Burritos - Are they Mexican?

Gary S. wrote:
> BTW, a couple of recommendations:
>
> For Mexican regional specialties and occasional haute cuisine
> dishes, the best place I know in the Bay Area is Guymas in
> Point Tiburon. For creative, family-style Mexican cooking, I
> like El Aguila (hope I've got that name right) on Noriega near
> 19th Ave. in San Francisco -- it's the kind of place I would
> be very happy to find in Mexico City, although it's not typical
> of anything else I've seen.
>
It's Casa Aguila, and is the most interesting Mexican restaurant I've encountered in the Bay Area.  It's small, but has a large selection of unusual entrees; service is very friendly, the kitchen not as fast as more standard places.  I've very much enjoyed all the meals I've had there, although I wonder if the amount of fruit in many of the dishes is actually typical of some region of Mexico.

I also think Estrellita's, in Los Altos, does a nice job with the small number of Oaxacan specialties they have each night - worth trying if you live in the area.

By the way, although it's not Bay Area, I'll sneak this in:  best regional (and perhaps best of any type) Mexican restaurant I've encountered in CA is a Yucatan place called El Emperador Maya, in the rather unlikely LA-area city of San Gabriel....
                                     Al Eisner
                                     ([email removed])
                                     San Mateo County, CA

Someone wrote:

: BTW, a couple of recommendations:
:
: For Mexican regional specialties and occasional haute cuisine : dishes, the best place I know in the Bay Area is Guymas in : Point Tiburon. For creative, family-style Mexican cooking, I : like El Aguila (hope I've got that name right) on Noriega near : 19th Ave. in San Francisco -- it's the kind of place I would : be very happy to find in Mexico City, although it's not typical : of anything else I've seen.

      I've spent a fair amount of time in and near Guaymas on mainland
Mexico; while I don't recall much in the way of haute cuisine there, I have always wanted to try the Tiburon Guaymas...

      As far as El Aquila is concerned, I've been there a couple of
times...I like it for a lunch burrito, but have found their big platos too fruity for my taste.  I never saw anything like it in Mexico City or any other part of Mexico.  They table salsa is good, and they do a decent chile verde, but I found their chiles rellenos...weird, and their beans non-impressive, for example not as good as Chevys, believe it or not.

: BTW, I had a really mediocre meal recently at Mama's Cooking

      That would be "Mom Is Cooking."  What happens there is also
nothing like haute cuisine, but I enjoyed my one visit there; the green mole enchiladas - or were they tamales - were tasty and generous.  Not "authentic Mexican food," but then it's not pretending to be.

: Any recommendations?

      Sonoma Taco Shops in Sonoma, Petaluma and, most recently,
Sebastopol.  At the Petaluma store I enjoy the Lomo de Cerdo Adobado; unfortunately this isn't offered in Sebastopol, but the chicken adobado dish works well.  The prawn dishes are also very good, as are all the "antojitos" such as carnitas tacos and chile rellenos.

Will