Topic: Localization/Tradition
Source: Over the weekend, I saw a flyer from Rita’s Mexican
Restaurant, and honestly I’ve had Mexican food from around here and it compares
nothing to real Mexican food, so I decided to check this place out because I’ve
heard really good things about their food.
Relation: From
reading throughout Robbins chapters I learned the concept of localization is
bringing new ideas/things and localizing to the community, in this case being
Mexican food. I thought, finally I can blog about something I relate too,
involving a little tradition from my Mexican heritage, and the localization of
Mexican food in Arcata.
Description: I had been craving a torta and horchata for the
longest over the past several days, and when I saw Rita’s flyer, I told my
friend if it was a true Mexican restaurant it would for sure have torta’s. It
certainly did, I was so happy for once a place had torta’s, my next concern was
would it be a real torta? Looking through the menu I saw they had a really good
variety of main Mexican dishes such as tamales,burritos, tacos, enchiladas, torta’s, quesadilla’s, even chimichanga's and all sorts of meat like barbacoa, asada, milanesa etc. I ordered a
torta/sandwich with barbacoa, and let me tell you it taste pretty damn good. It
consisted of guacamole, melted cheese, barbacoa, onions, lettuce, and an extra
sauce that added a really good flavor. Ive had better but I think this place is
as good as it gets around here. The horchata was good too but I was
disappointed that it was powdered horchata and not hand brewed like it should
be. Although I was a bit surprised to realize that my dish came aside with
fries, I didn’t mind but “fries’? I thought this was a little twist to typical American
food, and thought it was quite interesting that they do this.
Commentary Analysis:
Its hard to find a really good Mexican place around here in
general, but Ive noticed there are several places trying to pull-off the
typical “Mexican grill”. Going into Rita’s I was actually surprised to not see
any other Latino’s than my friend and I. But I was more astonished to realize
how much white people actually love Mexican food. As my friend and I walked to
our assigned seating I felt sort of awkward because it seemed like we were the
outcast and all these white people were just starring at us, like they’ve never
seen Mexicans walking through there. I was extremely overwhelmed to know that
Rita’s is a mexican family run-on restaurant and the guy who served us had a
conversation with us talking in Spanish and it felt so nice to smell Mexican
food, I truly felt like home. By doing this observation I came to a conclusion
that Rita’s restaurant is an example of localization, they’ve gotten the
community into liking anew style of food in which is not there usual customs. I
also think Rita has a good vibe upholding Mexican tradition, in what a typical Mexican
grill would contain of. From the decorations, to the music, and paintings, even
the workers. In this case I loved the way the community has reacted to Mexican
food, its delicious and they love it!
