Olive Garden ruined my relationship
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And I, from NY, also probably don’t truly know good bbq, good Mexican, etc. so it goes both ways.
I’m super lucky that my parents don’t fall into that trap (except they freaking love Cracker Barrel) and when they come visit me in the South Central they’ll eat whatever I take them to. Always something they “can’t get at home.”
Jumping in to say that my cousin from Milwaukee was visiting last year and we had Mexican food with my parents. He had never eaten an enchilada before and I had to explain what it was. Which blew my mind. (I’m in CA and Mexican food is so easy to find plus I love it so…) Needless to say, I’m really enjoying this thread, and I also used to go to Olive Garden with my grandmas when they were alive (many years ago) so I think back on it fondly. Gotta love the breadsticks!
That’s crazytalk Moneypenny! My sister (given up for adoption by my mom, found us about 10 years ago) was raised in a Puerto Rican family but has always loved Mexican food and she insists there’s great Mexican food in Milwaukee. Personally, I hate all of it but that’s just me 😛
Yeah, Honeybee- I agree! I think, though, that his parents are just not adventurous with food. Anytime I’ve met them we always eat at bland American food places. I think he was just deprived growing up 😛
Milwaukee has tons of great Mexican places, even/especially in the burbs. Your cousin’s parents had lots of options; they just chose not to try them.
I brought this up on the dating thread and I’ll bring it up here: I’m horrified by what passes for good tacos in the Midwest. But, everyone has their own palette that they’ve become accustomed to. The first time I went to China, I was probably 13. And I recall being disappointed that the Chinese food I had there wasn’t the kind I’d grown accustomed to living in the U.S. for the first 11 years of my life. Meanwhile, I seldom (if ever) ate Japanese food in the U.S. as a kid, and then my family moved to Japan. And now I’m a Japanese food snob in the Midwest.
“Probably because people from Ohio don’t generally have access to good Italian restaurants (as opposed to people in the NY/NJ area, for example) so they think Olive Garden is a good place to go.”
Ohio has a large Italian-american population, particularly in Cleveland and the industrial areas of Northeastern Ohio. Cleveland has a whole little Italy. Columbus and Cincinnati also have plenty of Italian restaurants.
All of these “people outside the coasts have never eaten good ethnic food” comments are wildly misinformed. Plenty of good foods in your midwestern suburbs. I’m not sure why the person from Milwaukee had not eaten enchiladas before, but if you did a yelp search for Mexican restaurants in Milwaukee I bet you the first ten choices would have enchiladas.
That being said, the median Mexican restaurant, at least in NorCal (never lived in SoCal) is much better than the median mexican restaurant anywhere else I’ve been.
