sin of liberalism #6,234- i ate the food at chevy's but not my daily caloric intake

I don’t usually walk my body into the chains. No I don’t. I used to think going out to dinner revolved around the Red Lobster, and Chevy’s, and Olive Garden and and and. See that is what we had in the lovely planned community I grew up in. They had more drug stores per capita and now today starbucks holds that title. They did things like tear down the Price Club just to rebuild a Costco years later or it was planned but they forgot to plan a downtown. Probably no accident there. There were no places. Really family owned. Everything was big, everything fluorescent, everything was manufactured just as the track houses in the sections split off by letters. I used to think this was going out to dinner but now.

So when I walked into Chevy’s for the first time in years probably 10 or more. I had my stepmom, father, and her church friends in tow. My usual partner in crime was smart and conveniently hailed her cab of an exit. I walked in and it seemed dull. Less light. But the scene was perfectly constructed. The certain phrases in Spanish, such as banos and cocina written in the mexican flag colors across the walls. And then the stereotypical things all mexican sombreros, blankets, pictures of mexican men looking revolutionary, and probably ceasar chavez. They didn’t have a picture of a burrito but they should have. Maybe a map just to make sure. You know where you are. In a mexican restaurant.

It was like a white person sat down and thought hmm how to make this feel more mexican for a white person who has never been to mexico or ate in a proper authentic taqueria. If you surround someone with the “artifacts” of what it means to be a mexican then you will want to eat the food and feel like you are in some coastal town in the baja not on 3rd and howard. Fail.

The plates, the portions literally blew my mind. The plate of “mexican food” was double the size of me. My waist. Double. I am not a big girl but I am not so tiny that this would warrant a sad comparison. I pushed my plate/ food around and made sure to only eat a third. The calories were listed on the menu probably deemed necessary by the city of rules. No way I was wasting almost all my daily caloric intake on this.

I was going to take my ass to get a proper burrito in the mission. With mexican people working and eating there. There won’t be many whites there except the tattoo clad hipsters and me. But I feel more at home in the realness of it all. Even if burritos are an american creation. Dad do you have a pen? I say. And I start writing. Writing it down before I forget.