From food and drinks that could make you sick, to dishes that you're definitely going to
be disappointed in every single time, here are all the things you should never order
from a Mexican restaurant, even if they do sound completely delicious.
Apart from some rather antisocial after-effects, beans are often seen as a kind of superfood.
They are credited with the power to prevent heart disease, lower cholesterol, manage diabetes,
and fight cancer.
But, they also have their darker side.
Beans are a possible trigger for migraines, and they may also interfere with calcium absorption
as well as inducing the gassiness they're famous for.
Where things get really unpleasant, however, is when beans go so far as to cause foodborne
illness.
A Chipotle restaurant in Powell, Ohio had to close down in 2018 after customers became
ill with nausea, vomiting, fever, and diarrhea.
Investigation found that the outbreak was caused by a type of bacteria often present
in dried or pre-cooked foods that have been prepared in quantity and kept warm before
serving.
At that particular Chipotle, it was found that both the pinto and black beans hadn't
been kept quite warm enough, which could potentially have caused the mass food poisoning.
So a chimichanga starts out with your basic, average burrito, which can weigh in at well
over 1,000 calories.
But then you take this burrito and you deep fry it, which can increase the calorie count
as much 100 percent.
And you don't stop there, oh no, you go ahead and drown the poor thing in melted cheese
or other creamy sauces.
Give this one a miss… or, consider just how good is your health insurance coverage?
"Time to make the chimichangas."
By the way, we cannot blame Mexico for this caloric abomination.
They sure didn't condone giving a poor burrito this all-American state fair treatment, i.e.
dunking it in hot oil.
The first fried burritos, it seems, were made in Tucson, Arizona.
Nachos seem like a truly wonderful concept.
In theory, that is.
In reality, though, nachos tend to be more kind of... disappointing.
In 2015, intrepid food journalist Arthur Etchells tried to get to the bottom of this.
The previous year, he'd solicited suggestions as to Philadelphia's best nachos, but one
comment he received via Twitter really stuck with him:
"Every time I order nachos, I am completely underwhelmed… all of the time."
This struck a chord with Etchells, who went on to produce an opinion piece dissecting
the disappointment factor in what he calls the "fundamentally flawed" dish of nachos.
Several of the main reasons he gave were inevitably uneven distribution of ingredients, sogginess
of chips, and overabundance of unasked-for sliced black olives.
So ask yourself, before you go ahead and order the nachos grande, what, exactly, are you
hoping for, and do you really believe that this is going to be the time you finally get
it?
Order a margarita, and you're ordering a drink with two ingredients that can make you sick.
There's the ice, which comes into play whether your margarita preference is frozen or on
the rocks, and the fresh lime, which will probably be used to garnish your glass.
Although ice may not seem like a likely cause of food poisoning, it turns out that it can
easily contain contaminants that make people very sick.
Not only were contaminated ice cubes linked to a 2015 outbreak of norvovirus in Taiwan,
but both a 2011 University of Nevada study of Las Vegas bars and restaurants, and a 2017
study of several British coffee chains found that a high proportion of the ice they were
using in drinks was contaminated with some nasty fecal bacteria.
Limes can also easily spread disease.
Food scientists at Clemson University warn that citrus garnishes can easily pick up contaminants
from cutting boards, knives, or servers' hands, and the risk is especially high if the fruit
is wet — like that lime in your margarita.
A 2007 study involving restaurants in New Jersey found that nearly 70 percent of the
lemon slices they used in their drinks were contaminated with some type of bacteria or
fungus.
Rice in burritos, authentic or no?
There's been a lot of discussion on this point, with some sources weighing in emphatically
that rice in burritos is just wrong.
Many places use rice, though, and that might just be a cost-saving measure.
Authentic or not, adding rice is a cheap way for restaurants to bulk up burrito serving
size.
In fact, it's been reported that Chipotle specifically instructs workers to skimp on
more expensive ingredients such as meat, cheese, and guacamole, and even possibly tack on an
upcharge when a customer requests extra.
While Chipotle specifies that each burrito must contain a 4-ounce scoop of meat and rice,
they do not go so far as to reveal the exact meat-to-rice ratio, butmany customers have
their suspicions.
"It's 15 great tastes all rolled into one!”
"Taco Town!!"
Fajitas may have originated back in the cowboy days as a tasty treat cooked over a campfire
and made out of throwaway bits of beef, but didn't start appearing on restaurant menus
until the late '60s.
They were a fast-food staple by the '90s, but there's a reason to forego fajitas: Although
steak fajitas are supposed to be made from skirt steak, such factors as increased demand
and import/export tariffs have raised skirt steak's price to the point where many restaurants
find it prohibitively expensive.
These restaurants have taken to substituting various cuts of mystery meat which the Dallas
Observer found were so tough they need to be tenderized with enzymes which can easily
over-perform to the point where meat turns to mush.
Another tenderizing option involves marinating, but this is an easy way of spreading bacterial
contamination so… you can't win.
Unless you find something else to order.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Mashed videos about your favorite foods are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.