On the Border
I’ve never been a fan of French fries in Mexican food, but these California tacos at OTB are excellent!
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Food Observations
A blog for eaters
Archive for the tag “carne asada”
Los Amigos
My favorite takeout burrito is from Los Amigos. Not the best burrito in town, but a good 15 minutes closer than all the other places. Pairs perfectly with a nice cold Modelo beer.
Homemade Carne Asada
Outstanding carne asada from Stater Bros in Ramona! Their flap meat is consistently excellent.
Plaza Grill
Another outstanding meal at Plaza Grill! Steak fajita fries and an amazing Reuben sammich!
El Taco Loco Shop
Here’s part 2 of El Taco Loco Shop delivered by OrangeCrate, featuring their carne asada quesadilla!
I dearly adore carne asada quesadillas so I thought I’d add one to my last Orange Crate order. This one has to be the most monstrous I’ve ever seen! It should be clear to anyone that El Taco Loco Shop does NOT skimp on the carne. Nice touch that they included a small side of chips in the box!
Now, while it may be true that you can never have too much carne asada (or bacon for that matter), certain dishes react poorly to too much of one thing or another. This was the case with my quesadilla. A good CAQ needs to have the perfect ratio of meat and cheese. This one had meat spilling out just picking it up. Further, there was very little discernible cheese. The right amount of both will allow the melted cheese to act as a cohesive agent to contain the meat. In fact, the best CAQs I’ve had in my day usually result in a small stream of grease running down my hands and wrists. That’s when you know there’s ample cheese!
Despite being a challenge to eat, it did taste really good! They included guac, crema, pico, etc. inside which is not common in traditional taco shop CAQs.
Again, the delivery by MyOrangeCrate was spot on and this CAQ held up perfectly under transport.
El Taco Loco Shop
El Taco Loco Shop delivered by OrangeCrate. I’ll probably break this into a two part review since there’s a lot I’d like to deep dive about the food.
If you’ve ever eaten from El Taco Loco Shop (inside Ramona Market), you know it can be a somewhat awkward and cumbersome experience. From who do you talk to, to where do you order, how and when do you pay, etc. If all this stresses you out, then I’d recommend letting OrangeCrate do all the hard work for you.
Online ordering was painless and simple as always. Food arrived in less than the 60 minutes anticipated! One of the items we ordered were the flautas. Turns out they no longer sell them! Within minutes after ordering I had the MyOC dispatcher calling and texting me about picking an alternate choice. Their communications with me throughout were terrific.
Here’s an order of outstanding carne asada chips. It’s a huge amount that can easily be shared by two. This place definitely dishes up abundant portions of carne asada but I have to say the quality is not the best I’ve had in town. Not sure if they’re using an inferior quality flap meat, but there are significantly more oral extractions per capita here than any other taqueria in town.
As I’ve observed before, the best take-out food is probably Asian, followed closely by pizza. Next is probably Mexican. It held up very well on the 15 or so minute drive out to SDCE. Maybe the OC hotbox helped. Burgers and fries type dishes tend to struggle and are probably best eaten straight from the kitchen.
Los Rancheros
Los Rancheros for breakfast recently! I’ve been wanting to try their so-called “Tacos TJ Style” for some time. Now, back in the day when I used to go to Tijuana, my tacos were more like bacon wrapped hotdogs with mayonnaise. That’s a topic for another post however.Anyway, at Los Rally’s you can get two TJ tacos for $4. There’s a myriad of choices that include carne asada, chicken asada, carnitas, adobada, cabeza, buche (pork stomach), etc.
Unfortunately you can NOT mix & match the proteins. I tried to order two different types and was told by the lady “they had to both be the same meat!” Oh well – I chose two carne asada.
The carne was outstanding! A fairly generous amount too. Corn tortillas were doubled up, hot & fresh tasting. Garnished with pico, cilantro and a daub of guac. Very good – I would go back and get these again.
Sombrero Mexican Food
Ok, this creation is my recent contest entry at Sombrero! The surf & turf bowl. Made with seasoned Spanish rice, lettuce, carne asada, sautéed shrimp, guac, crema and cotija cheese. Lime wedges on the side. Unfortunately there’s no shrimp! Guy at the counter today said “we can’t do half & half”, which is odd because you make a surf & turf burrito. Oh well, it was still very tasty!
La Cocina
Carne Asada Quesadilla at La Cocina ($6.50). Sometimes I just like a simple CAQ. La Cocina packs a punch with theres… You won’t be hungry for a while. It’s made simply with a generous amount of good carne asada and a fairly conservative amount of cheese. Some places I go to the grease just streams out when you pick it up. All down your hands and arms and everything. Not here. This is a decent, no frills carne asada quesadilla served on a foam plate. Nothing else. Outstanding.
