Foodland for lunch-A Taqueria inside a grocery store.

mmm-yoso!!!.  The Blog.  Written by Kirk and ed (from Yuma) and Cathy and a few others.  Again, yes, Cathy is back...because all the others have lives...or perhaps they have not eaten anything lately.

The person who named this store had zero imagination. However...oh the food. A Mexican market and in the El Cajon location, a plethora of Middle Eastern products (there is a large Chaldean population in El Cajon). A panderia, taqueria, fresh tortillas, wonderful produce and an array of great items to be found inside.

This day was yet another of our "seven days of feasting" -celebrating the week between our birthdays- and The Mister and I wanted some simple good food for our lunch.  We met in college and lived on a very limited budget and enjoy good food, not really caring about atmosphere.

Two carnitas tacos $1.50 each.

Fresh, juicy, tasty.

Fresa (Strawberry) drink ($2.00)(the most expensive item we bought)... and a beef tamale ($1.50)

Cross section of the tamale- filled with fresh, tender, juicy beef.  The masa still had larger pieces of soft hominy-you know it was made fresh...

Buche, cabeza and birria tacos. $1.50 each.

Excellent, as always.  Large portions inside the doubled tortillas. The buche (esophagus) meat was tangy and nicely chewy and the cabeza (head) meat was deeply flavored. Rich might be the right word.  The birria is always perfectly cooked (it can be lamb or goat-and there were three goat heads for sale in the refrigerated sectin of the store, as well as other goat parts and no lamb parts, so I assume this taco was goat.  The taste gave it away also).

Simple. Good.  Oh. The tortillas are made in the store, so are *always* fresh and wonderful. The usual toppings are cilantro, onion and in house made tomatillo salsa-just a bite of heat with a wonderful tomatillo flavor.

Then there is the grocery store.  Go to the cheese section.  Danish Blue Cheese is $6.99 a pound.  I have no idea why. We always get a chunk when we are here.  Always.

Foodland Mercado 1099 East Main Street, El Cajon 92021 (619)579-4100

Other locations: 920 Cardiff Street San Diego 92114, 303 Highland Avenue National City 91950, 5075 Federal Boulevard San Diego 92102

Comments

[tani]

Aw, I love the name "Foodland". Reminds me of home (Hawaii), where it's a local grocery chain.

[tani]

Aw, I love "foodland". Reminds me of home (hawaii) where it's a local grocery chain.

[tani]

Oops, I guess I love it so much I had to say it twice :) sorry.

[Cathy]

Oh I was so excited to see I had three comments, I'll just leave yours up, tani. Welcom to the comments side of the blog! This is a neat grocery store and kind of a small chain, all are IGAs and have interesting selections corresponding to the neighborhood where located. I only went in here one Voting Day a few years ago, looking for a beverage, and saw the taqueria...and then started discovering most of the IGAs had such eclectic products in the stores...

[nhbilly]

For a second I thought the cheese was bad until I read blue cheese. I can only image how strong it would take and how perfect it would be for blue cheese dressing. YUM!

[Cathy]

Very good, Bill- Yes, we make blue cheese dressing with it...garlic is involved.

[sawyer]

i've never had buche or birria before...nor a fresca. another thing on my list to eat when i go down to sd. gota love the tomatillos too. very nice pictures.

[Cathy]

Buche is prety much an acquired taste, Sawyer, as is the birria. Each is good in its own way. Walk into *any* Mexican grocery store and you'll most likely find a taqueria...the aquas frescas vary from place to place. I'm sure you have had horchata and jamaica and tamarindo-those come in concentrates from various suppliers. When you see something else, try it...Foodland had a watermelon one which we also had later, but I did not photograph. Excellent.