Showing posts with label taco. Show all posts
Showing posts with label taco. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Hot and Soupy #5: Mariscos Chente's New Winter Menu

Mariscos Chente made a big wave in the past year in the Los Angeles low-brow dining scene with their much lauded Sinaloan seafood cuisine. Recently they rolled out a Winter Menu and Street Gourmet LA, a long time Chente supporter, set up a small blogger tasting. Throughout the dinner, Street Gourmet LA guided us each dish, and where they come from , etc.

To get authentic Sinaloan seafood, the owner Maddalena routinely buses down to her hometown of Nayarit to procure some fresh seafood!

Tortilla chips and salsa while you wait. Watch out for the green salsa - it was way spicier than the red!

Our first soup was the Albondigas de camaron(shrimp albondigas), a common Sinaloan dish. Albondigas is meat/shrimp balls and is in fact a national dish that varies throughout Mexico. Seafood albondigas are typically found on the coasts. The broth consisted of shrimp stock, tomatoes, oregano, jalapeno, cilantro, and vegetables.

The albondigas were firm and chewy. The broth has quite a kick to it, and on that foggy night near the ocean, this hot soup was quite a treat.

There are three other seafood soups they're offering, which uses a common broth (made of fish stock, tomato, jalapeno, vegetables) but just varies in the seafood proteins they put in them.

The fish soup contains moist and tender pieces of seabass, including the skin and jowl.

The 'mixto' contains shrimp, fish (seabass, same as above), and octopus.
The octopus in this soup was so chewy and delicious I would highly recommend getting the mixto over either the fish or the shrimp (which they also offer). The broth here is not as spicy as the albondigas but I personally prefer it because it was richer and flavorful (though the rest did prefer the albondigas' broth).

Mariscos Chente is also offering a series of seafood tacos this winter.:
The deep fried fish(halibut) and shrimp tacos are topped with cabbage, tomato, onion, and homemade Thousand Island.
The batter here isn't as crispy as I would like, but the thousand island dressing is a really nice touch.

The highlight among the tacos was the Gobernador, a specialty of Mazatlan which consisted of sauteed shrimp with Monterey jack cheese, peppers, and onions in a flour tortilla finished on the grill.
Sweet and rich, these nicely grilled tacos packed a punch.

To wash it all down, we had Maddalena's special jarritos (also known as Palomas) which is typically made with Squirt, salt, and tequila but she squeezes in some orange in there for a flavor boost! Served in these clay vessels, the drink was quite refreshing and addictive. Mariscos Chente doesn't have a full liquor license so you can order this as a "virgin drink", but if you want to sneak your own tequila into the jar, I'll keep mum ;).

Who knows how long they would keep the winter menu up, so you might want to hurry and taste the Gobernador and their soups for yourself.


Mariscos Chente
4532 S. Centinela Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90066
(310) 391-9887
Mariscos Chente on Urbanspoon

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Crispy Tripas at Rambo's Taco Truck

Kogi fanatics missed out on a real LA taco truck gem when they waited in the hour-long line just one block away from Rambo's Tacos in Eagle Rock.
For only $1.25 per taco (no tax, as Taco trucks should do) and no line, my choice was clear.

Tripas (tripes) at Rambo's have a crunchy outer layer while still chewy inside. They're topped with hot, hot red salsa. These are the things to go for at Rambo's both the sauce and the meat.
I did hear they have off days with their tripas, but on my visits there they have always been excellente. Inconsistency is a vice, I know, but when they're having a good day the tripas are soo good, definitely worth a try.
They do run out of tripas though, so go early for them.

If you missed out on the tripas, they also have cabeza for some fatty cheek meat (below), or the regular carne asada and carnitas.


Rambo's Tacos
Corner of Eagle Rock and York Blvd
(approximately: 4250 Eagle Rock Blvd)
Los Angeles, CA 90041
Rambo's Tacos on Urbanspoon

Rambo's Taco Truck in Los Angeles

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Baja Media Trip: First Night in Tijuana. Tacos and Cerveza Obscura.

Thursday 6 PM, we all gathered at Union Station to ride the bus down to the first destination of our Baja FAM Media Trip: Tijuana, Mexico! (This trip was sponsored by Tijuana Convention and Visitors Bureau)

In tow were many of my foodblogger friends: Street Gourmet LA (the organizer, aka the don), formerly-teenage Glutster, LA&OC Foodie, Mattatouille, Food GPS, Gastronomer, Deep End Dining, and Eating LA and also some I have not met before including pro-writers Man Bites World (now with LA Weekly's Squid Ink), Table Conversation, and a few other food writers/photographer. There were also some chefs on board - Ramiro from La Casita Mexicana, and chefs and manager of Ciudad and Border Grill, and Brissia, the young owner of Cemitas y Clayudas Pal Cabron.

The mediocre chicken salad sandwich I got from the station was barely enough to tide me over, so naturally the first order of business when we got to Tijuana was DINNER!

First Stop (OF COURSE we're making more than one stop! The night is young):

Tacos El Poblano
7813 Boulevard Diaz Ordaz
Tijuana, Mexico

This place is a bit of a drive from the center of the city, but trust me it's well worth it.
Tacos El Poblano serves carne asada tacos with a mixture of three different cuts of meat: lomo (loin), pulpa (round), and chuleta de res (sirloin) -- thanks to Street Gourmet LA for the information!
There is no doubt about it, this taco blows any LA taco out the water. Any.
I mean, seriously, can I bring these guys back to Los Angeles and open a taco truck?

One taco is not enough, of course, so we got a tostada also, with the same meat.
The tostada is topped with even more meat than the tacos, and the crispy tortilla was so good. Nothing could be more perfect for kicking off our Baja trip and satisfying our hunger. And I do think tacos taste that much better late at night!

We also had a plate of jerky-like pieces of meat.
I never quite found out what this was or which part of the animal it was from, but it was so addicting for everyone.

Next - washing down our tacos and tostadas, with cerveza.

La Vuelta
2004 RevoluciĆ³n, Zona Centro
Tijuana, Mexico

What you need to know about La Vuelta: 24 hours, cerveza (casta and more), and mariachi.

With an amazing mariachi band in the background, the night and our trip is off to a good, lively start.

We each had (at least) two beers, both dark/obscura beers: Casta and Bohemia obscura.

Both beers are pretty good . After much thought I decided I like the Bohemia Obscura better although Deep End Dining preferred the Casta.

Perhaps because there were so many of us, the management served us some chicken taquitos on the house.

The taquitos are good enough, though they don't compare to the El Poblano tacos and tostadas we just had. La Vuelta isn't about the food anyway. It's about the casta, the late night out, and of course, the mariachi.

That's it for the first night. We were back at the hotel just in time to get enough sleep before our early morning start and our food decathlon the next day.

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