Taco Shops – Page 11

Eating on the hood of your car – La Tiendita Clairemont

September 8, 2010 mmm-yoso Taco Shops

Right across from Clairemont Town Square, lies La Tiendita, a Mexican Market that has been around for quite a while.

Over the last couple of years, on weekends, La Tiendita has been doing tacos. I went when they first started selling tacos, and was not very impressed.

But, a few months ago, I noticed the existence of a trompo (verticle spit) with what looked like Al Pastor on it. I made a mental note to try out the tacos again, but didn't have a chance to until we returned from our trip to China.

Even though the sign says they had Buche, I was told by the very friendly gentleman running the stand that they didn't have any on this day. This guy is really nice, and seems to really want to please his customers, so he opened some pans and actually started giving me samples!

After tasting the Birria de Res (stewed beef), I immediately crossed that one off my list. But having sampled the gentleman's hospitality, I went in and paid the cashier for four tacos. At $1.75 a piece it might seem expensive, but these are pretty good sized tacos. Actually, two tacos would have been enough, but I wanted to sample a couple of items.

The woman behind the counter was hand pressing tortillas. Along with smelling the carne asada on the grill, this really gives you the impression that everything is made super fresh to order. This was not necessarily true, the tortillas are stacked in a bowl under a towel, which is perfectly fine. The adobada has been trimmed earlier and is in a covered pan. Even though there was meat loaded on the trompo, it was not even on when I arrived. The carne asada was removed from the grill and tossed into a pan and mixed with whatever was there earlier. Still the salsas were good, and those tacos were pretty hefty.

First up, the Carnitas (braised pork):

This was a bit on the bland and dry side, and lacked the richness that I look for in carnitas.

The best of the bunch was the Cabeza (beef head), which actually benefitted from being in that covered pan for a while.

Rich, moist, and wearing its rendered collagen like a badge of honor, the cabeza gad a wonderful beefiness. It was perhaps too moist, because the tortilla just fell apart, and I ended up scooping everything up with my fingers. Good thing it didn't all fall off onto my hood (yes, I was actually eating on the hood of my car).

The adobada was okay.

It didn't quite have the texture I enjoy having gotten a bit dry, and lacking the great crispy bits like stuff cut off the trompo topped with charred bits. The meat had good heat, but lacked the fruity, complex sweetness and a decent savory component that I look for in Al Pastor/Adobada.

The carne asada was pretty mediocre.

It was pretty dry, with some tough sinewy bits. The flavor was very mild, though I'm sure it would be much better coming straight off the grill.

The positives for me here was the cabeza (and I'm looking forward to lengua), the good salsas, and the really friendly staff. I arrived at noon, which should be peak time, so perhaps lack of constant business forces them to make the carne asada and adobada ahead, but I'm sure it would be much better fresh off the grill/trompo. There's no dining area, so you'll be eating coctail party style, or on the hood of your car…… or a reasonable facsimile.

The market is pretty good place to shop, though sometimes the produce and bakery products can be a little past its time…..

La Tiendita Mexican Market – Tacos on weekends only.
3851 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92117

Eating on the Hood of Your Car: La Princesita returns to Linda Vista

August 8, 2010 mmm-yoso Food Trucks, Mexican Restaurants, Taco Shops

Last time I checked, the La Princestia Taco truck, a long time staple in the parking lot of Joe's 99 Cent store had lost his "lease" as it were, and had moved on to greener pastures. I read Dennis's post from back in March letting us know that La Princesita was now found out on ECB, in front of one of the Panaderias, and had spotted it myself a couple of days after. That's why I was kinda surprised to see what looked like said taco truck (or perhaps trailer is more appropriate) in the parking lot of 96¢ (ever wonder how to create the "cents" symbol on a keyboard - hold the ALT key, and type in 0162, then release the ALT key) & Up Store on Linda Vista. Fairly excited, I drove by the next evening, and nada…… the following Thursday, it was back…. the next evening, "zip". After that, I just put finding the truck on the back-burner, moving on to other things. Until…. a Friday two weeks ago. I received an email from FOY (Friend of Yoso) "Gustavo", who wrote letting me know the truck was back for good……

I wrote Gustavo back letting him know that I'd check it out the following weekend…… and last night seemed the perfect time. It was kinda strange, the store was closed, so the parking lot looked completely empty except for two vehicles, and of course, true to Gustavo's word, La Princesita!

Being pretty hungry, I went for four tacos ($1.50 each).

From left to right, carne asada, cabeza, lengua, and pescado.

I'd never had the fish taco from La Princesita, and my better judgment told me stick with the "carnes", but I decided to just try it out.

And in all honesty, I've had worse fish tacos…. it was a bit "crema" heavy, and the piece of fish was fairly small, and lost in all the shredded cabbage. But what fish there was tasted decent, but nothing I'd have again.

In my original post on La Princesita I mentioned that the Lengua was my favorite. And it was true on this occasion as well.

Well portioned, the lengua was very tender with a mild gamey beefiness unique to tongue. The texture is fairly slippery, and almost slightly creamy-gelatinous, without creeping into the waxiness of poorly prepared lengua. To be honest, the salsa roja is not really needed, I'm fine with just a touch of cilantro and onions.

The cabeza was just ok.

I like the texture, though I think it could use a bit more "ooomph", in the form of the condensed beefiness of good cabeza. Also, a bit more gelatinous bits are always welcomed. Still, this was not bad.

Of course I had to try the Carne Asada.

There was a time when the carne asada from La Princesita was highly thought of. Somehow, it seems to have fallen on hard times. The meat was tougher than I recalled, and lacked the salty-citrus flavor that I enjoyed in my first couple carne asada tacos from La Princesita. Perhaps this was just a fluke.

I hope it is……

As a whole, the tacos from La Princesita are served on moist double corn tortillas, and the portions are quite generous. It was kinda like seeing an old friend. Both Gustavo, and the gentleman running the trailer told me there were here to stay…. but as Paul McCartney said so well, "in this ever changing world in which we live in….." who knows. I hope they do stick it out at this location.

One thing though….. the sign on the sidewalk says 99¢ Tacos…… all of my tacos cost a $1.50, which in my opinion is a pretty reasonable price. So maybe they should saw off the 99¢ part unless they actually have 99 cent tacos???

La Princesita Taco Truck/Trailer

In the parking lot of the 96¢ and Up Store on Linda Vista Road.

Tata’s in Yuma: Bodacious Tacos and More

June 15, 2010 ed fromyuma Mexican Restaurants, Taco Shops, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!, Yuma

Like most readers at this site, ed (from Yuma) is awaiting more of Kirk's mindboggling posts on China, and Kirk and Cathy's regular looks at San Diego dining. While waiting, he thought he'd let you folks know about a new and interesting taco stand in Yuma.

Tata's has disappeared and been replaced by a new location for Rossy's. Unfortunately, none of the South of Mexico dishes described in this post are still available.

Last fall, Tina and I were exploring 8th St, looking to spot any new taco emporiums opened since the end of the summer. As soon as we saw a new truck in the old Tio Juan's lot, we made a U-turn, and pulled into Tata's Tacos:
At that time, the stand had been doing business for only a few days, so we sampled some tacos that evening. The smooth and creamy chichirones was bathed in spicy red chili sauce:
Oh so good and oh so not good for you. Yum.

The Cabeza was tasty too:
For both Tina and I, the best taco we had that evening was the tripitas:

Even though the portion was somewhat small, these rounds of pig intestine were wonderfully prepared. The textures ranged from crunchy to chewy to soft and melt in your mouth. The flavors started with upfront porkiness and finished with a haunting nutty earthy savory flavor.

Although our first experience at the truck was uniformly positive, it was months before we made it back (our bad). As soon as we opened the new two-page menu, it became instantly apparent that Tata's had morphed into an outdoor dining establishment unlike any other in Yuma.

Nowadays, some dishes characteristic of south and central Mexico are regularly available. For example, look at this picture of two new items. On the left is a tostada maya (a black bean tostada with cotija cheese). On the right is a Maria Felix, an empenada-like quesadilla with flor de calabazas (squash blossoms) and cheese:
When you open up the Maria Felix, you see the wonderful mix of ingredients combined into a joy bomb of flavors. The hand made corn tortilla shell is crunchy, but not greasy. The unmistakable tastes of summer squash and cheese fill the mouth with happiness:

Even more unusual is what Tata's calls a Tizoc, a hand formed corn tortilla wrapped around spicy huitlacoche (corn smut — called "corn truffles" on fancy menus):

Perfectly done here. Spicy chile notes deepen the dominant and complex earthy fungal flavors of the huitloche itself, while kernels of sweet corn add contrasting textures and flavors. While I am far from an expert on this kind of smut, Tata's tizoc is by far is the best I've ever tasted.

Tina and I also love a variation on the black bean tostada called the maya maya, which tops the black beans with grilled nopalitas salad, giving some contrastive tang and more textures to the tostada:

I'm still amazed right here in river city to find a taco stand that goes beyond the border and also serves several vegetarian dishes.

At the same time, you can get great versions of many taco truck standards. For example, the horchata is good and the Tamarindo properly sweet and slightly sour:

When you wait for your tacos to arrive, you're given little bowls of frijoles gratis, which I like to enhance with some of the free condiments:

Speaking of which, the condiment wheel includes all of the necessary players — lemon wedges, cilantro, shredded cabbage, chopped onion, guacamole sauce, tomatillo salsa, and a fiery salsa de arbol:

And the tacos continue to be very good. In particular, the pastor has a nice marinade and profits from the char of the grill:

The outstanding barbacoa is incredibly beefy:

And we still love the tripitas, which are the best I've ever eaten:

Notice the wok hay on these:

And on our last visit, Tata's had caguamanta, stewed stingray tacos:

Again, the version here is as good as it gets, deeply savory, fishy in a good way, and complex. They told us that these tacos were going to become a Friday and Saturday night special. We certainly hope so.

I love Tata's (I never thought I'd write that in a blog post at mmm-yoso!!!). This small place is truly one family's labor of love. The father (Jose) grew up in Guanajuato and knows the cuisine of south and central Mexico; mom (Aleyida) does most of the cooking; grandpa provides the caguamanta recipe; and the son and his girlfriend (I think) are often waiting tables.

However, particularly at this time of year, Tata's does not seem to keep regular hours. I guess there is no point in being open if it is insufferably hot or crazy windy. Most evenings I guess they open around 6:30 or 7:00. I have no idea when they close, but I'm sure it is well past my bedtime. Give them a call before you drop by. If they are open, you will not be disappointed.

Tata's Tacos, 3121 W 8th St, Yuma AZ 85364, 928-920-1105 or 928-246-0049.

El Indio – A taco shop for breakfast.

May 10, 2010 Cathy Breakfast/Brunch, Taco Shops, What Cathy Eats!

Welcome back to mmm-yoso!!! the food blog written by a few friends. Kirk is on vacation with His Missus (still) in a faraway land (and eating exotic foods and having adventures you will enjoy reading about), ed is in Yuma working away and hopefully is eating and today, Cathy is blogging.

Hi again. Looking at my posting history, The Mister and I seem to really enjoy going out for breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and occurs during the least stressed part of the day. I guess that is a good part of the enjoyment factor.

A few days ago, The Mister and I had to be downtown early and only had a coffee before leaving the house. Neither of us considered the no traffic part of the day and we were more than an hour early. We drove over to India Street and stopped.
We have been to El Indio, a San Diego institution for more than 30 years, for breakfast before and I was kind of craving something salty. Perfect.
We ordered, paid and sat down. While waiting I took photos of the Las-Vegas-like decor.

Soon, my name was called and I picked up my tray.
Which consisted of a ham, egg, potato and cheese breakfast burrito the size of my 8 inch plate.
The ham was only slightly salty and complimented by the fresh cooked, crispy edged potatoes and plentiful amount of scrambled eggs. All on the fresh gigantic flour tortilla, at $4, this was more than enough food.
I got what I usually order here, Huevos Albanil ($5.25). Two easy cooked eggs, placed on top of fresh toasted corn tortillas toped with albanil sauce (green tomato sauce-not the salsa, which has onions), shredded Mexican cheese (I think it is Cotija, but maybe not) and served with excellent refried beans and hot corn tortillas.

Excellent and fun breakfast. A wonderful way to start the day.

El Indio 3695 India Street San Diego 92103 website

Hot, Cold, Wet & Hungry- Shrimp Cocktail and Birria de Chivo at Palominos

April 22, 2010 Cathy Taco Shops, What Cathy Eats!

Thanks for visiting the mmm-yoso!!! food blog. The part usually played by Kirk is being played by Cathy today. Because Kirk and His Missus are on vacation. In a faraway land.

Hi. Boy, have we had an odd weather year. Here it is April and we had cold winds and rain intersperse with some sun all day yesterday. The Mister was going to be working late, I was hungry and didn't want to cook, so we met at Palominos. Again.
Of course we could not decide on what to eat and while perusing the menu, saw a new addition in the soup category- Birria de Chivo- Goat … soup. Usually, this is more of a stew, but the goat factor was there, so I ordered it.
Soon, the fairly large bowl of meat and broth (I could taste ancho chilis, oregano, cumin, thyme and cinnamon) was brought out, with the appropriate sides of corn tortillas as well as onion, cilantro, lime wedges and red pepper flakes.
It looked like a lot of meat in the bowl of broth…and this is how much broth was in the bowl.
The rest was meat. A nice, gamey, fatty, flavorful goat. Which had been simmered for a long while, with meat falling off the bones. A rich, deep broth and rich, flavorful meat. For $6.49, one of the heartiest and heart warming soups we have had here.
When ordering, I decided to contrast the warm and meat with cool and seafood, so a shrimp coctele ($9.99) was in order. There were 30 shrimp in this large serving glass, with lime and tomato juice, cucumber and some onion. The fresh flavors of this 'broth' as well as the pretty large flavorful shrimp were a nice contrast and compliment to the fatty rich soup broth. It was a nice break for both of us. But I had to drive home in this…
and figured the traffic on the freeway would be backed up, so drove around the corners to Starbucks, pulled the old computer out of my car
and had a grande chai latte, no water, with The Mister before he headed back to work and I headed home. I hope everyone had a warm evening and safe driving.

Palominos #2. 9353 Clairmont Mesa Boulevard, Suite I San Diego 92123 (858) 292-8470

Luche Libre Gourmet Taco Shop

March 8, 2010 mmm-yoso Hot Dogs, Mexican Restaurants, Taco Shops

For some reason, the interior of this place always has me humming:

"Those magnificent men in their flying machines,
they go up diddly up up,
they go down diddly down down….."

Now why the heck would this bright pepto-bismol pink, "luche libre"(Mexican professional wrestling) themed and decorated (I use that term loosely) restaurant have me humming that tune? Well, if you grew up in Hawaii in the late 60's and 70's you'd recognize names like as Ripper Collins(who once, when I recognized him in a parking lot, asked me "do you want to wrestle?") and Curtis "the Bull" Iaukea. Two of my favorites were Pampero Firpo (aka the Missing Link) and "Handsome Johnny Barend" whose theme song was "Those magnificent men in their flying machine". Barend always had me in stitches with his unhinged, rambling, crazy schtick. Man, those were the days….. My apologies for the somewhat obtuse digression, but the decor is just as crazy as "Handsome Johnny"……..

When Luche Libre Gourmet Taco Shop first opened, I like many others in the bloggersphere went to check out what all the buzz was about. The interior itself is probably good enough reason to visit at least once. On that visit, I got a Queso Taco:

Which was dry, tough, and bland carne asada, wrapped in a fairly tasteless, overly rigid, double corn tortilla, which was saved by the crisp mildly salty griddled cheese.

Of course I got the TJ Hotdog….. A bacon wrapped hotdog, with griddled onions and peppers….seasoned with mustard and (gasp) ketchup. A bargain at a buck-fifty.

I will say that you pretty much get what you pay for. I love TJ style Hotdogs, but I really didn't care much for this version. The first two times I had this, the bun was burnt, and not good eats.

I also noticed, that though the dog, an all beef "perro" had good flavor(though I'd like a bit more snap), for some reason the bacon is almost a non-entity in this flavorwise. To test this out, I once visited with an acquaintance of mine, a real fan of LL. Since I was buying lunch, I didn't think it would be really bad to play a little "joke" on him. I ordered his dog sans bacon. Our conversation got to the dog at hand, and I happened to mention how important the bacon was to this hotdog…… at which time he said something along the lines of, "yes, yes, of course this wouldn't be the same without the bacon. And this rocks!" Yeah, I guess that bacon makes this TJ Hot Dog, huh? Oh, I still haven't told him that he didn't have any bacon on his TJ dog……

Recently, after almost a year, decided to check out LL, and the TJ Hot Dog again. And I gotta say, even though the bacon is still waaaay back there in the background, this time the bun wasn't burned, and there was a good amount of peppers and onions…. and tomatoes adding a bit of tang to the whole thing.

If you'd like to read a very interesting post, one of my favorite fellow food bloggers, Masa Assassin has a fantastic post on the History of Mexico's bacon wrapped hot dogs. (MA also shares some my opinions of LL's dog….)

Over time, I've gotten a couple of emails extolling the virtues of the Carne Asada Burrito at LL. I don't know if you've noticed, but there has been a serious lack of "CABs" (Carne Asada Burritos) in my posts. If you've been reading long enough, you may remember that Howie had a not so little event called the "battle of the Bertos", a comparison of 10 Carne Asada burritos from places ending in "'berto". I guess you could call it "PTBSS"…. post traumatic burrito stress syndrome. Following the "event" I just couldn't face a CAB. Mention a CAB to me and I'd go though a series of ticks that would make a third base coach proud. But, as they say, time…. and hunger, heals all wounds. And recently, fresh off carne asada burrito rehab, I grabbed a CAB from Luche Libre ($4.85):

This was a good sized, two fisted burrito. And now is a good time to mention the salsa bar, with some good freshly made salsas, a la Mama Testa. My only complaint is a serious lack of "picante".

As for the burrito…. the beef in this was a total 180 from the Queso Taco. It was nice thickly cut what seemed to be flank steak, chewy, but in a good way. I still think it is a bit under-flavored, but I enjoyed the flavor of "the char".

The best thing the guacamole and the pico de gallo did was not to interfere with the beef. So perhaps I'm cured………

A good while back, I received an email from a FOY (Friend of Yoso), who deserves an apology since I can't find his email. He recommended something called the "DDT Loaded Baked Potato"($6.25). Over six bucks for a baked potato!?!?!! And yet, I was intrigued…. And when I picked my potato up, I understood why they called this the "DDT baked potato. The only question was what version of the DDT this poor spud was exposed to?

Was it the "elevated DDT", or perhaps the "spike DDT"? My money's on the "tornado DDT". This thing was a gooey, calorie bomb mess of a baked potato, with carne asada, grilled shrimp, mushrooms, and grilled onions and zucchini (you do need your veggies, right?), enrobed in melted cheese, and topped with a chipotle flavored sauce, much like the thousand island dressing stuff you get at mariscos shops.

Man, this was a mess…. and yet, I couldn't stop eating. I didn't want to admit it, but I kinda enjoyed this…… I did need a cold shower after, and I don't crave it, but I can't lie. This pushed all the guilty pleasure buttons.

I'm not sure I buy the "gourmet" part, as the level of refinement really isn't there. That aside, there are some novel items on the menu, the prices are reasonable, the quality of some of the ingredients is higher. At its best, LL is a notch above the usual San Diego Taco shop(thoughYMMV), and the food is "Gringo safe". And I haven't even gotten to the free chips……

Luche Libre Gourmet Taco Shop
1810 W Washington St
San Diego, CA 92103

La Fachada

February 25, 2010 mmm-yoso Mexican Restaurants, Taco Shops

A couple of Saturdays ago, during the big rainstorm, a couple of good friends and I decided to do a taco crawl. The weather refused to cooperate, howling wind and pouring rain, but I gotta give it up for JohnL and TammyC, they handled the dripping canopies and pouring rain like troopers, and we managed six stops, and about a dozen tacos a piece (including a coupla gobernadors, etc). In need of a stop where we didn't have to suffer through water pouring onto our tacos, and us. I suggested La Fachada. It had been a whilem and I thought after doing the mariscos thing, a coupla street sized tacos would make for a nice change of pace. Of course, the La Fachada I'm mentioning is the trailer parked in the lot of the restaurant.

And they were doing some pretty good business, even on a stormy Saturday……

Each of us went with tres (three) tacos. I selected Birria de Res (spicy braised beef), lengua (tongue), and cabeza (beef head), a buck-sixty each.

Much of it was like I remembered, the tortillas, even though hand made (pressed), tasted mass produced. The birria was on the stringy side, and the chili flavor was a bit muted. The lengua was a bit too waxy. The cabeza was very nice though, moist with an intense gamey-beefy flavor.

One thing that I didn't recall, was how spicy the pickled onions with habanero were…… pretty darn hot! The salsas are tried and true, nothing spectacular, but it met my expectations. Overall, a nice stop. So a couple of weeks later, I was in the area, and decided on a nice breakfast of a couple of tacos.

This time it was (from let to right) carnitas, adobada, and cabeza(again).

The real winner of the bunch was the carnitas, crisp, rich, and full of flavor, it really hit the spot. The adobada was pretty weak and too tough. The cabeza was even "beefier", and perhaps a bit less fatty/greasy.

I really enjoyed the carnitas, and may make it a point to drop by more often then the every coupla years thing I've been doing. Funny thing is, I've never been "in" the restaurant, as I've always eaten at the taco cart, so I can't help you there.

A couple of weeks after our taco crawl, JohnL contacted me…… at the end of the email he wrote "maybe over some tacos LOL I've been taco crazy ever since…." Looks like we'll go for more than a dozen next time?

La Fachada
20 25th St
San Diego, CA 92102

New to the Rotation: Mariscos El Pescador

November 24, 2009 mmm-yoso Food Trucks, Mexican Restaurants, Taco Shops

Over the last couple of months, I've noticed that much of our rotation is seasonal. There are places like Latin Chef that fit into our Spring/Summer plans than during the Fall or Winter. Other places, like Asia Cafe we really don't visit often enough anymore. So those have been removed from the rotation…maybe just until the next time I update.

Over the last 3 months, the Missus has often requested a drive down to Chula Vista, and a visit to the Mariscos El Pescador truck. Even though thre are more than a few Mariscos places and trucks closer, heck there's even the new Mariscos German truck about a mile-and-a-half from us. But the Missus enjoys the Caldo de Pescado (fish soup) from MEP the best.

So we'll make the drive so the Missus can get Her hands on the always scalding hot Caldo de Pescado from MEP.

It's not super consistent. We've found that the soup is best between 10am and 2-3 pm, so we usually drive down on a Saturday or Sunday……though I have found myself racing traffic (and the clock) down the I-5 on a weekday evening to get the Missus Her fix.

She loves the large and abundant chunks of fish, usually plump and tender.

It comes with some hand scalding tortillas wrapped in aluminum foil, and for $5, is well worth the price.

Of course, I enjoy the fish tacos here. And I'm not above ordering something else to sate my hunger.

Tacos de Marlyn anyone?

Mariscos El Pescador(In the parking lot of RTA/Toys R Us)
1008 Industrial Blvd
Chula Vista, CA 91911

Our updated "Rotation" Page can be found here. There will be one further update coming up.

Of course, if we're making the effort to drive down to Chula Vista, we're going to attempt to maximize the effort. Which means that if we're in the area on a Saturday, a stop at Hogetsu Bakery is a must…

As is a stop at La Moreliana, so the Missus can restock on Coricos. We'll usually make one additional stop, and thus far, it's the Al Pastor from Internacional 2000 that has the lead over the Carne Asada at El Poblano. You gotta love greasy goodness…..

So what's on your rotation this winter?????

Eating on the hood of your car – under the cover of darkness edition: La Princesita 2 Taco Truck

October 10, 2009 mmm-yoso Food Trucks, Mexican Restaurants, Taco Shops

Recently, while driving home from dinner, we noticed a new taco truck in the old service station lot on the corner of Clairemont Drive and Balboa. Over the years, we've seen a couple of taco trucks, and even a BBQ truck testing out this corner lot. Most were gone within a week or two. But on a recent evening, I noticed that the truck was still in business, and decided to stop.

Driving into the parking lot and past the light show, I thought that something about the signs looked familiar.

Parking my car, and seeing the back of the trailer confirmed it:

This was La Princesita 2, the sister taco truck to the very popular truck parking in the lot of Joe's 99 cent store in Linda Vista. Thing were looking up. This trailer sold tacos, burritos, and tortas, and if I recall, the carne asada at La Princesita 1 is pretty good.

Tacos are priced at $1.50, so I got four……

Two Carne Asada, and two Lengua….I had wanted a Tacos de Cabeza, but they were out.

The Carne Asada was better than most of the something 'Berto's and the other taco shop chains in the area.

But suffered in our opinion, probably because we had just had some very good carne asada from El Poblano the night before. This was decent for carne asada done on a griddle, with some nice caramelized pieces, but lacking in a strong marinade. The occaisional piece of gristle didn't help things. Along with the decent salsa, onions, pickled onions, and cilantro, this wasn't bad, though I think the original truck's version is better. The corn tortillas were fine….

The Lengua (beef tongue) was too waxy, and lacked the nice gamey-beefy flavor of good lengua.

As it stood, this wasn't a very good version of lengua. If you're afraid of lengua, this is so mild, that if you can get over the texture, it'll be nice version for a first try.

It is nice to have some decent tacos in the neighborhood, and by what the folks were ordering (12 adobaba tacos!!!). I hope La Princesita 2 sticks around.

La Princensita 2 Taco Truck – on the corner of Balbo and Clairemont Drive.

Tacos El Poblano, and a South Bay Taco Crawl with Captain Jack

October 4, 2009 mmm-yoso Food Trucks, Mexican Restaurants, Taco Shops, yoso-silly

**** This location of Tacos El Poblano has closed

Here's the last of my series of South Bay Taco Shops. I was taking a one of my weekend "drives" a couple of weeks back. And while driving through "Downtown" Chula Vista, I noticed a new restaurant.

It would have been "just another taco shop" except for the sign that said "Los Authenticos De Tijuana Ahora en CA". Which got my attention. I decided to stop, even though I had just finished two tacos from Tacos Yaqui. The fairly modest storefront, hides a pretty large, somewhat cavernous restaurant.

As I walked up to the counter, I could see flames rising from the grill next ot the cashier. So ordering was pretty simple, it had to be Carne Asada, and "something"……

That something was a Birria Taco($1.75):

El Poblano serves you tacos the way they think it should be served. There's no salsa bar, though the pickled peppers and carrots (escabeche) is fabulous, refreshing, and almost sweet. The birria was very mild, as I enjoy a bit more spice and "wildness".

A minute later my two Carne Asada tacos made its way to my table.

I loved the crisp but still pliable grilled tortillas, which added a nice bit of smokiness to the equation. The simple, but effective guacamole added richness. The salsa was nice and spicy, but the carne asada brought this down. As you can tell by the grey pallor, this was not the carne asada I just witnessed being grilled. It was tasteless and rubbery, not good eats. Everything about this taco was spot on, except the carne asada. And I'd usually visit another time before doing a post. So check out the rest of the post below, because on my next visit, it was just perfect, smokey, with nice caramelization.

Tacos El Poblano
217 3rd Avenue
Chula Vista, CA 91910

The South Bay Taco Crawl……

I guess this was inevitable. I'd been hitting multiple taco shops in the South Bay in recent weeks. And after receiving an email from "Grace" who was visiting San Diego, and wanted some recommendations on doing a "taco crawl" I thought, "why not do this yourself". I tried this once with a good FOY, a small but mighty eater. Unfortunately, we never made it past two shops…….

This meant I needed to bring in the "heavy artillery". There was only one person that I know of, who could handle this…… and I wasn't even sure that I'd be able to keep up. That person was….. "the man, the myth, the stomach….." my Urasawa eating buddy, Captain Jack. And of course, he was up for anything. So things started off this morning with CJ in my car, making our way down to the border…..

I had everything planned; we'd start off with Tacos Yaqui. Unfortunately, when we arrived in San Ysidro, we found that even though the sign said they open at 9am, and it was 930, they weren't open. It was time for "plan B". I headed up the I-5 and ended up in the now-all-too familiar RTA/Toys R' Us parking lot, and Mariscos El Pescador.

I figured we'd grab a Gobernador and a Tacos de Pescado (fish taco) and we'd be on our way. Pretty filling, but delicious, and we'd still be able to go on. But after the consomme and two tacos, the Owner, Cruz Vazquez, who we chatted with before the crowds, decided that we just had to have the "Tacos de Mariscanos", a mixto (mixed) taco. The size of which was daunting…..

This was like an over-stuffed mixed seafood version of the Gobernador, with sauteed fish, scallops, pulpo (octopus), along with the wonderful shrimp. With some of the spicy pickled onions, this was excellent. If the Gobernador, is "the Governor", this is "El Presidente"……

As an exclamation point, Captain Jack had a torta from the Torta Ahogadas truck across the parking lot. (A eating on the hood of your car post is coming up soon) I abstained, because this was a taco crawl, right? Talking about wiggling out of a tight situation.

After which, we headed off to Internacional 2000 for some Al Pastor, only to find that they weren't ready….. which led me to "plan C", and a visit to El Poblano. We grabbed a Adobaba Taco and a Carne Asada Taco. This time around, the Carne Asada was excellent, nicely caramelized, with a wonderful smokey flavor. Good stuff. I of course, kinda did the "four corners" here, engaging CJ in small talk. I also found that I eat pretty fast, so the delay gave me time to digest and adjust. After about fifteen minutes of small talk, CJ said the faithful words, "we're not done yet, are we?"

Which meant it was time to move on, and return to Tacos Yaqui, where we put down a Perrones Taco each, and some chips. Comparing the carne asada from Yaqui to El Poblano is like apples to oranges. Yaqui's carne asada is like eating steak, it is beefy, but milder in flavor, and served on a grilled flour tortilla with melted cheese, El Poblano's carne asada is smokey, and crisp.

Again, I finished several minutes ahead of CJ, and had time to digest.

We ended (taco) things at Internacional 2000 Taco Shop and had two Al Pastor tacos each. A nice, tasty, greasy end to our "taco tour". Funny thing, at the end, we both weren't full, but we were satisfied. I had an inkling to make a stop at Tacos El Gordo, but decided that I'd had enough. CJ on the other hand, decided otherwise, and we made a last stop a Panchita's for some sweets……

This "taco tour" was pretty easy, at no time did I feel uncomfortable. I'm not sure if it qualifies as a Food Marathon, but I'll tell you that I didn't have any dinner tonight…….