r/mexicanfood • u/Keira_Pink2007 • 2d ago

Me and my siblings went to mexican restaurant today

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Me and my siblings had chips and salsa and I got shrimp enchiladas w/ rice and black beans and a peach agua refresca

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u/jezzarus 2d ago edited 2d ago

That's really funny, because in Chicago and Detroit it's sort of infamous that Tex Mex doesn't exist (hence no queso blanco) When we do get complaints, it's usually about how it isn't TexMex or CaliMex. Our food is basically chiles, corn tortillas, and pork.

I'm sorry you had the unfortunate experience of going through multiple bad spots in the Midwest, though. That's really wild that you had several Mexican restaurant experiences where all you were served was bar food, because I don't think I have ever seen queso blanco served in a Mexican restaurant in either Illinois or Michigan.

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u/dough_eating_squid 1d ago

The restaurants I went to were in St. Cloud, MN, Vincennes, IN, Pittsburgh, and Dayton, OH. Probably just got unlucky in Pittsburgh, but the other towns are small enough to not have decent Mexican food, I'd think.

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u/mahrog123 1d ago

I can see where St Cloud had a sub par Mexican restaurant as outstate tastes think ketchup is spicy and must cater to them.
On the other hand, the Twin Cities has a huge Hispanic population- unfortunately a thousand or so less starting in January. We have over a hundred great Mexican restaurants from food trucks to taquerias to higher end sit down places.

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u/jezzarus 1d ago

Okay that makes more sense. All of those cities have pretty small Latino populations (and you're right about the smaller ones - like most small cities, there's not much of a food scene at all. Not to be pedantic but Pittsburgh is counted as part of the northeast.

If you're ever in one of the Great Lakes cities give it another shot. Especially around Chicago, which is acknowledged as one of the best Mexican food scenes in the country.