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    #26
    Taco truck in London!

    Linus, that sounds interesting. I'd like to read more, if your friend writes something. I'm still a bit skeptical, however...or rather not skeptical, but I think the "first to have [x]" when it comes to culinary things is kind of a impossible thing to state with certainty. I don't doubt that story for a minute, but no doubt people from Arizona would say that "well, we had our burritos back then also," and the LA-connection stuff I've read is mainly from LA sources. I think with a lot of dishes, it's likely that a lot of different people in different places reached similar dishes independently.

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      #27
      Taco truck in London!

      My stepdad is Tibetan. It's cuisine mostly consists of Pot Stickers, Barley flour (yes, just the flour), dried Yak meat and butter tea. But they make homemade beer, so who really cares.

      As for the regions where most Mexicans in Chicago come from. But going with my gut, I'd say mostly the central states.

      A quick google confirms this.
      Metropolitan Chicago has the second largest Mexican immigrant community in the United States, following Los Angeles. Current estimates place the area's Mexican and Mexican-ancestry population at between 800,000 and 1,000,000 people, of whom two-thirds were born in Mexico. The states of Guerrero, Jalisco, Zacatecas, Guanajuato, and Michoacán encompass nearly 80% of all Mexican migrants in the Chicago metropolitan area.
      http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2003/thesixthsection/special_mexican.html

      My family is from Mexico City though, well my dad grew up in Teotihuacan which is the town where the giant Pyramids are from about an hour outside the capital.

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        #28
        Taco truck in London!

        've always wondered, you know, if there are any countries whose food just isn't worth bothering with. Any places where, despite the centuries where they could have honed a national cuisine, they just made do with rubbish.
        Holland. The Dutch approach food, as everything in life, from a very cold and practical point of view. Their national dish is spinach, potato and suasage mashed into a pulp. Carbs, protein and veg, in a convenient paste form. This is then supplemented during the day by soft brown buns with cheese (hot ovens producing crust are wasteful), washed down with buttermilk.

        Yay.

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          #29
          Taco truck in London!

          Is there anything you like about Holland, Bryan?

          edit: I'm not trying to be snide, but it seems that there's a lot of things there that you don't like. Sorry, but I don't know a whole lot about your situation and how you came to be there.

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            #30
            Taco truck in London!

            There's a lot to be said for British food, erwin, there really is. I've been eating great fish and chips and crab sandwiches, and helping to cook and eat a wild rabbit pie you'd journey for hundreds of miles for. I'm not hearing a word against British food at the moment, whatever your Portuguese say.

            Incidentally, the Spanish answer to derek's question is as often as not "Portugal", but never having been to Portugal I'm not qualified to comment. I like natas.

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              #31
              Taco truck in London!

              Yeah, there's loads of great British food, especially when it comes to pudding.

              Anyway, I'd like to nominate Slovakia, based solely on my housemate's inept attempts at cooking anything, the anything usually being overcooked meet and boiled potatoes.

              He's lived in Italy for four years but had to call his girlfriend to ask how to cook pasta. Seriously.

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                #32
                Taco truck in London!

                Inca, the theory is based on two historical facts: the preponderence of large wheat tortillas in northern california (and just about nowhere else in ancient Mexico) and the preference for donkey meat among native americans from the area at that time, as documented in these two books:

                California Rancho Cooking

                California Pastoral 1769-1848

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                  #33
                  Taco truck in London!

                  radmonkey wrote:
                  [quote]A quick google confirms this.
                  Metropolitan Chicago has the second largest Mexican immigrant community in the United States, following Los Angeles. Current estimates place the area's Mexican and Mexican-ancestry population at between 800,000 and 1,000,000 people, of whom two-thirds were born in Mexico. The states of Guerrero, Jalisco, Zacatecas, Guanajuato, and Michoacán encompass nearly 80% of all Mexican migrants in the Chicago metropolitan area.
                  Seeing the names jars the ole' memory. I read a Chicago Reader (Chicago's alternative weekly) piece a few years back about Pilsen, which is, along with Back of the Yards and parts of Rogers Park, one of the central Mexican enclaves in Chicago. For example, when I take my students on a tour of Pilsen's murals each year we always seem to go at a time when the schools are getting out. The teachers strictly speak Spanish with the parents of the children. Anyway, the article talked about the quantity of immigrants who arrive each day from Jalisco.

                  It's worth noting, more generally but also in the context of ethnic enclaves and types of food, that Chicago seems to differ greatly from Los Angeles and even NYC in terms of the quantity of Central American immigrants. Or at least the public face of Guatemalan and Salvadoran immigrants is minimal compared to those other two cities. I am guessing that it is similar in the UK.

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                    #34
                    Taco truck in London!

                    Incashallah wrote:
                    Is there anything you like about Holland, Bryan?
                    A certain woman, the Melkweg, being able to cycle everywhere, Belgian chips, the Amsterdamse Bos in the summer, Amsterdam in the summer in general, the bridge that they have to wet when it gets too hot, the fountain at the Frederiksplein that people but soap into for laughs, the bicycle tunnel under the Rijksmuseum (RIP), deep fried Indonesian peanuts and the 91 year old man who scoffed at me when I suggested he use his USB stick to print at another computer... he said he'd just use his wireless network.

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                      #35
                      Taco truck in London!

                      My theory on the burrito is that it's a phallic reference. Mexican cooks/laborers love dick jokes. I can't really prove it though.

                      It's really just a giant wheat flour tortilla taco with sour cream, refried beans and guacamole. But I don't see why people are so in love with it, it's usually the greasiest blandest thing on the menu. Especially if the restaurant offers ground beef as a filling. The cooks who allow that should really wipe their ass on the Mexican flag, it would be quicker.

                      Anyway, Mexico's most overlooked contribution to world cuisine is the Caesar Salad. Probably the only decent thing to ever come out of Tijuana.

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                        #36
                        Taco truck in London!

                        We've reworked the margheritas on the menu here at work. The agave syrup that has been added makes them taste like barbecue sause. This is not a good development.

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                          #37
                          Taco truck in London!

                          radmonkey wrote:
                          My theory on the burrito is that it's a phallic reference. Mexican cooks/laborers love dick jokes. I can't really prove it though.

                          It's really just a giant wheat flour tortilla taco with sour cream, refried beans and guacamole. But I don't see why people are so in love with it, it's usually the greasiest blandest thing on the menu. Especially if the restaurant offers ground beef as a filling. The cooks who allow that should really wipe their ass on the Mexican flag, it would be quicker.

                          Anyway, Mexico's most overlooked contribution to world cuisine is the Caesar Salad. Probably the only decent thing to ever come out of Tijuana.
                          It doesn't sound like you've had the real thing radmonkey, no decent burrito place would offer ground beef or refried beans as an option, those are Taco Bell-type fillings.

                          What makes the burrito so great is that it's possibly the healthiest fast food meal in the world (the sour cream is more or less a gringo option), and also one of the tastiest (talking about the real thing here of course.)

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                            #38
                            Taco truck in London!

                            I mean...they can be pretty tasty I admit, but I still rather have 3 tacos. Not really a fan of flour tortillas.

                            But healthy? No way.

                            http://www.chipotlefan.com/index.php?id=nutrition_calculator

                            http://www.burritoblog.com/2008/04/chipotle_ignore.html

                            That's just for Chipotle burritos, but assuming they're all just as bad, if not worse. The tortilla itself is almost 300 calories! Holy crap, I actually didn't know that. I should really cut down on tortillas.

                            There's a reason that Mexico is the 2nd fattest country after the US. England of course, is number 3.

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                              #39
                              Taco truck in London!

                              The real thing is a bit leaner than the Chipotle version, rad. You're basically getting a reasonably-sized grilled or boiled meat serving (smaller than what you'd get in a typical restaurant serving), with plenty of whole beans, rice, tomatoes, onions, cilantro and hot pepper salsa, some cheese and bread. The tortilla actually has about the same amount of calories as 2 1/2 pieces of sliced bread.

                              If you hold the sour cream, this is a very healthy and balanced meal, with plenty of fiber and nutrients. One other interesting thing about it is that the raw onions, cilantro and hot pepper act as natural antibiotics, I had never gotten sick after eating a well-seasoned burrito despite the fact that a lot of the better places tend to be a bit lax on the hygiene. I can't think of a healthier type of fast food that is as well-balanced.

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                                #40
                                Taco truck in London!

                                There's a reason that Mexico is the 2nd fattest country after the US. England of course, is number 3.
                                According to this, the UK is not even in the top twenty:

                                Forbes fat list

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                                  #41
                                  Taco truck in London!

                                  It's definitely right up there, if you filter out Pacific Island micro-nations. I expected polynisian and Gulf countries in there, but it's surprising to see countries like Argentina and Greece way up there.

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