Milsurp After Hours

I guess our European friends have no idea what Mexican food is. However, you can tell when you go in that at least the place isn't formal dining.

For many years I lived near the border with Mexico, there were lots of Mexican restaurants. I learned early on that
there's a big difference in them. There's the chain restaurants that serve what Americans think is Mexican food, and then
there's the local restaurants that serve real Mexican food. A lot of real Mexican food I don't like, too many animal organs.
Now living on the Canadian border, not much real Mexican food, but that's OK, my ability to eat the really hot food has
diminished in the years since I moved back up here. Guess I'm turning into a sissy......

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I have never liked hot, spicy foods, I tend to lean towards English, French, Italian and some Chinese.

We lived in Huddersfield which is part of the West Yorkshire Curry Triangle (!) and people used to put a toilet roll in the fridge before going out for the night

Here in SW France there is almost no Asian food, it is mostly Arab from North Africa but not to my tastes either.

French foods are flavourful but not oppressively so ( unless the Chef is a garlic lover! ) and their love of meat as a starter of cold, cured varieties, cheeses, eggs and the like followed by steak or port or lamb etc just fits my bill.
Certainly very few Vegetarian or Vegan restaurants here

Mexican restaurants that are "real", as opposed to some version of Taco Bell, have pretty extensive menus. By the way, I saw a tv show about how big companies got started and the "Bell" in Toco Bell is the last name of the guy who invented the restaurant and it's menu. His only connection to Mexico is that he probably watched The Cisco Kid on TV as a kid. He wasn't looking to get as much Mexican business as he could but instead as much of McDonalds business as he could.

The confusing thing to me about Mexican is that a large part of it is really a sandwich made out of various flat bread made in different configurations. Some are crunchy and some not. Some wrap the contents up snugly with a cheese sauce poured over it. Some you can pick up in your hands and eat and some not. Most seem to be made out of a corn meal mixture, although there are flour versions. The headers in the menu section offer a clue once you learn the language .. Burrito, Quesadillas, Fajitas, Tacos. However, some of those, like Tacos , can have a hard shell or a soft wrap.

Mexican meals come with refried beans, or fired Spanish rice like hamburgers come with French Fries. The heat is a matter of dial it yourself depending on the degree of hot in the hot sauces you pick to use.

When I say Mexican restaurants, I don't mean the fast food junk, Taco Bell, Taco Time, Dell Taco type places.
Was more meaning real restaurants like Chuy's, Chili's, Baja's Fresh, El Torito, Chipotle, regular sit-down restaurants.
You probably don't get much Tex-Mex food places down south, but very popular in southwest and west coast....mmmmm good.
Probably my favorite fast food is El Pollo Loco, best chicken ever.....

You are right about food wrapped in something, tortillas are the basic wrap. First thing they ask you is flour or corn, usually
burritos are flour because they are normally larger. But like most things, they come in different sizes. My very favorite
Mexican food is steak fajitas with the smaller flour tortillas.

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Breaking Bad and Better call Saul are the only places I've ever seen a El Polo Loco. Large populations of Mexicans are in places most of us wouldn't have imagined. For instance, Western Kentucky. There are at least five real sit down non chain Mexican restaurants in Somerset Kentucky with a population of about 40,000. What all those former or present citizens of Mexico are doing in a small mountain town in Kentucky I have no idea....besides running restaurants with completely Mexican staff apparently.