Mexican Food - 2 Thumbs Down Under

One of the few things I knew I would miss before I left the States for Australia was Mexican food. I was completely spoiled in KC. You can’t throw a stone in any direction in KC without hitting a Mexican restaurant. Twice I lived within walking distance of my beloved, affectionately nicknamed, “Mexican Price Chopper.” It had everything, from the best selection of produce (including cactus, every kind of hot pepper you could imagine, and strange looking vegetables I didn’t even know what to do with). In this grocery store, they even make tortillas, chorizo, and tres leches cake (yummmmmy) onsite.

So I figured Australia would be barren of most Mexican goods, and I had been dreading these food craving moments for months, but I still wasn’t mentally (or gastronomically) prepared. So let’s start with the most basic of almost-daily snacks for me, the “egg taco.” I had prepared for this one. There are 3 ingredients in an egg taco. 1. The egg. 2. The corn tortilla. 3. Mexican hot sauce. The hot sauce was in my suitcase.

Eggs are easy enough to find. The problem, I discovered, was the corn tortilla. I’ve searched every grocery store in our vicinity for what I thought was a basic food item. However, no corn tortillas can be found, only flour ones. In my search, I did come across something flat, with corn as a main ingredient, called “Mountain Bread.” Sounded cool and interesting, so I decided to “give it a go.” Although the ingredients list corn flour, wheat flour, water and salt, all these taste like are pure flour. And not even as good as a flour tortilla… just tastes like pure flour. Not cutting it for my egg tacos.

Next Mexican food attempt: the restaurant. Walking around the Gold Coast, you will actually see quite a few Mexican restaurants, at least more than I expected. I was reluctant to try them, but I finally gave in to my urges/curiosity. The first thing I noticed was the prices. Mexican restaurants in the US are notoriously inexpensive. Another way I was spoiled, I suppose, so I put the fact that even combination plates were $20 out of my mind. Scanning the menu, I saw “Chilli” Verde (sorry I can’t help pointing out the spelling mistakes!), one of my all-time favorite dishes. I read the description… capsicums!?? Instead of tomatillos, they use green peppers! I don’t think so… this is blasphemy!! So I finally decided on a “Burrito Americana.” I figured… if they can’t do actual Mexican, maybe they can do TexMex. When it came out, it actually wasn’t that bad. But not great either. And definitely not worth $20. I definitely needed some spice, as always, so asked for hot sauce. What do I get? Tabasco sauce. I don’t even like Tabasco sauce… I actually think it tastes gross. But I obviously didn’t get the hint, and decided to ask the waitress if she knew where they sell corn tortillas (she looked some sort of “ethnic”), but she obviously wasn’t Mexican because she had no idea.

SHEESH!!

The next project will be cooking refried beans at home. I've seen pinto beans at the store. So there I go. I can eat beans, at least...

...with hot sauce.