Los Angeles Healthy Mexican
 

Hello. I am a vegetarian and am looking for healthy mexican when in town in April. I do not eat any lard, chicken broth or bacon. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Ummmm. "Healthy Mexican" may be a contradiction in terms. Would you eat a fish taco maybe? No lard there. I am not sure I have ever seen bacon in Mexican food anyway, so that isn't a worry. Would you eat grilled chicken with veggies? Shrimp? Ceviche? Avocado and tomato stuff, perhaps, if you are really vegetarian. Stay away from beans, since those are virtually certain to have manteca, as would tamales of various sorts, and the chips they put on your table in restaurants may well be fried in lard. The more authentic the restaurant, the more likely the lard!

Hope you get better answers than this one.

What area of Los Angeles?

Mexican food in general is healthier than the standard American diet.Lots of fresh produce,seafood and beans.So Cal is awash in small authentic Mexican places and it's easy to choose healthy food.

Here are a few chains that call themselves "Healthy Mexican" in California. You can check their online menus and locations to see if anything works for you:

La Salsa www.lasalsa.com
Poquito Mas www.poquitomas.com
Baja Fresh www.bajafresh.com
Rubio's www.rubios.com

I think all of them have vegetarian dishes on the menu.

Yes - there is a lot of healthy Mexican food. Although refried beans may be made with lard, regular pintos are not and neither are black beans. Rice is not made with lard. Guacamole is vitamin rich and tastey. Nopales (cactus) are cooked a variety of ways. Salsa is quite good for you.

Go to any of the "authentic" Mexican places and have a cheese enchilada, rice (no beans, or black beans if they have them), and a salad. Oh, and a margarita!

Healthy yes, but hopefully you eat cheese even if not "vegetarian". Lard or bacon/pork is often used in beans.

Perhaps Chipotle (a national chain) would be good since they are clear about what ingredients are vegetarian, and you just build your own burrito with specified ingredients.

Sharky's is another "healthy" chain.

Healthy Mexican would be a person, wouldn't it? Healthful Mexican would be food.

I don't know if it is healthful per se but you can find wonderful vegetarian Mexican food at Sabor a Mexico. You can read more about it on my travel site: http://www.feetontheglobe.com/trips/losangeles2007/Eat
This is real Mexican and not Tex-Mex food.

The Border Grill in Santa Monica has many vegetarian items on their menus.

http://www.bordergrill.com/bg_sm/bg_smmen.htm

The same chefs own Ciudad in downtown L.A. Less Mexican; more South American and other Latin American influences.

http://www.ciudad-la.com/