Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Mustard

Ketchup

Mayonaise

Hotdog Sauce

Ranch Dressing (WTF?)

[littlefallsmets]

I ain't knowing for a Moes, one way or the other, but inauthentic stuff is sometimes awesome.

Baja Fresh isn't authentic at all but a lot of Mexican people in Angeles loved it.

They'd say "Oh, it isn't Mexican at all but it is still great."

[Choop]

all's i'm sayin' is i get my tacos outside texas and on occasion there exist such as beans among the fillers

[Carlos del Vaca]

Baja Fresh beats the ##### off of Moe's.  I will fuck*ng FIGHT people over this if necessary.

[CortJstr]

Baja Fresh beats the ##### off of Moe's.  I will fuck*ng FIGHT people over this if necessary.

Baja Fresh is the berries. I like it way better than Chipotle

[wombat]

Baja Fresh used to have a taco with peppers, onions, and cheese, and if you asked them to leave the meat off, you got something that made you believe that someone who worked somewhere in that company actually might have eaten some Mexican food once, at least in Southern California.  And for a while they had an enchilada with an actual red chili sauce. But they have demonstrated an uncanny accuracy in selecting exactly these almost real foods to take off the menu permanently or to change to the point that they're unrecognizable, like they did with the giraffe taco.

[pmcd9]

Baja Fresh beats the ##### off of Moe's.  I will fuck*ng FIGHT people over this if necessary.

It's 'cos they don't put beans on their tacos amirite...

[pmcd9]

[littlefallsmets]

He never disappoints us by containing beans, that's for sure.

[Lister]

It's odd, I can't remember the last time I've had a taco.  I just always end up getting burritos or enchiladas.  My personal favorite is a local place that puts enchilada sauce right in the California burrito.  This is in no way authentic.  This is in every way awesome.

I take it back, I've had "street tacos" around here.  They're pretty awesome.  They're like a mini sampler platter, just for you.

I went to a Moe's during a visit home to Alabama and ordered a carne asada burrito.  The man across the counter looked at me and said, "You mean steak?"  I was very confused, especially since the man had been speaking Spanish to the other people he worked with.

[jay-ell]

Pedro tells me that "carne asada" is a generic term for "grilled meat," depending, of course, on dialect.

[miles]

'Cause if you don't like beans, well then whatever, I will put them inside or along side of that folded tortilla delicious delivering device I call a taco. And you may not.

But if it's some strict constructionist thing about what is and what is not a taco?

Riiiiiight

This whole debate reminds me of differing attitudes on pizza in New York (I know, I'm not a New Yorker, but I read about being one on the internet). First, Anthony Mangieri. He shut down his operation in NYC last year and is apparently relocating to San Francisco, but I ate at his place four years ago. Really nice, interesting guy, and the pizza was hell of tasty. But he also believes there is only one way to make pizza, and that no one else in the US or even Italy these days makes real pizza.

A wiry human doodle pad of Christian and punk tattoos, Mangieri is the unofficial front man for one of the more notable culinary phenomena to grip the city in years: the Naples-style pizza revolution. From Bed-Stuy to the Upper West Side, New York’s quintessential food is being redefined by a cadre of wild-eyed converts to a notion seductive in its romantic certitude: that the best pizza—the one true pizza—comes from Naples and Naples only, and the way to do it right is to obsessively re-create the ingredients, techniques, and all but the street smells of Naples. Everything else is an insult to flour, oil, tomatoes, cheese, and you.

[snip]

Mangieri, for his part, isn’t bothered by the charges that his is an inaccurate representation of the motherland. He’s over Naples, he says. “The best pizza I had there is as good as my pizza on a mediocre day. On a really good day, the pizza I make here blows away anything made in Naples.” He takes a pause. “And it breaks my heart.”

And can be kind of a cock about it.

Mangieri’s take on his competition is similarly pointed, to say the least: Luzzo’s pizza is “garbage,” Kesté’s “tastes like shit.” “There’s no love,” he says of the latter.

And then there's this kid. In answer to the question: "What one thing should NEVER go on a pizza?"

As far as I am concerned there are no rules. Some Italian guy in the 16th century decided to get crazy and put tomatoes, something no one had ever seen before in Europe, on a pizza, I applaud people who innovate. Again, don't take pizza too seriously. I vaguely remember topping a pizza during Easter with Peeps and putting it in a wood-fired oven, I don't think that ever needs to happen again.

Also, I have a friend who is a sushi chef, trained in Japan, and he can be kind of annoying about what real sushi is.

The gastronomic descriptivism/prescriptivism debate.

[wombat]

There is no food that can start an internet flame war faster than pizza. It's actually pretty funny, and I say that as an actual New Yorker and therefore genetically as opinionated about pizza as it is possible to be.

I think it's important to know what's authentic, but it's also important not to confuse "authentic" with "the only thing that tastes good."

[JorgeFabregas]

Authenticity is a pretty nebulous concept to pin down.

[wombat]

Sure, but just because a concept isn't black and white doesn't mean it's not worth some attention.

Of course, there are some things that are black and white, like if you put pineapple on a pizza, you should be arrested.

[AugustWest]

What is the problem with beans, people?

Is it because beans are not authentic or some lame ass thing like that or that you do not like them?

'Cause if you don't like beans, well then whatever, I will put them inside or along side of that folded tortilla delicious delivering device I call a taco. And you may not.

But if it's some strict constructionist thing about what is and what is not a taco?

Riiiiiight

This.

Authenticity is about replicating something or relating it to a particular place or style.  It implies nothing about tastiness.  I suppose it can be an acceptable thing to pursue, but it's nothing to be snotty about.