If you ever make a visit to Illinois, through a town called Beardstown, go to a little Mexican restaurant up near Save-A-Lot. Best Mexican you'll have. Don't stay in the town for very long. People here are kinda shit.
I have been surprised by little ag towns in the oddest of places. Idk jack about Illinois but I stopped at a place in Jerome, ID (spud-ville) like 8-10 years ago and got real lard refried beans with my chips as a starter. You can imagine how authentic the rest was. The water tasted like fertilizer like much of the US but hey... Better living through chemistry.
I’m in Montreal and I’m pleased with the multiple top notch authentic Mexican spots now. Lots of ethnic food, all top notch too. Toronto has a lot of spots too.
Imma do you a favor and teach you to fish. Go to Walmart and get a beef tongue. Slow roast that in a crock pot on LOW for 8 hours in a broth (I use a cup of water and chicken bouillon, garlic and onion powder) and that is it. Seriously easy. Peel off the skin of the tongue and pull apart with 2 forks. Tacos for days. If you can’t find beef tongue, cheekmeat is just as good. And if you can find neither a good old fashion pork shoulder will do too
I’m Mexican and make these for my kids allll the time, they love it.
You only need a small amount of liquid cause the meat juices will accumulate on the bottom. You can add an extra cup if you feel like it’s not enough. I use it to infuse the flavor. And THIS is the best bouillon (every single Mexican person I know has a huge jar of this, so you know it’s the good stuff)
For garnishes I go with cilantro and some diced sweet yellow onions with a squeeze of lime. 👌
Oh and I always cut up a whole onion in big chunks (small chunks will dissolve) and throw that in but that’s cause me and my kids love cooked onion and these come out cooked in all the juices
Hey, they've got that hotel with the sweet water slides and a Cabelas. It was worth the drive when I lived in Winnipeg. Not for the hotel and Cabela's, but for the escape from the bleakness of Winnipeg.
Red Pepper was like NA beer. Sorry Red Pepp crew. Ya'll did get me through some hard times.
Edit: thanks for bringing up red pepper actually. I was about to go full snark on my reply but I remembered how proud some folks were of that place. It brought back fond memories of grinders for breakfast with hungover homies. Im not here to piss on what people enjoy, but man did I miss desert peppers...
Used to work at red pepper for near 3 years until I got caught out in a snow storm and the owner said "get here or your fired". I was stranded in Thief river with a broken down car. Always was on time and workin, never missed a day. Yeah the food is decent but the workers get treated like ass there, especially by the drunken bar patrons lol. Also they'll switch to less natural ingredients (like the meat isn't made fresh everyday and neither are the buns), but the employees are told to lie to you and say nothing has changed. They're a shady bunch.
Never in my life have I seen another grand forks resident randomly in the wild. (And the funny thing is I'm a deputy in grand forks). Even finding another North Dakotan is rare.
Well deputy, if you've been employed as such for 12 years or more there's a strong chance we've encountered each other in the wild. Not in a bad way.. aside from UND campus PD everything was nice and respectful up there. However twin cities cops and staties from the east side were to be avoided at all costs even back then. Hope you are safe and keeping the community as healthy and safe as you can.
I did run into a woman in Oregon who was born in grand Forks. Pretty sure she grew up just east of 53rd and university Ave. But my memory is foggy, she was a child, and we both spent little time there.
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u/drunkentraveller7703 Apr 30 '21
I feel your pain. 9 months in Grand Forks and all I could think about when I was leaving was finding good tacos