Worlds worst food

senior chef

senior chef

Senior Member
Unfortunately, i am stuck in Mexico and i'm forced to buy food from Mexican markets. I must tell one and all that the food in Mexico is pitiful.
i can not think of a single thing for sale in local markets that would be good enough to make it in U.S. markets.

The bread, is a not any good. No taste what-so-ever.

95% of the beef is sliced so thin that the only thing you can do with it is charcoal it. And, it's tough. I've never even seen a decent roast.
The chicken is way too old and too often tough.
The selection of seafood is quite strange. The flesh of most of it is super soft and falls apart easily. Nothing i've found compares with Cod, Red fish or Pollack.
The selection of cheeses is odd to say the least. Yes, they do sell what they call mozzarella , but it has an odd taste and melts poorly. No cheddar at all.
The ice cream in their freezers is usually melted and refrozen, and now crystalized and "crunchy".
The only oranges for sale are Valencia and good for juicing only. No Navel oranges at all ... ever.
Canned corn is fit only to feed pigs. Incredibly tough.
Not possible to buy heavy whipping cream. thus it can not be whipped to stiff peaks.
They do sell pepperoni but it is incredibly thin. Not at all like Hormel pepperoni or Gallo.
I asked several times about corned beef and corned beef hash. They had no idea what I was talking about. Same thing about breakfast sausage or Italian sausage. They never heard of it either.

I could understand the difficulty if I wanted caviar but good heavens is it so hard for them to make a decent loaf of bread ie Italian etc.

Even the American fast food outlets are often fouled up. About 3 years ago, a McDonalds opened in a pricey area and they promptly went out of business due to poor management.
Once i stopped off at a KFC and ordered a 2 piece meal with mashed potatoes and cole slaw. The slaw tasted like it had no mayo what-so-ever, tasted like raw cabbage. Yuck. !

One of the problems is that many Mexican businesses pay starvation wages. Thus, employees have zero incentive to do a good job. I know one fellow that runs a breakfast/lunch restaurant and he pays the cooks only 60 dollars for a 6 day work week.






The chicken
 

I have never been to Mexico, but it sounds like you're not happy with their food! For the bread, why don't you try baking your own? I've also had similar experiences when traveling to Europe and not finding the quality of food I am used to in the U.S. So I/we started staying in hotels that had kitchens so we could cook our own food. It worked well for us. Good luck!
 
Apparently, you must have a reason(s) for continuing to live in Mexico despite the food situation, or lack of. If I were in your shoes plus the foodie that you are, that would definitely drive me insane and out of there fast! I need my tummy happy at all times. 👍🏼
 

palides2021 said:
I have never been to Mexico, but it sounds like you're not happy with their food! For the bread, why don't you try baking your own? I've also had similar experiences when traveling to Europe and not finding the quality of food I am used to in the U.S. So I/we started staying in hotels that had kitchens so we could cook our own food. It worked well for us. Good luck!
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I occasionally do make my own bread , BUT I need King Arthur unbleached bread flour, AND the right yeast. I get it from Amazon but it is quite expensive compared to U.S. supermarkets.
The only flour available in mexico is bleached white. Zero flavor. OH, yes there is also w.w flour but it does nor make a good Italian loaf.
 
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Patek24 said:
Apparently, you must have a reason(s) for continuing to live in Mexico despite the food situation, or lack of. If I were in your shoes plus the foodie that you are, that would definitely drive me insane and out of there fast! I need my tummy happy at all times. 👍🏼
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I can't afford to live in the U.S. 80% of my retirement money would be eaten up by rent. In mexico I only have to pay 32% of my monthly income for rent and that includes elec. and gas.
 
senior chef said:
I had been in the Tijuana area many times , BUT I did not do any food related research before hand.
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did u eat in tijuana? did the food seem iffy then? not making fun of you or anything. just asking if u noticed anything off when u visited. i had a coworker from mexico and she never ever mentioned the food quality being weird.
 
I lived in Oaxaca 30-35 years ago. I'll try to remember back, and hope I can say something helpful.

You don't say why you're "forced" to shop in the market. Either there is no supermarket (which might sell more acceptable foods), or you can't afford to eat in restaurants.

If at all possible, get someone else to cook for you. The food and the cooking methods are very different, as you know. If you don’t like spicy food, or prefer certain things, let them know. But understand that their repertoire will be limited to Mexican food.

Pork chops and ham steaks should be available at the market, and aren't tough.

Other meats might need to be pounded and made into breaded cutlets ("milanesa").

Usually meat is kind of incidental. Tamales with small amounts of chicken in them, and so on. Where meat is used, it's usually chopped or ground to within an inch of its life. Or cooked in water, e.g. "guisado."

Sometimes there was a large family "barbacoa," involving goats cooked in a pit in the ground. Very tender and delicious. Maybe you can buy cooked barbacoa somewhere and take it home.

In Oaxaca the emphasis was on the sauce, e.g., mole or salsa verde. There would be a couple of unrecognizable lumps in the middle of the sauce. Really you were just eating tortillas with lots of flavor. Not my thing (and I didn't like the sauces).

In the Blanco supermarket I was able to buy Chambourcy manchego cheese, which melted nicely. I made good pizzas with it (I even sold pizzas to the neighbors).

Speaking of pizzas, most people didn't even have an oven. The whole way of shopping and cooking just wasn't geared toward that. Sounds like not much has changed in that regard.

If you can, forget about roasts and the way you're used to cooking and eating. Figure out a few things that you can enjoy, and eat them. And let someone else cook it, to the extent you can afford.

If I think of anything else I'll write again.
 
P.S. Some bakeries are better than others. Have you tried other bakeries?

Also, I remember at night there was a taco stand. The tacos didn't have ground beef or sloppy sauce. Instead, the meat was cooked first and then finely chopped. Quite delicious.
 
Yes, I've eaten in Juarez and it was terrible! The "beef" didn't taste like beef. Don't think it was.
Drove down to the coast when I lived in S.D .and the people were so nice but the food was not.
You can live in San Diego. Get another person to share rent. Find alternatives.
Do they still publish the "Reader"? Put an ad in the Reader.
 
I have been to Mexico several times and always liked the food, but maybe I don't have well developed tastes. I liked the sauces and taco fillings, and other things. Along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico they had pretty much the same fish as we had in Louisiana or Florida, and it was usually well prepared. I do agree however the bread and cheese weren't great.
NorthernLight said:
I lived in Oaxaca 30-35
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That sounds interesting, I somehow never made it to Oaxaca, but hope to someday. Once worked with some migrant laborers from Oaxaca who occasionally fed me, I liked the food. Thing I remember best were baked plantains or bananas. Very sweet.
 
There is a HUGE difference between Mexican food in Mexico and food In a U.S. Mexican restaurant. I learned to love the Mexican food in a Mexican restaurant in Denver Colorado. Really, there is no comparison. Even something as simple as refried beans vary widely depending upon which country you are eating in.
 
NorthernLight said:
P.S. Some bakeries are better than others. Have you tried other bakeries?

Also, I remember at night there was a taco stand. The tacos didn't have ground beef or sloppy sauce. Instead, the meat was cooked first and then finely chopped. Quite delicious.
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Yes, I have tried other bakeries. Same lack of taste.
PS: what they call hamon (HAM) is not my idea of what ham should be. Mexican hamon is a ground up and formed "ham loaf" and a poor excuse for ham.
 
My daughter lived in San Miguel de Allende.
She's a foodie and loved it there but does most of her own cooking by choice.
It's also rated in the top 10 foodie towns in Mexico.
It's a beautiful city. Since it has a lot of expats the police are fairly protective.
 
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