Anonymous
Post 05/21/2015 22:54     Subject: Re:Good Mexican restaurant?
RW: When you get to Mexico, you start looking for this real Mexican cuisine that everybody is talking about. You find Nescafe coffee for breakfast and Bimbo sweet rolls instead of the egg tacos you're used to. You realize that what we call authentic Mexican food is really a couple of cherry-picked dishes from some great cuisines that are spread all over the country.

Tex-Mex is a Texas version of Mexican food and it's a commercial cuisine for the most part. It mostly exists in restaurants, but it was adapted from Tejano home cooking. The Spanish pulled out of Texas in the late 1700s and left behind Spanish-speaking mission Indians who became known as the Tejanos. They came from Native American stock and they were really not Mexicans; they had never lived in Mexico. They had been acculturated by the Spanish missionaries here in Texas.

Tex-Mex cuisine is descended from their tradition, and also from a lot of Canary Islanders who were brought to San Antonio by the Spanish to try to expand the colonization of Texas. The Canary Islanders brought with them a Berber flavor signature -- Moroccan food. There was a lot of cumin, garlic and chili, and those flavors, which are really dominant in chili con carne, became the flavor signature of Tex-Mex. It's very different from Mexican food. Diana Kennedy is prone to say that Tex-Mex includes way too much cumin. But if you compare it to Arab food, you suddenly understand where that flavor signature comes from.

http://www.splendidtable.org/story/if-it-isnt-really-mexican-food-what-is-tex-mex
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2015 22:47     Subject: Good Mexican restaurant?
There are a few legit taquerias. The one in Gaithersburg is quite good, though not the best dining experience in the world.
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2015 22:17     Subject: Good Mexican restaurant?
We love rosa mexicano
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2015 22:12     Subject: Good Mexican restaurant?
New taqueria on N. Glebe Rd. is AMAZING.
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2015 22:08     Subject: Good Mexican restaurant?
Anonymous wrote:Los Tios --Del Ray



Ugh, no. That place is not good and overpriced.
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2015 21:40     Subject: Good Mexican restaurant?
Chuy's in Fairfax.
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2015 21:31     Subject: Good Mexican restaurant?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:There is no good tex mex here.


There is no good tex-mex by definition. Tex-mex isn't Mexican food.

Why would someone visiting DC ask for Mexican? Take them for crabs.


There is extremely good Tex Mex food and you happen to be ignorant on the subject. There is also very good Mexican food. I haven't found any of either in DC.
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2015 21:05     Subject: Good Mexican restaurant?
Anonymous wrote:There is no good tex mex here.


There is no good tex-mex by definition. Tex-mex isn't Mexican food.

Why would someone visiting DC ask for Mexican? Take them for crabs.
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2015 21:02     Subject: Re:Good Mexican restaurant?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous



Hi friends coming in from out of town ,they are coming with 2 young adults children (18 and 20). They want a really good Mexican or second choice Italian restaurant...what do you think? We are not big on Mexican so have no idea what to recommend? They tend to like more upscale places.

What do they mean by Mexican food? If they are thinking Tex mex they will not like DC options. Now there are some true Mexican restaurants, but it's not what most people will think of as Mexican. Mexico is a big place with different foods.


Where are these true Mexican restaurants?
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2015 20:59     Subject: Good Mexican restaurant?
There is no good tex mex here.
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2015 20:53     Subject: Good Mexican restaurant?
Mi Rancho is great for Tex-Mex.
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2015 20:10     Subject: Good Mexican restaurant?
This thread is so predictable

Oyamel is excellent Mexican food. Excellent.

For a bit more casual, I like Crios in Dupont.
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2015 19:55     Subject: Good Mexican restaurant?
Anonymous wrote:Los Tios --Del Ray


I'm from Southern California and LOVE Mexican food. Los Tios describes its food as Tex-Mex/Salvadorean. It's the best in the area, IMO, and I have tried a lot of places looking for good Mexican. http://www.lostiosgrill.com/home.php
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2015 19:53     Subject: Good Mexican restaurant?
I would probably take tourist visitors to Carmine's. Maybe Filomena.

El Paso in Springfield is the closest you can get to decent Mexican in the DC area that I've found.
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2015 19:51     Subject: Good Mexican restaurant?
Tippy's!!