I can assure you that the only Mexican food we get in the UK contains lots of chili.... but then the only US food we get is hamburgers. From here is not the best place to judge such things. From reading the guide books I get the impression that the Mexican food available in the States, even in San Diego, is only a small and unrepresentative sample of the nation's cuisine. It is, however, the sample that we will be most exposed to. We'd like to try it, but have to be careful.

A special thank you to those who made specific suggestions. Please add more. That snapper sounds interesting, it would make a nice comparison with the one we had in Athens,but I guess fish would be a fairly predictable "safe" alternative.