Delicias Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico
There’s no denying the ever-increasing popularity of Mexican food across America, but it may surprise you to learn that in the estimation of some sources, it has supplanted Italian food as the favorite ethnic cuisine in the land. Marketplace, a nationally syndicated business oriented radio program with more than nine-million listeners a week, says there’s no bones about it, calling Mexican food “the most popular ethnic food in the U.S., bigger than Italian or Chinese.” Askmen.com confirms only that “Mexican has become one of the three most popular cuisines in the U.S., with nearly 90% of the total population having tasted it.” According to Marketplace, there are some 90,000 or so Mexican restaurants across the fruited plain. The loose categorization of “Mexican restaurants” not only includes our incomparable New Mexican cuisine and our neighboring state’s Tex-Mex, but such “Americanized” chains as Chipotle, Taco Bell and others of the ilk. Lest you become agitated that such Mexican “in name only” restaurants would be thrown in along with the authentic Mexican restaurants, the truth is that even among restaurants owned and operated by Mexican immigrants you’ll find pretenders serving less than authentic Mexican cuisine. Sometimes they do so to remain competitive in…
