There’s a venerable French food restaurant in my town, it’s been there for something like 80 years and still going strong.
In her old age back in the 1970s and 80s, the founder of the restaurant, trained in the Cordon Bleu culinary tradition, loved going to Taco Bell! Her friends used to scratch their heads and tried to understand, or talk some sense into her: “But… that doesn’t make sense! Cheddar, ground beef, lettuce and cream in tacos… it’s not even real Mexican food!”,
to which she replied: “If I want Mexican food, I’ll go get Mexican food. But sometimes I just want Taco Bell!”, which is to say she craved some tex-mex.
Same reason I sometimes eat boxed mac&cheese or go to a mcdonalds instead of a real burger place. Sometimes the thing is it’s own thing instead of what it’s imitating.
I can’t make a mcdonalds hamburger at home. I can’t get the ingredients and bread:sauce:meat:cheese ratio right. My burgers are good, I’d even say better, but they aren’t the same and sometimes I’ll crave the mcdonalds version.
Honestly, I hate these arguments. “To each his own,” “Don’t yuck my yum,” etc. Sometimes I want to do things I know are imperfect and you, internet stranger, have no ability or prerogative to tell me what I can do or like.
Calling Taco Bell tex-mex is dubious at best, as well! It’s definitely inspired by it, and has had some influence on the restaurants since; but it’s far too fast-food-y to be considered proper tex-mex. TB is in a category all its own creation, which is definitely not a bad thing.
Skip TB. Go support your local Mexican restaurant, and try their pickled onions with habaneros and work up your tolerance to actually spicy food.
There’s a venerable French food restaurant in my town, it’s been there for something like 80 years and still going strong.
In her old age back in the 1970s and 80s, the founder of the restaurant, trained in the Cordon Bleu culinary tradition, loved going to Taco Bell! Her friends used to scratch their heads and tried to understand, or talk some sense into her:
“But… that doesn’t make sense! Cheddar, ground beef, lettuce and cream in tacos… it’s not even real Mexican food!”,
to which she replied:
“If I want Mexican food, I’ll go get Mexican food. But sometimes I just want Taco Bell!”, which is to say she craved some tex-mex.
Exactly.
Same reason I sometimes eat boxed mac&cheese or go to a mcdonalds instead of a real burger place. Sometimes the thing is it’s own thing instead of what it’s imitating.
I can’t make a mcdonalds hamburger at home. I can’t get the ingredients and bread:sauce:meat:cheese ratio right. My burgers are good, I’d even say better, but they aren’t the same and sometimes I’ll crave the mcdonalds version.
Honestly, I hate these arguments. “To each his own,” “Don’t yuck my yum,” etc. Sometimes I want to do things I know are imperfect and you, internet stranger, have no ability or prerogative to tell me what I can do or like.
This reads like an ad.
Calling Taco Bell tex-mex is dubious at best, as well! It’s definitely inspired by it, and has had some influence on the restaurants since; but it’s far too fast-food-y to be considered proper tex-mex. TB is in a category all its own creation, which is definitely not a bad thing.