Wars over boys, time to pack it up

common gen z/millennial W

Well they finally got something right.

My wife is Mexican (American), born and raised in the RGV, and she pretty much hates mexican food but loves Italian. I mean, who doesn't love Italian? Italian food is proof that god loves us and wants us to be happy (and maybe fat).

Mexican food is ok. Texmex is better. Italian is worth fighting in the street over.

Those are my top 2 in satisfying foods with lots of good options. I can see a gradual shift as demographics shift over time. Still, can't go wrong either way for me.

Italian food sucks. TexMex is the best.

Those being the top 2 definitely explains the obesity problem we have. It's super easy to have 2000 calorie individual meals eating that stuff regularly.

Cheap Tex-Mex is more easily available (outside of pizza), but not better than good Italian food.

Quality Tex-Mex and Italian food are equally great in their own unique ways.

Verne Lundquist said:

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Italian food sucks. TexMex is the best.

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We shall duel at high noon ruffian!

Gigem314 said:

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Cheap Tex-Mex is more easily available (outside of pizza), but not better than good Italian food.

Quality Tex-Mex and Italian food are equally great in their own unique ways.

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Why would we compare Cheap "X" to Good "Y"?

Where I leave there's 10 cheap Tex-Mex restaurants for each cheap or good Italian restaurant. The market knows what the customers want.

There's some outstanding upper end Italian food and homecooking, but apart from some pizza, most entry level Italian is meh, meh, meh. On the other hand, there is a lot of outstanding Mexican and TexMex street food and taquerias and hole in the walls that makes my soul happy. Count this grandpa in with the pups (on this and maybe only this topic).

Italians entire palette is centered around a vegetable from Mexico

I've never had better food in my life than when I visited northern Italy. Every meal was amazing and tasted fresher than what I'd normally eat back home. Every cup of coffee I drank was better than anything I'd ever had back home. That said, Mexican food in Austin is preferable.

AgBandsman said:

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Gigem314 said:

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Cheap Tex-Mex is more easily available (outside of pizza), but not better than good Italian food.

Quality Tex-Mex and Italian food are equally great in their own unique ways.

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Why would we compare Cheap "X" to Good "Y"?

Where I leave there's 10 cheap Tex-Mex restaurants for each cheap or good Italian restaurant. The market knows what the customers want.

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Because Tex-Mex is more easily available, but doesn't make it better. I like quality of both.

I always tell my Mexican friends that the way I decide where I'm going to eat Mexican food is I type "Jalisco" in Google maps. They give me their nod of approval. I like a cheap hole in the wall.

Nothing happens in a vacuum.

1. Ingredients for quality Mexican food are now available in places where they historically have not been (ex. fresh avocados & jalapenos in the winter in Boston)

2. Populations shifting south change what's appealing. If appetites tend toward lasagna in the winter and tacos in the summer: population shifts to warmer regions will swing consumption toward 'summer' foods.

3. Family size. Italian is built for feeding huge families during long meals. As we isolate the convenience and benefits rebalance

4. Exposure. Good Italian proliferated prior to good Mexican food, so it figures that preferences would follow exposure and availability

Honestly, both of those foods make you fat af...

93MarineHorn said:

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I've never had better food in my life than when I visited northern Italy. Every meal was amazing and tasted fresher than what I'd normally eat back home. Every cup of coffee I drank was better than anything I'd ever had back home. That said, Mexican food in Austin is preferable.

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My wife and I spent a week in northern France, primarily Normandy, almost five years ago. We ate Italian pretty much every day because it was the only thing we could read on the menus. I was to die for amazing. We're finally going to Italy this summer. If the Italian is good in France I can't imagine what it will be like in Italy.

Agreed that Austin has the best Mexican food in the state, consistently (outside of the Valley). Coffee in Europe is much better, also agreed. Beer and wine in Europe is off the charts.

MouthBQ98 said:

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Those being the top 2 definitely explains the obesity problem we have. It's super easy to have 2000 calorie individual meals eating that stuff regularly.

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If you're eating the American-ized (see texmex) versions of them, sure. Now, if you're eating stuff that isn't sold at olive garden or Chuys, then you're more likely to get more vegetables, less processed cheeses, and foods that have less calories but still very flavorful.

That being said, I'll take Mexican (tex-mex or more traditional) every day of the week and twice on Sunday Oct Italian and anything else.

My favorite cuisine is Mediterranean, which has some Italian influences

I do prefer really good Italian food to really good TexMex though.

No Spin Ag said:

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MouthBQ98 said:

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Those being the top 2 definitely explains the obesity problem we have. It's super easy to have 2000 calorie individual meals eating that stuff regularly.

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If you're eating the American-ized (see texmex) versions of them, sure. Now, if you're eating stuff that isn't sold at olive garden or Chuys, then you're more likely to get more vegetables, less processed cheeses, and foods that have less calories but still very flavorful.

That being said, I'll take Mexican (tex-mex or more traditional) every day of the week and twice on Sunday Oct Italian and anything else.

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Fewer calories!
Not less!

93MarineHorn said:

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I've never had better food in my life than when I visited northern Italy. Every meal was amazing and tasted fresher than what I'd normally eat back home. Every cup of coffee I drank was better than anything I'd ever had back home. That said, Mexican food in Austin is preferable.

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Italians in Italy take food very seriously, it's deeply embedded in their culture and they take tremendous pride in it. Each region has its own specific style of cooking and they have spent centuries perfecting it. They are willing to go to incredible lengths to get things just right. Making the Sunday meal and enjoying it together with family is the cornerstone of Italian life, it's really a beautiful thing.

Of course that has fostered 1000 versions of that great thing, some of which are wonderful and some of which are not.

Mexican food is still a source of pride but it isn't viewed in the same way generally. Certainly you have elements that are similar such as families getting together to make tamales at Christmas but most Mexican food is designed for quick and easy meals that translates well for most Americans who don't like to take hours to enjoy a dining experience regularly. Certainly you have Mexican food that is artistry but it's a very different concept overall than Italian. It also works much better for fusion concepts than Italian (pizza works but most Italian food really doesn't).

I love it all and would hate to live in a world without either. It makes perfect sense to me why Gen Z types like Mexican better though as my guess is many of them have never had truly great Italian food and the TikTok culture doesn't really go with the idea of spending all day preparing a meal you will then spend hours eating together as a family. Kind of sad actually.

For all of you claiming "Austin has the best Mexican food", where are y'all eating???? Because I live here and there is only one Mexican restaurant that I would say is excellent, and that is Santa Cantarina in Lakeway, but that is interior mexican food, not Tex-Mex.

This is like arguing over which beer is the best. 1000 different opinions.

I went to Connecticut for work a few years back. Never had spent anytime past Quantico before.

Talk about culture shock. Instead of a taco shop on over corner, it was an Italian restaurant.

I think part of the reason of the increasing popularity of texmex or Mexican is the ability for it to be much less formal. A taco is street food. It is very casual and easy to eat outside with a beer.

Other than pizza, Italian seems much more formal with a need to sit down at a restaurant.

Tanya 93 said:

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My favorite cuisine is Mediterranean, which has some Italian influences

I do prefer really good Italian food to really good TexMex though.

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I love Mediterranean too. We have a little Greek diner here and I am the only one in the family that ever wants to go there so naturally it never happens since dad gets out voted.

I think this has something to do with the lowering of the quality of American wheat. The wheat that is grown in the US and is used in most pasta dishes here is not as good of quality as it was in years past, and it comes through not only in flavor, but even who can eat it. My wife can eat pasta made from non-US grown wheat, but can't from domestic wheat.

Hungry Ojos said:

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For all of you claiming "Austin has the best Mexican food", where are y'all eating???? Because I live here and there is only one Mexican restaurant that I would say is excellent, and that is Santa Cantarina in Lakeway, but that is interior mexican food, not Tex-Mex.

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Honestly, I prefer Cuban or Puerto Rican to Mexican cuisine. I spent a lot of years going to Florida for work and got hooked on it. Our office in Maitland had a small restaurant owned by a Cuban family and they loved to offer the big white guy from Texas all kinds of different grub they'd be cooking up.

Speaking of Cuban......El Monumento in Georgetown must have got a new chef. The Torta Cubano they are now serving is to die for. Like literally I make my wife go there with me one a week to get it. It's amazing good.

BQ78 said:

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Well they finally got something right.

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Tanya 93 said:

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No Spin Ag said:

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MouthBQ98 said:

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Those being the top 2 definitely explains the obesity problem we have. It's super easy to have 2000 calorie individual meals eating that stuff regularly.

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If you're eating the American-ized (see texmex) versions of them, sure. Now, if you're eating stuff that isn't sold at olive garden or Chuys, then you're more likely to get more vegetables, less processed cheeses, and foods that have less calories but still very flavorful.

That being said, I'll take Mexican (tex-mex or more traditional) every day of the week and twice on Sunday Oct Italian and anything else.

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Fewer calories!
Not less!

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You learn something new every day.

There are few things better than an al pastor taco on a fresh corn tortilla.

Kung Pao Chicken or GTFO!

Pretty sure that the "Mexican" and "Italian" food that Americans are eating is quite a bit different than what they're eating in Mexico and Italy. Or maybe they just eat a lot more of it here.

Obesity rates are nearly twice in the U.S. what they are in Italy.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/obesity-rates-by-country

They make lazy, sedentary Americans fat. Actual Italians and Mexicans? Not the case.