Eating good vs. bad Mexican Food

I lived in Arizona for over 42 years and dined on Mexican food quite frequently. Since there are a variety of Mexican restauants located all over the Phoenix Metropolitan area, at least twice a week I dined at a decent Mexican restaurant. (No Taco Bell does not qualify.) Even though the Mexican food in Phoenix was good, I looked forward to the authenic cuisine in the fishing town of Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point), a four hour drive from Phoenix, Az. The trip through the barren desert was worth it because upon reaching Gringo Pass for a final gas stop before crossing over into Mexico, it would only be about 15 minutes before I had my Mexican food fix at the taco stand in Vasquez. The food was inexpensive and good. $1.00 for three soft tacos with diced carne and topped with cabbage, or 2 cheese quesadeas or 2 tamales. I usually ate 3 taco and two quesadeas. There were five different toppings set out in a self serve Tupperware container-pico de gallo, diced red onions, guacamole sauce, and green and red chili sauce. The latter two being hot.

Down in Rocky Point, I would dine at the different restaurants where unlike the inexpensive prices at the taco stand, American pricing was the norm. There were, though, taco stands all over the place, so I never ran out of my daily food fixes. Well, all that ended when I moved to Michigan and discovered in order to get good authenic Mexican food one has to travel on down to the city of Detroit to dine in Mexican town. However, it is a 35 minute drive by freeway and when one gets off the freeway, one is navigating through areas that are fine to travel during the day, but I, myself, would not want to be exploring at night. I do have to say in all fairness, it is worth the drive.

Now out in suburbs where I am, I can fagettaboutit in finding top notch cuisine and therefore, I make my Mexican food from scratch. Some of the restaurants I have been in could be categorized in the "one step above Taco Bell". For example, a place that in my never to be humble opinion that qualifies for that category was called Salsaritos. We had a half off the second entree' coupon and when my dining partner and I entered and noted it was an assembly line type cafeteria style joint, we should have walked out. Instead, we gave the place the benefit of the doubt and ordered. I gave Miss perky blonde an order for the three enchilada plate and she proceeded to take 3 flour totillas, and sprinkled some yellow sheded cheese on them and popped the trio into a toaster oven for 45 seconds. Then she removed them and passed the plate onto a man who put some carne on and chicken on another and then asked what I wanted in them. Now this is where the sub sandwich shop topping arrangement came into play. Bins of toppings and sauces. I chose onions, tomatoes, lettuce, salsa for the filling and then the man asked if I wanted red or green chili sauce. I chose the red sauce and then decided to try the cheese sause. Mistake. Of course, it came with rice and either refried or black beans. Dining partner ordered a taco salad. When I took my first bite, I was less than impressed. The so called enchaladas were not hot and the cheese sauce tasted like a cheese pudding. The rice tasted similar to Taco Bell rice and the black beans were bland. Since I was very hungry I did eat about 85% of the order. Dining partner about 75% of his. Needless to say, Salsarito's will not be seeing my face there again. But in all fairness, the two authenic items in the place was the bottle of real chili sauce from Mexico on the table and the fountain Coke. Other than that, subjective.

Now, in closing I want to pass on my recipe for a southwest style spanish rice. (I also have a recipe for Guatemalan style rice that I will post another time).
You will need to:
Dice up half a small white onion
Two green onions
2 TBSP of mince garlic
You will also need 1/2 C of capers. (However, this is optional). Capers are a tangy item that adds contrast to the rice.
In a 5 quart sauce pan pour enough oil to cover the bottom and heat on high.
Add 1 1/2 cups of white rice.
Fry the rice unti brown.
Then add a 15 ounce can of red enchalada sauce (fill the empty can with water and add)
1 16 ounce can of diced tomatoes
1 can of green chilis
The onions and garlic.
Add 3 cups of water
Then turn the heat down and simmer until the water is absorbed.
Then season with rice with 1 TBSP of cumin, mild chili powder, cilantro and cayenne powder. (Now if you do not want the rice spicy, leave out the cayenne powder).
Add the capers.
Serve.