Date: 2007-08-02
To: Food for Thought
Miles today: 0.0

I have come to believe that there must be a mathematical equation which a person can use to calculate the probability of finding a good (meaning the food is homemade and doesn't taste too gringo) Mexican food restaurant based on a city's proximity to the South Texas/Mexican border. I believe your chances exponentially decline with distance. Here are my findings:1. Big Bend Nat'l Park used to have some kind of agreement with the city of Boquillas on the other side of the Rio Grande. Somehow it was legal for people from the park to cross the river in a rinky-dink aluminum boat to visit Mexico on the other side. We used to eat at a little Mexican restaurant in Boquillas (the only restaurant in the city), which served the most delicious little tacos that have ever existed--taco meat and refried beans enclosed in the yellowy goodness of small homemade corn tortillas, deep fried and served with lettuce and salsa. Mmmmmmm...2. Oliver's mother is from the city of Cotulla, which is in Texas and is approximately 70 miles from the Mexican border. Hilda grew up speaking Spanish as a first language, and when she was older, cooked for her family. What I'm getting at is that her food is very tasty, and always homemade. Her tortillas, which she makes according to a recipe in her head, are to die for.3. I live in Lytle, a city about 140 miles away from the border. Many (though not all) Mexican restaurants around here serve homemade rice, beans, flour tortillas, corn tortillas, taco shells and even enchilada sauce. My taste buds really appreciate this.4. San Antonio, 20 miles north of Lytle boasts about the same chance of finding homemade food as Lytle does, although I must say that quality declines around the more touristy Mexican restaurants downtown.5. Austin is nearly 240 miles away from the border. It is very hard to find any homemade tortillas in here (including taco shells), even at restaurants which were good otherwise. Many places sold "authentic" tortillas--which means that the dough is made from a flour mix and the tortillas are pressed flat and round on a rotating tortilla machine (a la Taco Cabana). Usually rice and beans weren't homemade, but still tasted okay.6. New Mexico--the distance is hard to qualify because it's hard to decide when "South" Texas ends and "West" Texas begins. My parents have eaten at a few Mexican restaurants in New Mexico (the state name is so misleading!) and were gravely disappointed every time, as they could tell most of the food came from a can. 7. I tried a recipe on www.recipezaar.com for "Easy Spanish Rice" which was rated 4.5 stars out of 5. Among the user reviews were comments like "this tasted just like the Mexican restaurant in our home town!", and "this was so good, I couldn't stop eating it." The rice turned out just like the Lipton Spanish rice, which is to say, rather disappointing. It made me wonder what kind of disgusting Mexican restaurants these people have access to.It has come to my attention that there are numerous Mexican restaurants in towns bordering the AT. This scares me, because the East coast does not border Mexico at all, and is perty dern far from Texas. Alls I can say is that I hope hiker hunger helps taste buds forget lapses in pleasing Mexican food flavor, just like it allows hikers to go to greasy AYCE Chinese buffets and be happy.One more thing: I put a timer on my desktop that counts down the months/days/hours/minutes/seconds until I leave for the AT! It makes me get butterflies in the tummy a lot