Yuma Part 3 - Dinner

After hitting Ranch 49.5 Market, Ed dropped me off at 315pm to "freshen up", telling me he'd be back at 430 for dinner! And there he was at 430 on the nose. When I mentioned that I'm still a bit full, Ed laughed and said, "I've seen those meals on your site, I know how much you can eat, I've seen the Sam Woo post." I had to remind Ed that the post was actually THREE MEALS, not one! We drove back down 8th Street, scene of the first part of our Taco Truck Crawl. A bit further down the road there was a small stand in what looked like a former garage, across a patch of maybe lettuce, or broccoli - Ed said pick either one and you'd have a 50% chance of being right. The name of the stand was El Nayarita, named after the coastal region of Nayarit.

We got our ice chest out of the back of the car, and had a seat at one of the lawn furniture tables. We were a bit early and Ed's friends had not arrived. So we popped a few cervezas and Ed ordered a dozen Empanadas. What arrived were what looked like deep fried folded tortillas. Though these were bright red in color:

Ed theorizes that achiote, and perhaps some other seasonings were folded into the masa, before these were stuffed with shrimp and deep fried. Topped with some salsa verde and a squeeze of lime, these empanadas were delici-yoso! Crunchy, slightly spicy, with nice plump shrimp, this was simply amazing. The groups on the other tables were having Seafood "Cocteles" and wonderful looking Seafood Tostada's topped with a large amount of chopped octopus and shrimp. I on the other hand, was really busy scarfing down my empanada(s).

Soon Ed's friends started arriving, and the orders started "flying". 2 dozen more empanadas, fish tacos, shrimp tacos, seafood salad, seafood cocteles, all taken by a very pleasant, smiling Young Lady. Ed and I split an order of fish, and an order of shrimp tacos.

In each flour tortilla either a battered shrimp or battered fish filet was placed with some cabbage and salsa. A squirt of white sauce completed the taco.

The tacos were good, though I must say that I've had tacos just as good in San Diego. The tacos were delivered to the table wrapped in foil, causing them to not be as crunchy as they could have been.

Fairly soon the sun went down in the horizon, and in what seemed a heartbeat the coolers were empty and the kitchen had run out of empanadas. As I stepped out to take this picture the Young Lady who did a fine job waiting on us asked me if I enjoyed my meal. My guess is that there aren't to many Asian customers at this fine little food oasis.

I'd like to express my sincere thanks to Greg & Loidene, Chip & Betsy, and Chris for the fine conversation and laughs. None more funny then when Loidene looked at the photo's in my camera and asked me, "Don't you take pictures of anything else, except food?" And of course a very grateful Mahalo to Ed, for ferrying me around and showing me a great time in Yuma.

As we left the stand and drove up 8th Street I could see an ocean of headlights making their way down 8th Street. The long, hard workday over, the customers, mostly Latino, many Migrant Workers and Laborers were finally ready to start their weekend. We passed what was an empty lot with a banner with "Corona" written on it during the afternoon, had suddenly been transformed into a "hotspot". I could hear the music blaring, blue and red disco lights spinning, strobe light blinking, and most of all, see the large Al Pastor turning on the vertical spit.

I turned to Ed and said "This is pretty neat!"

Ed turned to me and said "Damn, I forgot to order the whole fried fish!"

Leave it to him to put things into perspective!

I've got one more post on Yuma, which I'll do on Friday. Tomorrow it's back to San Diego.....

Comments

[Angie]

Mmm, empanadas. For someone who was still full, you sure held your own at dinner. Thanks for sacrificing yourself to bring us that report. ;-)

After your posts, now when I think of Yuma, I imagine an oasis in the desert. As I approach I think it's a mirage. Are those tents I see? No, it's a caravan of trucks serving delicious tacos.

Sounds like the best kind of road trip--visiting a new place and having friends there take you to all the best places to eat.

[ed]

Just a couple notes. I think the bright orange color of the empenadas may be achiote, not chipotle - see what cervezas do to the memory. The whole fish that they will have later in the season is zarandeado - which is marinated and barbecued - what they had available last weekend was just fried whole fish. But we should have tried it anyway. Blame it on the cervezas. Glad you had a good time because I sure enjoyed myself!

[Kirk]

Hi Angie - Ed's a great guy, and I definitely learned alot during one day.

Hi Ed - Thanks, I've made the corrections. Glad it was only cervezas; if we'd had sake, this would've never been written, and think about how the photo's would've come out!

[elmomonster]

Thanks Ed and Kirk. This was a really fun series of posts to read. I think you guys just made Yuma a must-go dining destination.

[mealcentric]

looks like you had a blast. Great post

[Kirk]

Hi Elmo - This was mostly Ed's work, all I did was follow him and eat. And Boy did I eat!

Hi MEalcentric - Thanks for the compliment. I did enjoy myself, and must've put on about 5 pounds in the process.

[Jack]

Awesome posts Kirk, I really enjoyed reading about your trip! Those empanadas look very tasty.

[Kathy]

Such unusual empanadas, they look soo good! You must be taco-ed out(or mexican food-ed-out?) by the end of this trip!

[Kirk]

Hi Jack - It was a fun and interesting experience. The empanadas were delici-yoso!!!

Hi Kathy - I came back and needed some rice ASAP! You realize this was only 1 day right? But you can be sure I'll be looking for some cabeza and birria around here soon!

[Rachel]

The post was certainly spiced up with photos. I didn't really know what you meant by a lot of those food items as we have a gross lack of mexican food over here. Thanks for bringing us on this virtual gastronomic tour of Yuma. If I ever visit AZ again, I would make a point to stop there :)

[Kirk]

Hi Rachel - Yes, pictures pretty much tell the tale. I've been toying around with just doing pictures.....

[Rachel]

oh no nonononono ... you aren't getting away with it _that_ easily :) I love your commentaries, histories and stories as well !! Maybe once in a while when the pictures say a thousand words but other than that your standard format is great. If it ain't broke ....