Comments on: Gay French Day 27

By: Cindy

Cindy — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 21:41:38 +0000

I am also also here to comment about Mexican food! As a Mexican-American expat who grew up with a Mexican mother who cooked Mexican food every single day…I don’t miss Mexican food. There are at least as many good cuisines as there are days of the week in major European cities. To wit, there is an Eritrean restaurant down the way from me. I can’t even pronounce Eritrea! That seems way more awesome to me than a burrito (which is as Mexican as English is Mexico’s official language). Plus, every country has their Mexicans, y’know? England’s Mexicans are Indian. Hence, super Indian food like you could not imagine in the US. All that being said, if you miss tacos or whatever, that’s ok. I, too, remember the despair I felt when I realized that some English people think a bunch of carrots on Doritos constitute “Tex-Mex.”

By: Denise in WI

Denise in WI — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 11:54:55 +0000

Trader Joe’s now has dark chocolate brownies with sea salt! But it seems like here in Wisconsin, the chocolate-with-salt candy only appears in the [gross] form of “chocolate bar with bacon”. Yuck!

By: ericka

ericka — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 23:45:09 +0000

In Brooklyn there is such a surfeit of dark chocolate with fleur de sel that you cannot walk down the block without tripping over somebody’s lovely $10 artisanal truffles, pralines, whatever. So you should expect that that trend will also, eventually, arrive in Iowa, just as ten years ago you couldn’t order a single savory thing that didn’t come with sundried tomatoes, or fifteen years ago a single salad that didn’t in some fashion involve raspberries and/or balsamic. Honestly, if salty chocolate (and salty caramel, also ubiquitous) weren’t so undeniably and sublimely perfect, I’d have to start hating it out of pure trend-backlash-ish spite. But oh. Oh.
(Also, the experience of eating Indian food in Japan was just about as bizarro as your Mexican French adventure.)

By: freddy

freddy — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 22:58:51 +0000

Oh god, when I lived in Germany I became so obsessed with Mexican food it was like a virus. I would make every visitor from the states bring me a giant long list of things: chipotles in adobo, dried black beans, tortillas, hot sauce…

By: Alexandra

Alexandra — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 12:02:05 +0000

There is a Chipotle in London! I haven’t been desperate enough to go to it (yet). Although I did order a margarita at a bar that had margaritas prominently listed on their cocktail list and it took two people 15 minutes to make it (and they had to consult a recipe book) and then they checked with us repeatedly to make sure it was ok. It was kind of weird, but I just told them it was ok.

By: pmg

pmg — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:45:24 +0000

I always used to think that one could make a killing opening up some sort of Tex-Mex chain franchise, e.g. Baja Fresh or Chipotle, in Europe.

By: chancel

chancel — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:39:54 +0000

you know what I think abt the whole lock scenario already, so I will just say I’m glad the apartment lady has calmed down. STRESS NEARLY OVER.
Mexican food in Europe! apparently Mexican food anywhere in the eastern hemisphere! when we were in Helsinki we totally ordered burritos at a bar, and while they were fine, they were not one thing: burritos. they did actually have some sliced red jalapeno as garnish, though, which was pretty shocking in finland in january. even the supplies at the grocery store were sad, so we could not make real burritos in our tiny rented finnish cabin. so sad.
you can totally get the dark chocolate with sea salt in the us, although considering IA it may need to be mail order. theo chocolates or vosges.
I am jealous of the fall!! sitting around in those foldy green chairs in the park in the fall reading a book!

By: dalas v

dalas v — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:26:44 +0000

I am also here to comment on Mexican food!
When I lived in Norway, I ended up missing it so much. I took a trip to Paris, and when I saw a Mexican place, I had to eat there. I think mine was a little more satisfying than yours was, but that was years ago, and my memory could be rose-tinted.

By: hason

hason — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:20:56 +0000

Good Mexican food! When my brother was living in Japan he was feeling the pain too – paid the exta luggage allowance just to bring him a suitcase full of salsa (also Goddess dressing and Trader Joes snacks). His expat friends spoke of taking the train into the city to shop at “the american store” where they rejoiced at paying ten (or twenty?) bucks for crappy El Paso. But alas, there were no tortilla chips in the store that weren’t coated in some sort of flavor gunk.
I bet even the most gnarly anti-immigration tea party dude would miss good mexican food after being abroad in europe or asia for a few weeks.
And yes, I often give thanks that the grammatically incomprehensible English is my native language. Trying to teach a non-native speaker the finer points of the verb “to be” really drove this home.