mmm-yoso!!!

Eating on the hood of your car: The Mariscos Alex Truck

So there I was running low on petrol in City Heights. I decided to stop and fill up at the station on the corner of ECB and Fairmount and what do I see but a mariscos truck! I've passed this corner dozens, maybe hundreds of times and had never seen this truck before.

Since it was almost lunchtime and I was famished, this seemed like the perfect stop.....all the stars were aligned it seemed.

All the standard mariscos offerings were present on the menu posted at the rear of the vehicle. I did find it kind of strange that there were no prices posted, except for fish tacos which were a $1.25.

The woman manning the window looked familiar.....was this truck once one of the Mariscos German fleet? She always seemed a bit gruff before and this time was no different.

The consomme was decent, way too much celery for my liking, but not bad.

I ordered a fish taco and a gobernador, which came out to $6.25.

As fish tacos go, this was ok. All the usual suspects. The crema was mild and the tortilla routine. There was too much batter on the fish, which was on he gummy side. The fish tasted a bit off as well.

I hoped my Gobernador would be an improvement and while not as good as, say the original Mariscos German(no tomatoes), Beyer, or El Pescador, it was not bad.

The shrimp were plump and juicy, though the vegetables were undercooked for my taste. The cheese was perfectly melted and this was super hot, though it could have used more seasoning...oregano, salt, pepper.  Still it wasn't too bad.

So I returned the following weekend for another try. Same gruff woman, though she must have a heart of gold as she gave the homeless guy a fish taco......me on the other hand, I just a "yes" as she looked down at me. This time I ordered the tacos de camarones and a taco de marlyn, which cost $7.50 total.

Quite a bit of shrimp in my taco, though this confirmed that I'm not a big fan of the gummy and not especially crisp batter. The tomtoes were green and not very good. The rest was decent.

The taco de marlyn....smoked fish taco was the best item I've had here.

The fish had a nice smokiness to it and while the versions at many places teeters on salty, this one isn't.

Again the peppers, celery, and onions weren't stir-fried long enough, making it them and raw tasting.

It was also a decent sized portion though another customer ordered the same thing while I was leaving and was only charged $6.50. Shades of Vietnam!!!

I'm hoping the pricing was a mistake. I wouldn't want to think the place does random pricing based on customers. 

Overall, just ok, not quite in the same league as other trucks I've been too.

Mariscos Alex
In the parking lot of Qwik Corner Service Station
4357 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92105

Caguamanta - The Barbacoa & Frutas El Vaquero Truck

Until this past weekend, I hadn't been back down to Chula Vista in a while. On Saturday I made a trip to Hogetsu Bakery and since I had a bit of time took a drive around. I saw at least three trucks that I hadn't seen before. One of them was of particular interest, so I made some time to return the next day. In the lot of the liquor store where Third becomes Beyer and intersects Main was this truck.

Just the barbacoa sign would usually be enough to lure me in. I did enjoy the sign for some of the more "interesting" tacos and though fish tacos were priced at a dollar on the sign, they were going for 75 cents on this day!

So I placed my order and received a cup of consomme of the barbacoa type. Hot and soothing.

And of course I had to try the Barbacoa de Res Taco. It was worth the $1.75 as there was quite a bit of meat.

Loved the fact they brushed one side of the tortilla with consomme and put it on the griddle....I still haven't bought into having beans in these though. The salsa roja had some kick and the lime added some nice acid, but as a whole, the barbacoa was a bit too mild in flavor for me.

Still, I was really here because I saw this sign on the previous day:

In this case Caguamanta, a soup made with re-hydrated, dried manta ray. I love the intense, briney, ocean flavor of mantarraya, ever since I first had it while visiting Ed in Yuma back in 2005. It's not something very common; Mariscos Godoy sometimes serves Manta Ray Machaca, but other then that it's pretty slim pickings....

I ordered a "chica", the small size, not cheap at three bucks. I had it with cilantro and onions with crackers instead of tortillas. It arrived steaming hot.

The broth was pretty straight-forward and nothing fancy. I loved the addition of avocado which added an interesting creaminess to the whole deal. I was surprised at the amount of shredded mantarraya in this little cup! The flavor is not what you think; think of less salty bacalao meets less intense dried scallop. I've been told that mantarraya is a good substitute for sea turtle dishes.....though I can't really say from experience if that is true.  As Ed from Yuma says, there a "Manhattan Chowder-ry" flavor to this.

I ended up buying the large size....which was a bargain at six bucks for the Missus who loved it.

 The woman who took my order was quite nice as was the rather serious looking young man who replaced her. It seems like this is a family operation. It's good to have some variety amongst all the taco trucks in the area and I hope they keep the mantarraya on the menu.

 Barbacoa & Frutas El Vaquero Truck

On the corner of Main and Beyer.

Current hours are from "about" 830 to as late as 5pm. The nice woman told me that they are currently in this location daily, but are thinking of taking Sunday off.

Eating on the hood of your car: Mariscos El Jefe Truck

I've been shopping at the Northgate Market on the corner of 54th and University quite a bit. The Missus bought a new juicer and has been some interesting concoctions, several of which use nopales. The most disturbing one was nopales and beets which looked like bloody snot....but I digress. One day, Instead of heading just getting back onto 54th and my way home, I took a right on University and saw a pretty busy taco truck.

The selling point seemed to be the 99 cent fish tacos...which is quite cheap since most trucks, including my favorite have raised prices north of a buck. The seating area is a very small - four chair and no table makeshift looking set-up. So you really will be eating on the hood of your car here! The folks here were very friendly. One of the women started chatting with me....talking about favorite taco trucks...hers being El Kiki, while lamenting the crazy price of gas. The menu is interesting, the top half is in Spanish, the bottom half is the English translation.

I went the cheap route, two Tacos de Pescado.

The batter was on the soft side, with a hint of sweetness, a bit too spongy for my taste. Not much fish in this at all, but what do you expect for 99 cents? The crema had no taste and the tortillas....eh...

So that was it, right? Well, maybe not. I went shopping again this past weekend and was just plain starving. I decided to try some of the other stuff at El Jefe.

By the way, if you're ever looking for the cebollas, limes, and salsas, they're behind the gobernador door!

Speaking of gobernador, I got one of those and one of the spicy shrimp tacos. These looked quite a bit more hefty.

 

Both of these had things in common, both had cheese melted on the base of the tortilla to prevent the tacos from disintegrating. Both had some kick, though the spicy shrimp was surprisingly spicy. Both were two tortilla jobs, you could tell much more care was taken with these. The gobernador was the better of the two, but nowhere as good as others. The shrimp in both tacos were on the overcooked side as well. The spicy shrimp taco was interesting....I wasn't fond of the very finely diced cabbage mixed with crema. Though it served to buffer the heat, it was like dumping coleslaw all over a taco.

The shrimp were spicy, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they use habaneros for this. The overall flavor was pretty one dimensional.

I'd say that El Jefe, wasn't quite "the boss" of Mariscos trucks in San Diego. Probably not in my top five. But like the woman said, "the price of gas now is so high, we have to find alternatives to driving to South Bay."

Mariscos el Jefe Truck
5599 University Ave

South Bay Taco Run: Birrieria's La Guadalajara, Mariscos El Pescador, El Gallito Tortas Ahogadas, Tacos El Kiki, Birrieria El Prieto, and Mariscos El Prieto

Recently, my good FOY (Friend of Yoso) TammyC requested a "taco crawl" something that I've done a couple times before...once even with this group of folks. This time, YY and her husband MrQ had to be done by 1230, so this would mean a fairly close proximity.....I pretty much had the plan done. I knew this small group would be game, after all we already had done a smaller Chula Vista taco crawl and had both the Mira Mesa Banh Mi tasting and the Amazing Graze behind us....but with a short itme period this could turn out to be pretty brutal.

First stop was a restaurant. It would be nice for the five of us to get to a relaxing start. I chose....

***Birrieria's la Guadalajara has closed.

Birrieria's la Guadalajara:

We started with a Tacos Rojo - Borrego:

I also ordered the Borrego a la Plancha, Birria de Chivo, and Cabeza en su Jugo, which MrQ absolutely loved. Folks were encouraged to pace themselves and here leftovers would be ok. TammyC had never been a fan of lamb or goat....until now.

Of course, the food here is major roll back into bed food, so it was kind of a tough start....all of those fresh tortillas just sit in your stomach.

Birrieria's la Guadalajara
1310 Third Ave
Chula Vista, CA 91911

Next stop was a double whammy...first was:

Mariscos el Pescador:

The consomme here always delivers.

I only went with a fish taco...lots more to come up after this. The fish taco here beat El Peito's hands down on this day. Nice portion of better flavored fish. The only thing El Prieto had on this was the crunchy batter.

Mariscos El Pescador (In the parking lot pf RTA/Toys R Us)
1008 Industrial Blvd
Chula Vista, CA 91911 

The next stop was right across the parking lot.....

El Gallito Tortas Ahogadas:

I'd been here a couple of times and while I loved the bread had never really been impressed.

However, the #1, traditional Tortas Ahogadas had been pretty spicy and MrC really loves spicy food....I mean he eats Ghost peppers for fun. So we got the traditional at a heat level of 10.

I had a fourth of the sandwich, TammyC a fourth, and MrC half. I gotta say, this was much better than I recalled. The bread was great as always, but the pork had fine flavor. MrC's verdict, "not bad, the heat does creep up on you."

YY and MrQ, who often order Thai food at heat level "1" (is there such a thing?) had the #2 at heat level 5, which they had no problems with.

I also had a fourth....I prefer the more traditional sandwich.

By the way, based on all the photos around the truck, I guess Andrew Zimmern stopped by and the place will be featured on one of his shows. So if you're curious, get there before the show airs and all the "Zimm-heads" blow the place up.

El Gallito Tortas Ahogadas
1008 Industrial Blvd
Chula Vista, CA 91911

We jumped back in our cars and headed down Industrial and onto Main for our next stop:

Mariscos Y Tacos El Kiki:

I just recently posted on the place and things are pretty much the same. So here's a photo of the Taco Perron I ate along with more consomme:

Mariscos Y Tacos El Kiki
Corner of Main St and Hollister St.

We decided to take a breather and headed across the street to a shop that sells spices, chilies, and snacks called....

El Ruisnor:

I'd noticed this place the last time I ate at El Kiki.

You can smell the spices when entering the shop...there are bags of the stuff lining the shelves.

 There are also bulk beans and snacks sold.

Interesting shop.

El Ruisenor
2260 Main St
Chula Vista, CA 91911

Then it was back across the street, into our cars and we were off east on Main, stopping at the final "double whammy" location.....

Birrieria El Prieto:

I'd noticed this truck, parked right across from the Mariscos El Prieto truck a couple of weeks ago and had been waiting to check the place out. This El Prieto "twin" did birria, quesotacos, al pastor, and the like. The sold is "res", beef.

I ordered a birria and cabeza taco to try things out. YY, MrC, and MrQ had hit the wall and were not participating.....

The birria was dry and rather tough and short on flavor. The cabeza was very moist and tender, but a bit short on the condensed beefiness I expect from rendered cow head.

Of course right across the way is the El Prieto Mariscos truck.

Even though MrQ could not eat another bite of a taco, he still had room for more consomme.

Another funny thing I noticed......El Prieto now has a parking attendant....for eating at taco trucks! I just found this amusing.

In the end, only TammyC (one) and myself (two) could manage to finish the three tacos ordered.

While we both loved the batter, very nice and crisp, the tacos had only little slivers of fish in them. This wasn't the way it was on previous visits. I'm hoping this was just a fluke.

Mariscos El Prieto
and
Birrieria El Prieto Trucks
3031 Main St
Chula Vista, CA 91911

I noticed that it was just past 12....YY and MrQ had to get going. We'd done pretty good with regards to both time and calories. Whew......I went home and had a two hour nap to recover. Still, it was great fun as always, friends and food just go together so well.

Eating on the Hood of Your Car: Mariscos Y Tacos El Kiki Truck

In a recent morning I'd just finished a quick bite at one of my favorite stops in the Chula Vista area and was headed  to another. As I was about to make the left turn on Main street and the Industrial boulevard I glanced to my right and noticed at Taco Truck.......

Even though I recall seeing a Birria truck next to the El Prieto Mariscos truck, I decided to put that off and see what was up here.

The name of this one is Mariscos Y Tacos El Kiki and though there's everything from Birria de Res to Quesatacos on the menu, this fit the profile of a mariscos truck to a tee.....and by glancing around at what others were eating, this was a mariscos truck.

I placed my order and was handed a cup of consomme....this one was fairly light, with a mild briney flavor, boosted by a lot of celery.

Since the fish tacos here were only a buck (even El Prieto is now $1.25), I decided to try that and order the Perron #1 taco as well.

The fish in the tacos de pescado was really buried in there. It was pretty bland, the batter not very crisp. Yes, I guess it's worth a buck, but nothing especially good.

The perron is a combo of marlyn (smoked fish) and camarones (shrimp) sauteed in a chipotle based sauce which added some kick. The shrimp were ok, nothing special and a bit rubbery, but I really enjoyed the marlyn, which was smokey and salty......almost driving me to bacon-bliss.

To me it was worth the four bucks. I noticed how firm the taco was and turned it over....it's SOP for these type of tacos to have a layer of cheese on the bottom to protect the tortilla, which is then placed on the griddle allowing the cheese to melt.

This was nice....I'll probably get a tacos de marlyn the next time. And perhaps a gobernador too. One thing, there ain't much room in this parking lot......

The fellow working the counter told me they were at this location from 8am to 7pm seven days a week. So we'll have to see. He also spoke perfect English, which saved me from doing my usual butcher job of the few Spanish words I know.

Mariscos Y Tacos El Kiki
Corner of Main St and Hollister St.

Yuma Mexican Miscellany – Pollos El Correteado, Rossy's, El Buen Taquito, and Taqueria Reyes

Kirk is busy doing something. Cathy is busy doing something else. ed (from Yuma) has been busy putting together this post on 4 different places in Yuma (in Arizona).

Kirk calls these type of posts "Cleaning out the Memory Card." I have  pictures of interesting and good  Mexican food I've eaten recently at several different small eateries. No point in doing a bunch of little posts, so I'll just throw them all together here. There should be something of interest in this post for almost any Yuman being.

Pollos El Correteado

In Yuma County, there are three different locations for this restaurant chain (I have no idea how widespread the chain is in Mexico, but there are locations in San Luis, Sonora). One location is on Main Street in Somerton, one is on 3E by the base, and one is on Eighth Street next to the Subway across the street from Food City:
These folks do one thing very well:
Great Mexican roasted chicken. What Pollo Loco aspires to be:
These are special chickens that have four legs, four thighs, but no breast or wing. That anatomical peculiarity puzzled me the first time I ordered a whole chicken ($9). Must be a damn strange looking bird when alive, but it looks pretty good when served:

The macaroni salad and the mashed potatoes are pretty much meh, and the salsa and the white corn tortillas (both gratis) are far from distinguished. So I usually get the chicken to go and have it with homemade macaroni or potato salad.

Rossy's

Rossy's used to be a small truck in a small space with rather poor lighting and great corn and hotdogs. Now the same small truck (and a little hot dog cart) occupy the large lot that was most recently Tata's:

 
The corn (with butter, crema, and cheese) is still good, if not especially good for you:
They now serve a range of decent tacos that you can decorate with guacamole, pico de gallo, shredded cabbage, and lemon wedges. A carne asada taco with all the fixings looks like this:
For me, however, the big draw of the place are the bacon-wrapped hotdogs which they will happily accessorize for you:
 

Love those grilled onions, along with salsa and who knows what else.

El Buen Taquito

Getting a meal at El Buen Taquito was not easy for Tina and I. First, the truck is almost hidden toward the back of a lot on the east side of Avenue B, about a block south of the intersection with Eighth Street. Then, after we had discovered it, every time we wanted to go there, the place was closed. We realized, finally, that it opened later than most of the other taco trucks in the neighborhood and is not open every evening. However, many times we would drive by – let's say returning from San Pedro or Rossy's – it would be open and busy, much busier than the truck called "Yuma's Best" just up the street from it.

Our luck changed a few months ago when we pulled up, saw the lights, and decided to find out why this place was so popular:
The menu is extremely limited, but very reasonably priced:
We ordered a variety – crispy tacos, tostadas, rolled tacos, and sopes along with a couple of aguas frescas. However, the first thing we were brought were little cups of incredibly rich and flavorful consommé:

The only meat used by this truck is beef, and the beef has been cooked a long time so that its flavor in the tacos and flautas is fairly neutral and background. The consommé, on the other hand, is as beefy as Arnold Schwarzenegger in his glory days.

Then we received our order. The lighting, as you can tell, is far from ideal for photographs, but here is a picture of a couple of the excellent crunchy tacos:

 

Because the primary difference between the sope and the tostada are how thick the tortilla/patty is, it is hard from me to tell which one is which in my photographs. I think this is a tostada:
And perhaps this is a close-up of a sope:
Underneath the lettuce and cheese is a flauta:

In any case, Buen Taquita does one thing extremely well – deep frying. The tacos, flautas, sopes, and tostadas all had crunchy deep fried corn tortillas or patties. None of them was greasy; all of them were tasty. The sope was a little more chewy than the others. The soft meat and frijoles provided a flavor and texture contrast with the  fried shells and abundant shredded lettuce. Everything was covered with cotija cheese.

Would I want to eat here every night? No, of course not. But sometimes you just gotta have crunch and this is the taco truck to provide it.

Taqueria Reyes

Taqueria Reyes recently opened in Palm Plaza on Avenue A, where Taqueria Jalisco had been in business for many years:
As well as providing a range of standard tacos, I am very fond of the tortas there, for example this one made with machaca:

Inside, there is a smear of frijoles, slices of avocado, chopped lettuce, tomato and mayo. I, for one, appreciate the pickled jalapeno, which I've always thought was perfect with tortas.

The other item that I love here is the Menudo ($5.99). For a dollar extra, you can get it con pata. When placed on the table, it looks like this:

It comes with a choice of bread or tortillas and is served with all kinds of condiments including lemon wedges, oregano, cilantro, menudo spices, chopped onion, and a deep and powerful salsa:
 
After I add some condiments and stir it up, it looks like this:
Look at all that tripe and hominy! But what I find most truly satisfying about the Menudo here is that  pata, a big piece of cow hoof. And when I get lucky, the hoof is completely covered with wonderfully chewy tendon:
Sooo goood!! While the soup overall is not as complex as the incredible sopa de pata at the old Pupuseria Cabanas (I still miss that place a lot), it's the best cow hoof I can find in Yuma. And cow hoof is a good thing.

Mariscos Monday - On the hood of your car edition: Tacos El Paisa Y Mariscos and Mariscos El Prieto

After a fairly mediocre meal at Fish Mart; I decided to check out a couple of other places. It's not often that I'm this far South, so I intended to make the best of it.

The first stop was one Masa Assassin mentioned to me when I ran into him at Tacos El Poblano a couple of years back. (Where are you MA? We miss you....) He mentioned that he was going to check out a truck he'd heard about off of Iris, near Beyer. A couple of days later he posted on Tacos El Paisa Y Mariscos. I'd been wanting to check the place out for a while, so this day was a good as any for a visit to:

Tacos El Paisa Y Mariscos Truck:

 
Located at the far end of a parking lot close to the Iris Avenue Trolley stop, this place was doing some pretty good business when I arrived. I placed my order, and was handed a fairly large (12oz) cup of consomme.......

 

This one had a strong shrimp flavor; and indeed when I arrived at the bottom of the cup, there were quite a few shrimp shells.

I'd gone with what MA had on his visit; a Shrimp and Fish Taco.

 

When MA had visited; he indicated the use of lettuce on these tacos as sort of a signature. Somewhere down the line, they've gone ahead and reverted to the standard cabbage.

The fish in the Fish Taco was fairly small and the batter very soggy.

 

Not much of anything on this one. Which is too bad, since the crema used had a nice flavor. It seemed lighter than other versions.

The shrimp taco by comparison was huge, with four large (for a taco) battered "globs". The shrimp were pretty good sized, but the batter was really thick. After the initial crunch it was too bready(for my taste) on the way to the shrimp.

The lady taking the orders was very nice, and things ran in a very organized manner. I'm not sure I'd return, but this wasn't bad by any means.

Tacos El Paisa Y Mariscos
3170 Iris Ave.
San Diego, CA 92154

I then jumped back into my car and headed up North, exiting on Main Street. I had my sights on a truck that had been recommended to me by several people. I'd missed the truck on several occasions, but today I knew I'd be getting there on time. Located on Main Street, just due West of 3rd Avenue, right past the strawberry field is the :

Mariscos El Prieto Truck:

 

You know right away that this place must be doing major business. Have you ever seen designated parking spaces for a taco truck?

Having already consumed five tacos; there wasn't going to be a gobernador or anything else that big in my future. I went with two fish tacos, a bargain at $1 a piece. Of course things started out with some consomme.

 

This was the regular 6pz cup. The consomme was served at the required tongue scorching temperature. This one had a strong celery-peppercorn flavor.

When I ordered, the woman manning the counter asked me my name, which she wrote down on the order slip. So there I was waiting for my tacos, when I heard "hey"...."Hey"...."HEY". I realized that the guy behind the pick-up window was calling me. Perhaps they had a hard time spelling my name, and the woman just decided to write down H-E-Y as my name? Actually, I thought I as back in Philly waiting for a pork sandwich for a second!

My tacos looked almost perfect in proportion....fish the perfect length for the tortilla.

 

The textures were excellent; the batter shiny and crisp. The fish was perhaps a bit dry; kind of reminding me of Mariscos German's tacos de pescado.... but this batter was just perfect. Everything, the pico de gallo, the crema, which wasn't too heavy handed in the mayo department, and even the few slices of onion sang in harmony. Very nice; I'd have this again in an instant.

As to whether this is better than what is served at the Mariscos El Pescador truck, which is 25 cents more, and tends to have to much crema on it. Right now, at this moment, I'd say MEL's fish is better, but man this was fried perfectly..... I guess I'll have to save that comparison for another day.

Mariscos El Prieto Truck
3031 Main St
Chula Vista, CA 91911

Mariscos El Toro Truck

*** Update. This truck is gone.....

A bit over two weeks ago I mentioned seeing a Mariscos truck in the parking lot of the 76 on the corner of Convoy and Balboa. During a recent lunch, I had the sudden urge to "fill up my tank", and just so happened to stop by the 76 (how convenient, eh?). And yes indeed that very same truck was parked a few feet from the water and air station at the 76.

 

After filling up, I pulled my car to the front of the convenience store side of the gas pumps. There isn't much room here, so it's a wonder this truck can do any business at all. Just by coincidence there was a gentleman waiting for his order. The fellow in the truck bellowed a welcome, and seemed pretty busy. I struck up a conversation with the guy standing outside, and he told me, "they serve the best fish tacos I ever had here....." Then he grabbed his burrito and left.... well wait a minute.... if this place made the best fish tacos, why'd he order a burrito?

Oh well, I'd already placed my order, so I'd let the chips fall where they may.....

The very friendly guy came out of the truck to hand me the staple freebie of Mariscos establishments..... the cup of oceany consomme.

 

The consomme looked much too light and watery, but wasn't too bad.... nice shrimpy flavor, and scorching hot as it should be.

The usual creamy salsa usually provided for Mariscos was missing, but there was a habanero based salsa that looked like water....but was pretty spicy, as was the typical salsa roja, which had a very strong Chili de Arbol heat.... very upfront.

 

Soon enough my food was ready. Had there been more room, this would've been one of those "eating on the hood of my car" posts, but there really isn't much eating space. So I took my tacos with me back to the office.

 Here's the line-up from left to right; Tacos de Pescado (Fish Taco), Camarones a la Diabla (spicy shrimp), and the Gobernador (of course).

 

These really seemed to pale in comparison to what other Mariscos trucks deliver.

The Fish Taco ($1.50), was just totally covered in Pico de Gallo......

 

The piece of fish was pretty small, and it lacked a decent crunch. I was wondering about the lack of crema, until I bit into it...... they had smeared the crema on the tortilla and placed the piece of fish on top of it.

It just can't compare with this from one of my favorite stops:

 
Which is also cheaper......

The Gobernador ($3.25) was also a bit disappointing.

 

Unlike the versions I enjoy from Mariscos German and El Pescador, this lacked the wonderful cheese melted on the tortilla, which protected the tortilla from falling to pieces. This made for a rather soggy experience. There was pretty much more onions than anything else, the veggies and the shrimp were on the over-cooked side, camarones tough and vegetables lacking crispness. No, this was not bad by any means, but not in the class of a good Gobernador. It was also fairly small for the price.

The best item I tried on this day was the Camarones a la Diabla ($3.25):

 

Even though this seemed a bit small for the price as well, the shrimp in this was done well, not perfect, but good enough. It also had a sneaky slightly smoky heat. I took a bite, then added the Habanero Salsa and Cebollas (pickled onions and habanero), and ended up breaking into a pretty good sweat.

To me, El Toro isn't quite in the same class of the good Mariscos Trucks, they are still pretty much the only show in this part of town. I'll probably drop by again if they make it past the next couple of months to see if the food gets better. We need more offerings of this type, and the gentleman running the truck is very friendly.....

Mariscos el Toro

Currently located at the corner of Convoy street and Balboa in the parking lot of the 76 station.

I was told their hours are Monday thru Friday from about 930 to 330.

Eating on the Hood of Your Car: La Princesita returns to Linda Vista

Last time I checked, the La Princestia Taco truck, a long time staple in the parking lot of Joe's 99 Cent store had lost his "lease" as it were, and had moved on to greener pastures. I read Dennis's post from back in March letting us know that La Princesita was now found out on ECB, in front of one of the Panaderias, and had spotted it myself a couple of days after. That's why I was kinda surprised to see what looked like said taco truck (or perhaps trailer is more appropriate) in the parking lot of 96¢ (ever wonder how to create the "cents" symbol on a keyboard - hold the ALT key, and type in 0162, then release the ALT key) & Up Store on Linda Vista. Fairly excited, I drove by the next evening, and nada...... the following Thursday, it was back.... the next evening, "zip". After that, I just put finding the truck on the back-burner, moving on to other things. Until.... a Friday two weeks ago. I received an email from FOY (Friend of Yoso) "Gustavo", who wrote letting me know the truck was back for good......

 I wrote Gustavo back letting him know that I'd check it out the following weekend...... and last night seemed the perfect time. It was kinda strange, the store was closed, so the parking lot looked completely empty except for two vehicles, and of course, true to Gustavo's word, La Princesita!

Being pretty hungry, I went for four tacos ($1.50 each).

From left to right, carne asada, cabeza, lengua, and pescado.

I'd never had the fish taco from La Princesita, and my better judgment told me stick with the "carnes", but I decided to just try it out.

And in all honesty, I've had worse fish tacos.... it was a bit "crema" heavy, and the piece of fish was fairly small, and lost in all the shredded cabbage. But what fish there was tasted decent, but nothing I'd have again.

In my original post on La Princesita I mentioned that the Lengua was my favorite. And it was true on this occasion as well.

Well portioned, the lengua was very tender with a mild gamey beefiness unique to tongue. The texture is fairly slippery, and almost slightly creamy-gelatinous, without creeping into the waxiness of poorly prepared lengua. To be honest, the salsa roja is not really needed, I'm fine with just a touch of cilantro and onions.

The cabeza was just ok.

I like the texture, though I think it could use a bit more "ooomph", in the form of the condensed beefiness of good cabeza. Also, a bit more gelatinous bits are always welcomed. Still, this was not bad.

Of course I had to try the Carne Asada.

There was a time when the carne asada from La Princesita was highly thought of. Somehow, it seems to have fallen on hard times. The meat was tougher than I recalled, and lacked the salty-citrus flavor that I enjoyed in my first couple carne asada tacos from La Princesita. Perhaps this was just a fluke.

I hope it is......

As a whole, the tacos from La Princesita are served on moist double corn tortillas, and the portions are quite generous. It was kinda like seeing an old friend. Both Gustavo, and the gentleman running the trailer told me there were here to stay.... but as Paul McCartney said so well, "in this ever changing world in which we live in....." who knows. I hope they do stick it out at this location.

One thing though..... the sign on the sidewalk says 99¢ Tacos...... all of my tacos cost a $1.50, which in my opinion is a pretty reasonable price. So maybe they should saw off the 99¢ part unless they actually have 99 cent tacos???

La Princesita Taco Truck/Trailer

In the parking lot of the 96¢ and Up Store on Linda Vista Road.

Tabe times two.... Tabe Grill and the Tabe BBQ truck

I'll be the first to admit that I've mixed feelings about the proliferation of "mobile cuisine". Part of me loves the concept, after all I grew up eating from "lunch wagons", many of which served up good grinds for cheap. And of course, there are the various taco trucks around San Diego that I enjoy. On the other hand I'm not sure that I share the sometimes cult like hyperbole surrounding mobile cuisine. Over a year ago, I made a trek out to the "OC", stood in line for two hours, for two tacos with barely any meat, drenched in sauce that destroyed some already lousy tortillas. It could be that kalbi and bulgogi tacos weren't new to me.... I recall Alan Wong serving up the stuff years ago, and I've been making bulgogi and teriyaki tacos at home. It could be that fact that I just don't have the patience, nor intestinal fortitude to stand in line for any reason, and being forced to do so just made me expect more and more. I do love the concept, and truly admire Kogi's innovative use of social media to create excitement and demand. But for me it was a case where the "Emperor had no clothes". Unfortunately, my camera at that time really didn't take anything worthwhile, so I never did a post. Leap forward a year and a half, and a group of food trucks.... of course they call themselves purveyors of  "mobile gourmet cuisine", have now popped up. Along with the various emails in my inbox, there is, the by now standard arsenal of tweets, facebook pages, and so forth. I did manage to try both Tabe and Kalbiq one the same day. Unfortunately, later that day I received the dreaded "card read error" when trying to upload my photos, I had used the cheapo 4GB SD card I got free with my camera, instead of my usual SD cards and paid for it. Maybe posts on food trucks just weren't in the cards for me. I didn't find the food particularly great at the Tabe or the Kalbiq truck.... actually, I thought the food from the Kalbiq truck was just not very good. Plus, there were already a large number of posts from Dennis and Kirbie on these trucks, and I really didn't think I had much more to offer.

Then a funny thing happened.... I decided to take my car for a carwash. 

 
Now I wouldn't blame you if you started scratching your head asking yourself what a carwash has to do with Tabe. I went to pay for my carwash, went to walk out to wait for my car, when I saw this.

 

Call me gobsmacked......

I walked up to the window, and spoke to the nice young man, whose name is Todd, and asked if this was the same "Tabe".... to which he replied "yes". By now I figured it must be fate..... some other power was telling me that I needed to give Tabe's tacos another shot. I ordered the same two tacos I had eaten at the truck, and an order of fries, which I had never tried.

 
First up, the BBQ Beef (aka Kalbi-ish) taco.

 
When I had these before, they were tough, and over sauced with a way too sweet glaze. These were not bad. The meat was fairly tender, and it wasn't drenched in sauce.The "salsa" worked well with this, and I thought the addition of tsukemono as one of the toppings was a plus.

The Spicy Pork, which in my opinion isn't very spicy, was way too sweet for my taste.

One real quick note....... I'm not a big fan of topping savory dishes with fruit, it might be your thing, but it's just something I'm not fond of. I found the pork to be a bit too mushy, and there was so much going on here, like a con-fusion-ny Daeji Bulgogi, that I ended up not enjoying this too much.

All of those taste notes are just personal preferences. But I don't think you can get away from the lousy tortillas, which are cardboard like, and end up falling to pieces. I've eaten at taco trucks selling fish tacos for a buck, and their tortillas are superior to these. Maybe the crew at Tabe believes the tortilla doesn't really matter; but I think at $2.76 a taco they can do better.

The last item I had ordered were the Five Spice Fries ($1.38). I really didn't know how these fries would taste...... after all, I thought they were really going to use five-spice on the fries. But at first whiff, I (happily) knew they didn't.

 
I really enjoyed these, they were crisp, with a nice black pepper flavor, and even a hint of sweetness(?). But most of all, these were touched with one of my favorite spices..... cumin, which really tasted good. Go figure....

Overall, that BBQ Beef taco was pretty good, and I really enjoyed those fries. Plus my car was nice and clean...... so I did leave Happy Car Wash, fairly happy, or at the least content.

About a week later, I was in the Little Italy area, and lo' and behold, it was the Tabe BBQ truck. After my last visit, I decided to stop and grab some tacos.

I passed on the pork this time around, and went with the BBQ Beef and a Fish Taco.

Egads, fruit again, this time topping the fish taco. It is easy enough to remove.......

Like Dennis, I found the fish portion to be on the small side. It was pretty much lost in all the produce. I pulled out a piece of the fish and ate it.... tastewise it was pretty good. Just too little fish for too much taco.....

I wanted to try the beef yet again.

I found these to be decently tender, but like my first visit, the glaze just made it too sweet for my taste. I think next time, I'll tell them to forgo that extra shot of sauce I believe they add at the end.

Yes, you heard it right.... they'll be a next time. Mainly because of this:

When I walked up to the truck, "Todd" recognized me. We chatted briefly, and I mentioned that I really enjoyed his fries. My two tacos strangely arrived in a large styrofoam container, instead of those little "boats".... Todd had included some fries for me.... because I enjoyed them so much. I've often said that I understand the difference between "favorite" and "best". Your favorite (fill in the blanks) may not be the one you consider to be the best, and I respect that. There are other factors that make your favorite burger joint/bar/sushi bar/pizza palace, that number one place on your list. And right now, I can easily say Tabe is my favorite Gourmet Taco Truck.

Tabe Grill
3690 Murphy Canyon Rd.
San Diego, CA 92123

Tabe BBQ Truck - various locations