Frajalistic: Whenever I go out of state and people ask where I'm from. I say "New Mexico", and that's usually followed by "Really? You're from MEXICO!?" Then I have to reiterate NEW Mexico. The state in between Texas and Arizona stupid.
People go crazy for the green chile here too. I can't walk into a grocery store without smelling fresh green chile when it's in season. Or they have a roaster outside the store going non stop.
I hear you. I used to live in Las Cruces and had to go through that all the time with the NMSU folk from out of state. First the students would come, from places like Nebraska or Iowa, and ask questions like:
"Where can I get some
good Mexican food, you know like at Taco Bell?"
Because apparently the actual authentic food doesn't seem very Mexican to them.
"What's the difference between
frijoles and
beans?"
And when I tell them they are the same thing it just confuses them more.
Later, around graduation time the parents come to town and they are a little older and a little wiser. So they ask questions like:
"Where is the port of entry? We had our ID's and passports ready but we couldn't find it. Do we need to do that when we leave?
Though I do miss the green chile. During chile season I would walk out my front door, take a deep breath and the faint smell of roasted chile was in the air. It was like a subtle form of tear gas was deployed across the whole city, but one that made me hungry instead of driving me away. Now I live in Denver Colorado so the predominate smell is marijuana, which also kind of makes me hungry now that I think of it.