish these people would send hate mail to Taco Bell. I was just commenting on the fact that Illinois wouldn’t know if something was real food even if it was, the food landscape in the state is about as exciting as a glass of water.

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BTW, you know what sounds to me really tasteless and problematic?

“Hey, they went to Pueblo Nuevo, that does not count as going to Mexico. I mean, is a Mexican city in a Mexican state but come on”.

Yea, because what is Mexico being decided by the US has such a long story of working so fine for Mexicans.

EDIT: Puerto. Brainfart.

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Puerto.

Your concern is noted.

Just speaking for myself here but Damn I’d really like to try some of those ladys Burritos. I’m really sorry that they gave it up…no winners here… .

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Apart from the brainfart on my side, somebody should at least change Neuvo to Nuevo. Just saying.

In Reno,NV a whole bunch of the Mexican restaurants​ are owned by Salvadorans. Which is something I’ve anyways find a bit odd, but the food if good so who cares.

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I know. I’d like to make them at home. Will probably substitute store-bought tortillas for the hand-made ones, and they will be terrible in comparison. Oh well.

There are so many different regional variants of hot dogs though. A Chicago dog isn’t a Nathan’s dog, which isn’t a Cincinnati coney,* which isn’t a Texas-style chili dog,** or the hot dogs with baked beans they have in parts of New England.

*Not to be confused with a Michigan-style coney

**From Pennsylvania, not Texas

Chicago style and New York style are completely different. They can barely be considered the same food IMO. If you go Downstate you get into St Louis pizza territory, which is different than either.

When I think Illinois food, I think Italian Beef sandwiches.

But if it’s bland food you want, you can have the Illinois Horseshoe or loose meat burgers. We’ve got plenty of that, if you go Downstate a couple hundred miles first.

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I think I’ve been there, but it was many years ago and I forgot the name of the restaurant.

I went with an elderly relative who had lost her sense of smell and taste.

Except the food in Chicago is amazing. A good chicago dog is much more interesting than a basic-ass hotdog with just ketchup and mustard. Deep dish pizza was not an attempt to ‘outdo’ New York pizza, both deep dish and New York style are excellent when done well. You’re buying into the same concept that the idiots attacking the Portland burrito-makers have, that there’s some authentic and original form of food and any attempt to alter or copy it outside of its native space somehow makes it illegitimate.

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TY. Corrected.

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Why would I get pizza in St. Louis, when I can get a “St. Paul Sandwich”?

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It will probably take me 10 or 15 burritos before i can tell if there is any cultural misappropriation in them. better check the tacos as well just to be safe.

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There’s a place in my home town does Goan food, which was a real eye opener. And delicious.

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Yep, people have been ripping off each others’ cultures for as long as there’s been anything resembling ‘culture’ and ‘trade’. There’s no point in complaining about cultural osmosis: it’s going to happen whether you like it or not.

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I think about them as well. Thinking about them right now, actually. /nomdrool

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