I realize this is a broad question, but I’d be interested in personal anecdotes. Are they even common? (Obviously varies by county and region)
if you need an antidote to eat Mexican food, maybe you shouldn’t
Mexicans restaurants aren’t Europe. Europe is Europe. What a silly question you silly person!
I’d say they’re few and far between. At least here in Germany. You have to actively look for them if you want a proper one.
What about one that isn’t proper? Do you guys have taco bell?
Not really. Seems there are like 4 in the whole country. Where the US Army is stationed. I’ve never seen one.
We have a few places that sell like Pizza and Burritos. I’m not sure if they’re authentic (probably not). There aren’t any big chains selling Mexican food. But there are restaurants. It’s not like we have none. It’s just not very common. But you can get a taco or enchilada here. What is a bit more common are cocktail bars with mexican food. Quality and price of their food varies in my experience.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen one.
Helsinki has multiple Taco Bells. One of the rare cities in Europe for that. It is quite different compared to the US, better quality ingredients and many vegan options.
Ok-ish? In the bigger cities you can find good Mexican restaurants. I know of at least one great one in Germany. But you probably won’t get anything authentic.
To survive restaurants have to adapt to the local taste. And to be fair, your typical central European thinks mayonnaise is spicy.
That last line killed me 💀💀💀
I love ghost pepper sauce 🤤
Bad, in my experience. There’s not much of it anywhere I’ve been, so there’s not a lot of competition or authenticity. I live in a state with about 10 billion Mexican restaurants, most of which are run by actual Mexicans, though, so my standards might be skewed as far as what a normal amount of Mexican restaurants looks like.
I haven’t found any mexican restaurants in Belgium. Just none. There is a taqueria where I live but it does not scream authentic at all.
As a kid I lived in Thailand and there was an excellent restaurant there with super yummy food - think not sure it was authentic.
Making Mexican food yourself is also tricky as the ingredients (dried chillis) are not easy to find.
Can you get cumin? If so, you can probably make some pretty good tacos.
Only the following 6 ingredients are required:
Tortilla
Ground meat - I recommend beef
Onion
Salt
Minced Garlic or garlic powder
Cumin powder
All other ingredients are optional
Cooking:
Chop enough onion to make a pile 1/2 the size of the meat
Cook the onion over medium heat until it starts to soften
Add a little garlic
Add the meat
Turn up the heat a little
add a little salt
Add a lot of cumin - this should be the dominant flavor
Add a little of any/all optional seasonings for depth of flavor
When the ground meat is done cooking, add more salt to taste. Be careful not to over salt it.
warm the tortillas
Add meat & any/all optional ingredients to the tortillas
Enjoy!
Optional Seasonings:
chili powder optional
A very little bit of MSG optional
Black pepper optional
Onion powder optional recommended
Optional Ingredients:
Chopped Cilantro optional
Chopped Tomato optional recommended
Sour cream optional recommended
Salty shredded cheese optional (Cheddar, Colby, Monterey Jack, Muenster, etc)
Salsa optional (should have tomato chunks and not look like marinara)
Dried chilli’s are pretty easy to find in some parts of Europe, just not others.
I can tell you for sure they’re a thing in Portugal.
In Japan, there are a couple of chains that exist and smaller restaurants (basically all in the areas where foreigners are and moreso near US militar bases). “Taco rice” is a local take that is basically taco ingredients served over rice instead of in a taco shell. Almost all of the places are adjusted to Japanese tastes by default, so a lot lower on the spice. Lots of foreigners living here end up going to one of a couple of places (two of which are basically Chipotle knock-offs for however “Mexican” you might consider that) or giving up and making their own. We did get Taco Bell a few years ago (again “Mexican”) which has a more limited menu. I wasn’t impressed, but I never cared for US Taco Bell, either, but it had lines lasting hours the first days/weeks it was open.
personal antidotes
Its not that bad, that you need an antidote (anecdotes is what you want), but just doubt it’s very authentic.
I’d say they are quite rare, I’ve only been to one once. I won’t be going back. I’m not even sure if it was a bad restaurant or if I just don’t like mexican food. But it was bad.
Lived in SoCal for a long while and have family in Germany. Have had access to inexpensive and incredible Mexican food. There are a host of cultural and economical reasons as folks have laid out already. One problem in particular is the cost of masa harina. It is incredibly expensive in Europe. One of those things where if you want it, you have to make it yourself. I recall a Jamie Oliver taco episode, I was appalled at what he made. His audience for this show was UK, it seemed. Should be against the law to call whatever that was tacos.
I just went and watched his pork taco video. The only spice he uses is paprika. The pork looked so dry. Bell pepper as the bass of the salsa.
I was like, that man should know better!
Here in Sweden we have a chain called Taco Bar (tacobar.se) that sells Mexican derived food.
I like it, but I realize it is far from proper Mexican food, more like Swedish Tex-Mex…
Then here in Stockholm we had a small restaurant that felt far more authentic, El Taco Truck, they started as a food truck, got a few proper restaurants, closed them and now runs a brand of food in normal stores. They were great, when I introduced my coworkers at my last job to them, they were amazed, spicy and tasty, but a few years after, they shut their restaurants.
We have another chain called “La Neta”, I tried it once, and almost got physically ill, not because the food wasn’t cooked, but it was just so much fat in it that the texture was horrible.
Those are the ones I know of off the top of my head.
Apart from Spain, you’d be hard-pressed to find genuine Mexican food in Europe.
This is a really ignorant comment.
Are you saying that nobody has emigrated from south America and opened a restaurant in Europe? Because I can assure you there are hundreds.
They take a bit of finding but the average American tourist is too lazy to look andonly eats at chain restaurants, then pronounces all foreign restaurants bad 😂
Spain is in Europe. Spain has the 3rd highest emigration from Mexico.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/792157/number-emigrants-mexico-country-destination/
Only one I remember was in the Mexico district of the theme park Phantasialand. My parents loved going there. Kid me was a picky eater and would only eat fries there. But later on I started to like it as well.
Couldn’t say anything about authenticity. Never been to Mexico. But when I started to like spicy food I remember being disappointed about the three jalapeños on the menu still just meaning white people spicy.
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The ones here in Ireland are absolute shite. Not a patch on traditional cooking. Some weird combination of American fast food chains.
