After a tumultuous couple of eating years; it seems that the Missus and I are slowly, carefully, treading back to dining out. And one recent evening, the Missus requested a revisit to Talavera Azul. She was craving the menudo rojo there. It's seems that Talavera Azul was a breakfast favorite for us for a blink of an eye. It's hard to believe that our last visit there was over four-and-a-half years ago! I guess all those trips to Mexico and the pandemic put a damper on things.
So, to right our course, we decided to head on down to Talavera Azul on a recent Sunday morning. We arrived 10 minutes before the 8am opening.
We went and stood at the door. At about 5 till, what seemed like a mob of people got out of their cars and former a line behind us. I guess this is SOP here….at five to the line forms? A minute later one of the women came out and guided us in party by party. We took a window table.
We were going to order our old favorites here; the Missus got the Menudo Rojo ($14) which is still only served on weekends and I tried to order the Machaca Sonora, but was told they were out of it. So, I went with the Machaca Ranchera ($12.50 + $4 for two eggs) and of course some Cafe de Olla.
I like the version here; not overly sweet, with just enough cinnamon.
Soon enough things started arriving at our table.
The Missus just loves fragrant Mexican oregano. And we both enjoyed the smoky heat of the chipotle salsa.
Our food arrived in tandem, along with some corn tortillas.
The eggs were nice and runny, though it needed salt. The country style potatoes were on the dry side, though I did like the beans. The shredded beef which in this case was stir fried with red and green peppers, onions, and a scant bit of tomato were fine; though I prefer the more salty, beefy, toothsome, and intense flavor of the Machaca Sonora.
The Missus's Menudo was a mixed bag.
It lacked the richness and spice of what we'd had here before. It also needed a good bit of salt. And of course, the Missus laid it on with the oregano and lime. What was really good was the tripe, which had been cooked to an almost buttery texture.
Service was nice as always; though things were perhaps not as good as what we recalled in the days "BC" (before Covid). Though I'm sure that if Talavera Azul was in our neighborhood we'd visit every so often. These days, a 20 mile drive seems a bit long for us.
Talavera Azul
365 3rd Ave
Chula Vista, CA 91910
Current Hours:
Daily 8am – 2pm
The the outrageous price of NT$45….yes, I'm kidding, this equates to about $1.45/US we got a bowl with a large dumpling which was fried before entering the thick miasma of a sauce. The wrapper had a pleasant, somewhat glutinous chewiness. The sauce was thick, quite savory, with a hint of sweetness. The meatball was very tasty, though a bit on the tough and chewy side. The combination of flavors was excellent. And this was pretty filling.
Does the presentation of the sashimi look familiar? Well, it should. When I sat, I was told "Sashimi Kirk-san…." it wasn't a question, more of an affirmation.
my 
And this was just what I needed at this moment. Don't get me wrong, this would be just decent poke back home; but it sure beats all those "chi-poke" places out there. And it made for a nice lunch.
The opening gate looks a little different, going with the theme:
'Explore the outdoors and get s'more of what life has to offer' is the idea behind the simple entrance decor.
The Theme building, to the right when you walk in, has a friendly looking entrance.
Not much was set up as of last Wednesday. The rides and food booths had been at the Los Angeles County Fair during most of May until Memorial Day and all had been packing up for the move to San Diego.
Home Made (formerly Home and Hobby, formerly Home Arts) was setting up.
Displays are finalized after judging, so as to focus on the Competition participants and winners.
2023 San Diego County Fair June 7-July 4. Closed Monday and Tuesdays in June. 
The Theme of "Heroes Reunite" was a continuation of the canceled 2020 Fair with the "Heroes Unite" theme. 
It turns out that every booth on Thursday had a $3 special. There were pieces of paper, most handwritten, with a $3 Thursday special listed and taped to the booth behind the cash register. There was nothing written on the Website nor on the Daily Fair Events handouts listing this pricing. I highly suspect the same will be happening on Thursdays during the Fair this year and will update asap. If you notice, most of the $3 specials are small (battered veggies, mini cream puffs, mini Dole Whip, fried pineapple and fried Oreos), but that fried pineapple from Chicken Charlie's was the whole $9 item! I hope that remains the Thursday special. (Remember there are five Chicken Charlies booths; each had a different special).
Of course, we also purchased our 'regular' items, which included fried pickles, grilled vegetables, the artichoke sandwich and an apple tower.
I enjoyed sitting right outside the shop. The view of the plantation style houses reminded me of our trips to Honolua "small kid time" to see my grandparents.
We had enjoyed the fact that everything from the pasture raised beef, to the brioche buns, to the mushrooms in the mushroom burger is local. The Missus had really enjoyed the mushroom burger the last time and of course, this being Parker Ranch territory, I needed to have that Big Island Beef Burger.
This was cooked a bit past that, but the burger was so beefy! I requested just a touch of mustard, which combined with the wonderfully sweet and acidic tomato really helped to balance out the beefiness. The beef was a bit toothsome; but that's the deal with pasture raised beef made from cuts like chuck and brisket.
This was actually not bad. The large salad did have some brown leaves, but while the rice looked dry, it wasn't.
A generous plate of fresh-looking bun, basil, mint, et al was provided. The nuoc mam cham was on the sweeter side of things. The sauce for the Bun Cha was on the sweeter end of things but wasn't too bad. Loved the pickled veggies, which helped to cut the sweet and saltiness. There were two good size pork patties, which were on the chewier end of things. The actual pork slices were much more flavorful in my opinion.
While it arrived on the typical sizzling plate….well, it wasn't sizzling. The dill and onions were soggy and wilted, and the fish cold. This was quite strange. Totally a far cry from 
I got my plate with Red Rice instead of white. The rice was done quite well, moist, good texture, there was another scoop of rice hiding under the eggs. There was a good amount of Portuguese Sausage, which was really crisp and hard, almost like it was deep fried! While I do like the exterior of my sausage crisp; this had taken it a bit far. The sausage was dry. The eggs were a nice easy-over and that egg yolk flowed beautifully over the rice. No off flavors: though I needed to get some salt as it seems that they don't season the eggs. I also like my eggs crisp around the edges.
The coconut crust was a bit too sweet for us. There were also spots where the coconut was burnt, adding a rather unpleasant bitterness to the dish.
