Strangely enough, the little Mexican restaurant up here on our island in the Northwest serves exactly what you describe that you have at home. The owner is from Jalisco, and he calls his food "estilo mexicano". They also have a very few "Cal-Mex" or "Tex Mex" foods (that strange stuff) that bear no relation to real Mexican food that you find in fast food places in California and Texas to serve those Americans who prefer that and don't care to try the real stuff.

It is the same with "Italian" food here. I grew up in an Italian neighborhood in California, and pizza was something served in sheet pans with only a tomato-garlic-olive oil sauce that was cut up into little squares as hors d'oerves (sp?) at weddings only. Then it became the God-awful stuff served with meats and cheese that you find now at fast food places, even in Italy.

Emilie
Port Orchard, WA

> To: research@lists.nuestrosranchos.org
> From: jlblonde@sbcglobal.net
> Date: Mon, 28 May 2012 03:21:58 -0700
> Subject: [Nuestros Ranchos] Food?
>
> What are the traditional foods of Jalisco and for that matter Los Altos?
>
> I remember going to the restaurant El Torito during lunch in high school here in Southern California in the 1980's and having my anglo friends ask me what certain items on the menu were. Tortilla soup? Stacked enchiladas? Fajitas? Rolled tacos? Chimichangas? Wet burritos? I remember saying, "What the hell is this? Must be the chef's menu from a previous position he held as a cook at Chino prison."
>
> Our food at home was and still is:
>
> Albondigas (meatball soup)
> Fideo (pasta soup)
> Picadillo (shredded beef with potatoes)
> Steak Picado (bisteak meat with tomatoes, onions, and peppers)
> Carne Asada (grilled meat and large green onions with no marinade)
> Conchas (large pasta shells with onion, tomatoes, and peppers)
> Caldo de rez (beef stew. I've heard it called cocido by other peeps)
> And the main staple in the upper cupboard, cheese. That weird smelling stuff shaped like a round yellow cake. I used to stand behind my dad wearing a gas mask as he would make quesadillas.
>
> So my question again is, "what are the traditional foods?" Is what I've mentioned above part of that or is it our assimilation here in the states? And what about the strange Mexican restaurant food I still come across now and then?
>
>
>
>