Someone wrote: : I pulled into a parking space directly from Middlefield and walked : into the shop. Some folks had been complaining about the smells from : the market, but this place was completely separated from the market. : I made a mental note to rake some people over the coals. : The service was friendly and attentive. My food was hot and it came : on the double: two burritos con carne asada and a carne asada taco. : Price was a bit over nine dollars. As I got to my car, I realized : that I had made a mistake: I wasn't at La Costena. The entrance to : La Costena's fast food outlet is around the corner facing Rengstorff. : I forget the name of the place I ended up in, but the burritos were : good (too much rice and not enough spice for my taste) and the soft : taco was excellent: corn tortillas spilling over with meat, onion and : cilantro. I drenched it in Tabasco and downed it with a cold beer. : Would that all my mistakes were so delicious. : Again, La Costena is around the corner from this place and faces Reng- : storff. I'll let others do the comparison/contrast. My waistline is : not in condition for much more research. That was Taqueria La Bamba. I like it better than La Costena, because they use ranchero style beans. (La Costena uses refritos) But I like Super Taqueria on 10th St in San Jose even better than both of them. And a question - has anyone tried Jalapenos on El Camino in Mountain View? (below Grant Rd)
San Francisco Bay Area, CA
In Search Of El Burrito Grande...
Jab wrote: jab>jThat was Taqueria La Bamba. I like it better than jab> La Costena, because they use ranchero style beans. (La Costena jab> uses refritos) But I like Super Taqueria on 10th St in San Jose Also, your choice of whole beans or whole black beans at no extra charge! La Costen~a Fan #n+1,
Joyce B. wrote: >Someone wrote: >And a question - has anyone tried Jalapenos on El Camino in Mountain >View? (below Grant Rd) Yes. It's my current favorite default taco place, for several reasons, most of them having to do with Enrique Gomez, the owner and head cook. Nice guy, very inventive cook within his format. They do a spicy green sauce for some of the dishes that mixes guacamole with tomatillos and jalapenos; this comes on their carnitas tacos. I've tried that dish (soft taco de carnitas, $2.95 or so), and the` Chiapas tamal (about $4), which is a variation on a dish served at the Gomez family's sit-down place, Estrellita's on San Antonio. I like Enrique's version better: the masa is fresher and lighter, almost fluffy, in spite of having less sauce than Estrellita's. It's a tamal made with mole and filled with big chunks of chicken, a prune (yes, really), olives, almonds and bell peppers. Very different, very tasty. I also like the taquitos there, which is unusual, but mainly because the two sauces -- the aforementioned green sauce, plus a red one that mixes hot red chiles with tomato paste. (That's the taquitos platter, about $3; there are also plain taquitos a la carte for a lot less but without the sauces, sour cream, and lettuce.) We've also had the chicken soft taco, which the kids like (it's in a milder salsa), and Kim recently had a carne asada taco that was quite good. Also, Enrique makes a fajitas taco that I like from time to time, made with chicken in a "secret sauce" (I pegged it -- one of his ingredients is Chinese oyster sauce, in true Bay Area multicultural fashion) and served in a whole-wheat tortilla with black beans. He's just started adding flan to the menu; it's pretty good, well, it's GREAT for a little takeout place, and wouldn't be out of place at a very nice restaurant. The ones we had came with a fresh raspberry on each serving, a mint leaf, a nice caramel syrup from the baking, and a hint of Kahlua in the flan itself. It's all been very fresh, and we eat there about once a week. Not much parking and even less space to eat -- four, maybe five tables and about twelve white plastic chairs, but it's a great take-out place, and they will deliver within a few miles of Grant & El Camino. Best of all, this place seems to go a LOT lighter on the grease than La Bamba; the carnitas are too authentic to qualify for the Heart Association seal of approval, but the rest of the dishes are made without lard and with an unusually light touch with the vegetable oil (for a fast- food Mexican place, anyway). I still think he needs a salsa bar, but then I eat New Mexico chiles like carrots. (Oh, reminds me, I'll post the directions to Craig's place in Los Altos Hills, they hope to be open for the rest of this month, and the chiles are finally ripening -- Kim bought some New Mexico "Sunrise" -- yellow -- and "Sunset" -- red -- peppers, along wiht some 20 lb. of green Anaheims, which have now been roasted and frozen to keep me happy over the winter.) --Scott