Spending many pre-Portland years in the Southwest (Texas and Southern California), I enjoyed decent Mexican food. So the question when I moved to Portland years ago was, Would there be good Mexican food in a city where one of my Los Angeles co-workers said I was joining "the gentiles.”
The short answer is, Not really.
My first try was a restaurant called THE ORIGINAL TACO HOUSE. A friend of mine, a native Portlander, said it was his father's favorite Mexican restaurant. Give the Waddle family credit; they introduced Mexican food to Portland way back in 1960, which, to my way of thinking, meant Portland had been less than livable. What struck me about THE ORIGINAL TACO HOUSE was that all waitresses wore colorful, frilly, short dresses to give their Caucasian looks a faux senorita look. The food itself, also faux Mexican..
I tried several other Portland aspirants to Mexican cuisine and, for example, talked with some local TV talent who said EL INDIO out on Halsey was the best--again indifferent except for steep menu prices.
I finally nailed down where Portland really goes for Mexican food, to judge by the lines out the door. I tried ¿POR QUE NO? once. Overpriced, skimpy portions, and poser execution with hipster pretensions for what one reviewer said was more Redondo Beach than anything else.
After giving up on Portland's Mexican food scene, I was tipped off to try Woodburn, 30 miles south. Woodburn is a hub for many Mexican-American farmworkers and going into LUIS'S TACQUERIA, all of the staff and most of the families that eat there are Hispanic. Something closer to authentic taste (menudo on weekends, anyone?).
More Mexican restaurants have opened in Portland as the Hispanic population grows, but I've found they can be hit-or-miss (food poisoning from a bad taco salad inhibits exploration).
I did turn up one acceptable local tacqueria in a convenience store. The place is named after a town in Michoacán, Mexico, where the recipes originated. As for food safety, what can I say? No problem. The place is across the street from a hospital and gets many doctors & nurses as customers. And the Bacon Breakfast Burrito gets two thumbs up!
For now, I'm also content to cook Mexican at home and dream of that visit to, say, a South Padre Island place in Texas, where half the customer cars parked outside had license plates from Nuevo Leon, or Tamaulipas. Mexican cuisine doesn't get any better this side or that close to the border with a demanding clientele like that.
Image credit: reefrecovery.org
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