lares

santa monica, ca

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there is so much good food in los angeles and its usually found in really random spots, sometimes on stretches that are otherwise unremarkable. w brought me to pico - a street i've driven on many times and i had no idea i was driving past a great mexican restaurant each time. lares is very unassuming - even though it was my destination, i nearly walked right by it. ordered the chicken mole enchiladas (as i always do). solid. the mole could be a little spicier, but still very good. lovely spot for a workday lunch.

torchy's tacos

austin, tx

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forgot to mention, before we picked up y+a+n from the airport, jinny and i got a snack of guacamole and freshly fried chips from torchy's. (perhaps freshly fried is the theme of my austin trip?) the next day, we decided to get takeout from torchy's for the whole gang. torchy's is austin hipster mexican. colorful chalkboard menu? check. ironic hipster decorations? check (a red devil wearing a diaper is their logo). ironic hipster names for their menu items? check.

i ordered a "mr. pink" taco - guajillo seared ahi tuna, cabbage fresca, cilantro, and queso freco - and a "trailer park" taco - fried chicken, green chilies, lettuce, pico de gallo, and cheese on a flour tortilla. there's an option to make the "trailer park" taco "trashy" by replacing the lettuce with queso, but i passed. we also ordered, for the gang, a small bowl of queso and more freshly fried chips. tacos were pretty good - fresh, quality ingredients, but the queso was amazing. definitely my favorite part of the meal.

tortilla jo's

anaheim, ca

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what does one do after graduating medical school? go to disneyland, of course. we left pasadena and drove down to our anaheim hotel (which took FOREVER, by the way, i don't know how angelenos survive in this metropolis of freeways and gridlock). that evening, we decided to check out downtown disney (an outdoor mall right outside the main gates) to prep for the next day's disneyland adventure (the niece needed a new minnie mouse dress and a snow white lego set).

lots of food options in the mall, but all of them were extremely crowded. i left my cell phone number with tortilla jo's and received a text about a half hour later when a table became available. honestly, i wasn't expecting much for a restaurant that's clearly geared toward tourists, but the food was pretty good. fresh chips, excellent spicy salsa. i can't remember what i ordered - possibly the chile relleno and an enchilada - but i remember being pleasantly surprised with the quality.

como esta taqueria

palo alto, ca

website

we were exploring our new neighborhood and were thrilled to find a taqueria hiding next to walgreen's. looked like a popular neighborhood spot with a colorful chalk menu and outdoor seating. what is interesting for this hole-in-the-wall spot is that they really care about the quality of the ingredients and they offer various healthy options (whole wheat tortilla, low carb burrito, etc.)

of course, we didn't actually choose any of the healthy options. derek ordered the tortilla soup and a carne asada burrito (both decent). i ordered what is possibly one of the best vegetarian burritos i've ever had - the chile relleno burrito. delicious - the chile was stuffed with gooey cheese and covered in an eggy batter. refried beans, rice, and lettuce were added, then wrapped in an soft, chewy tortilla. top it all off with some of their excellent housemade salsas and it is vegetarian perfection.

milagros cantina

redwood city, ca

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california is supposed to have amazing mexican food, right? still haven't found it. i'm sure it's here somewhere. i'll just keep looking. after having just-okay mexican food at margaritas in redwood city a few months ago, i remembered that we walked by another mexican restaurant, milagros, that looked much busier.

before heading to the movies (where we saw new year's eve which i enjoyed and derek not so much), we had dinner at milagros cantina. i ordered the chicken mole enchiladas. chicken was dry, mole sauce was bland. the guacamole was pretty good, but the chips were stale. cocktails, however, were excellent.

los panchitos

san diego, ca

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adventures in san diego with our host, steve, started with excellent spanish tapas and expensive cocktails at cafe sevilla in the trendy gaslamp district in downtown san diego. progressed to rum+cokes and a video dj mash-up performance (turn-table scratching with videos?) in a warehouse at the afterparty for the asian american film festival. and ended with cheap mexican food on pacific highway. a job well done, steve.

los panchitos was the final stop of the night. open very late, it serves perfect post-partying cuisine. authentic? probably not. but it was still pretty good. i had cheese enchiladas and ordered rolled tacos for derek, which are basically flautas. cheesy greasy hangover-prevention goodness.

margaritas

redwood city, ca

website

trying to broaden our horizons and explore more of the south bay, derek and i decided to venture to redwood city to find restaurants, culture, and whatnot. actually, we were running out of paper towels and redwood city has the closest costco. anyway, we did walk around downtown redwood city. there was a nice farmer's market, a theatre district, and a beautiful old courthouse which now houses the san mateo county history museum.

the restaurants looked very promising too. we decided to try margaritas, which was pretty good mexican food. not the best i've ever had, although derek really enjoyed his pork carnitas. as we walked off our meals, we walked by another mexican restaurant which was much busier - milagros cantina. we'll have to try next time.

sancho's taqueria

palo alto, ca

website

derek loves this place. his favorite is the chimichanga, a giant deep-fried burrito. i'm less than thrilled about the cuisine. the salsas are out of this world fantastic, but i don't think a place should have to rely on condiments for flavor. the tortilla soup is a giant bowl of thick tomato sauce. the enchiladas are covered in a bland red sauce with bland refried beans.

it's incongruous that a place with a moustached skeleton in a sombrero as its logo has bland food. sigh. but it's close by, quick, not too expensive, and derek loves, so we've gone here a few times. i'm sure you're sensing a theme in my blog posts lately. geographical limitations. time constraints. going to the places with just decent food because of convenience. toto, we're not in manhattan anymore.

jalisco cafe

eureka, ca

link to yelp

after spending the night in oregon, we made it to california on the 2nd day of our epic journey down highway 101. first stop in california - eureka for mexican food and gas. located just across the street from a gas station, we found jalisco cafe. it looked authentic, so we decided to give it a try.

massive menu full of mexican classics. they even had lengua! not being particularly adventurous, i ordered my usual - two beef enchiladas with a side of rice and beans. delicious. red sauce, cheesy beans, fluffy rice. definitely reminded me of the mexican restaurants i used to eat at when i was growing up in eastern washington. who knows if i'll ever make it back to eureka, but this mexican restaurant definitely hit the spot.

oaxacan foods @ palo alto farmer's market

palo alto, ca

website

while visiting the bay area, derek and i stumbled onto the palo alto farmer's market on california avenue. there's an impressive array of farm-fresh fruits and vegetables. california's produce puts new york produce to shame. in addition to the farmers, there are vendors selling various goods like fresh-baked bread, honey, homemade granola, and even kale chips. with tons of free samples of everything, a person can eat an entire meal just walking through the market.

as long at that person is not derek. after snacking on various fruit slices and candied nuts, he was still hungry. he decided to get a "memela" from the oaxacan foods booth. their website explains that memelas "are best described as toasted Oaxacan pizzas - very healthy, the corn masa is flattened with a tortilla press then placed over a hot comal or griddle." its then topped with steak, tomatoes, black beans, queso fresco, cabbage, avocados, and a spicy red sauce. good quality fresh ingredients combine to make a tasty snack appropriate for a farmer's market.

dos caminos

new york, ny

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i joke that i have a dos caminos for home (located on park btw 26/27) and one for work. this is a great restaurant for meeting up with friends. there is always plenty of room and never a wait. the food is excellent, reasonably priced, and the drinks are good too. at night, they tend to play the music kind of loud (i'm such an old fogey) but during brunch they either keep it quiet or have a live jazz band. big fan of the dos caminos brunch. so it was perfect for a little get-together when tony came to town.

pictured is quite possibly my favorite salad in the world. and it's only available at dos caminos' weekend brunch. there's lettuce somewhere in there, but then its topped with roasted corn, chopped onions, fried tortilla strips, spicy chorizo, grilled chicken, chopped tomatoes, and a cilantro-basil vinaigrette. it might also be the unhealthiest salad in the world. anyway, it's delicious. you can also get it with avocado and queso fresco, but i think my version is better.

xoco

chicago, il

website

christine and val, fellow foodies, suggested xoco for dinner. i was very excited because i've wanted to try a rick bayless restaurant ever since he won top chef: masters. xoco is a casual restaurant located next to bayless's more formal restaurants. it's an interesting set-up, like a high end fast food joint. there's a large blackboard with the menu listed in chalk. you order and pay at the register, they give you a number, and then you sit down at your table and wait for a server to bring you your food.

at 7:30 pm on a friday night, the place was packed. they wouldn't let us order until there was room in the dining room for 3 people. after about a half hour, we were finally allowed to order. not one to pass up homemade chorizo, i chose the choriqueso torta with homemade chorizo sausage, roasted poblano, artisan jack cheese, and tomatillo salsa - delicious. the blackboard also explained that xoco grounds its own chocolate in-house, so i ordered a chocolate cafe con leche - which was a bit bitter, but rich and chocolatey. val and christine ordered fresh churros for the table - unbelievable - the churros were perfectly crispy on the outside, steamy and chewy on the inside, and covered with sugar and cocoa bits. an amazing meal with excellent company, unique and delicious food, and even a celebrity sighting ("hey, that's rick bayless walking into the kitchen!").

burrito box

new york, ny

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i'm surprised this place even has a website. jenny dragged me all the way across town to try her favorite hole-in-the-wall burrito place. i happened to be carrying a giant binder of documents in my bag so i was constantly getting bumped and pushed trying to order and wait for my food.

of course, such places inevitably have great food. i took a picture of jenny's veggie wrap (with avocado and cheese) because it was much more photogenic than my quesadilla filled with ground beef. but both were tasty and definitely worth the price. $8 for a huge quesadilla (with guac, sour cream, and pico de gallo), plus chips and salsa. my quesadilla was on par with blockheads, but i think jenny's wrap is worth trekking to the west side for.

zarela

new york, ny

CLOSED

one of my favorite close-to-work spots and possibly my favorite mexican restaurant in the city. the cuisine is apparently authentic oaxacan, but all i know is that it's yummy. my go-to dish here is the chicken mole enchiladas. best mole ever. note that it appears as an appetizer on the dinner menu but is definitely enough food for an entree. if the waiter balks because of the $15 table minimum, just assure him that you'll make up the difference in alcohol. unfortunately the enchiladas didn't translate well with my blackberry camera so i took a picture of my last flauta and a pile of guac instead. sorry.

i have been here a lot, so i also recommend the flautas, tamales, sangria, watercress salad, and arroz con crema. i don't drink tequila, but my friends enjoy the flavored margaritas. definitely save room for desserts - they're AMAZING. the peanut butter pie, the chocolate pecan pie, and the crepes with caramel sauce are the best, imho.