I have a place in my tastebuds for the Chipotle and for the taqueria, for the Burrito Bol and the horchata. My tastebuds contain multitudes. There are times when I want Real Mexican Food (tm), and then there are times I just want Chipotle.

Right now, of course, I want horchata. But I am still in inside pants and on a deadline, so it's leftover Chinese food for me.

it sounds like a pet name for one's SO.

Or maybe a pet name for one's SO's meat muffin.

"Meat muffin" is disturbing, and yet it sounds like a pet name for one's SO. I may have to start using it.

This is even more disturbing.

Maybe some Sunday afternoon next summer I'll finally hit the Maxwell Street Market (no longer on Maxwell Street, unfortunately), which is rumored to be the best place to get Mexican street food north of the border.

Taco Hell is a godsend for roadtripping vegetarians. You can only eat so many fries...

When it comes to fast food chains of Mexican food I'm a big fan of Rubios.

Yeah, I like Rubio's too. I really like their fish tacos. I also like Baja Fresh.

Oh, and for the record, Taco Bell, Del Taco, and similar are not mexican food. That's fast food with a spanish accent.

What distinguishes fast food with a Spanish accent from fast food chains of Mexican food?

"Meat muffin" is disturbing, and yet it sounds like a pet name for one's SO. I may have to start using it.

This is even more disturbing.

Heh. You don't find endearing the idea of JZ calling and crooning, "How's my meeeeeat muffinnnnn?" at you?

Whatever happened to romance?

I tried making a Rubios sauce for fish tacos one time, but the mayo in it was too weird. I went back to plain sour cream.

Chipotle is delicious and many of their items are ethically sourced or vegetarian- and vegan- friendly. Can't say that for any other tacqueria on my block.

I, like most Californians and southwesterners I guess, can only scratch my head at the Taco Bell /Chipotle discussion.

Count me as a Southerner who never eats at those establishments. In my relatively small town we have at least 4 mexican restaurants, 2-4 taquerias (can't remember which are just tiendas), and 3 tex-mex places, too. And I'm not counting Qdoba or Chipotle in those numbers.

Believe it or not, some of the best Mexican I ever had was in Troy, North Carolina. For realz.

We do have a lot of the Mexicans here.

On the plus side, I'm drinking soda from a fabulous Halloween goblet I got for 62 cents at the grocery store when I picked up my lunch sushi.

Ooo, which one? I got an awesome "vintage vampire movie" mug at an auction, but some lady offered me $20 for it (I payed $12) b/c her daughter would love it so much. I found out through research it originally cost $2 at Kroger's! But there's not one around here so I haven't checked to see if they had them this year.