The Fortuna Foodcourt in Foothills, Yuma: La Botana, Tacos Durango, and El Cositas

Kirk travels the world and SoCal looking for interesting food and blogs about it here. Cathy knows San Diego better than the cops and blogs about eateries from SD to Michigan. But today, ed (from Yuma) is posting about a collection of trucks and carts in a strange and unexpected part of Yuma: The Foothills       

 As I wrote last May in a post about Kodiak seafood, The Foothills, a neighborhood about a dozen miles east of the main part of Yuma, is not usually where someone would go looking for good and interesting restaurants.  Populated this time of the year mostly by retired winter visitors, it hardly seems like it would be the home to some of the best taco trucks/shacks in Yuma.  But it is.

Over the last few years, a group of culinary entrepreneurs have established a clump of small eateries just off of an access road that runs  parallel to Fortuna Blvd south of I-8. Back in 2005, Kirk dubbed a similar congregation of taco trucks on 8th St a foodcourt.  This newer aggregation is more numerous and varied.  Little places popping up like mushrooms after a rainstorm.

 This picture  from the parking lot of the neighboring Walgreens shows only a small number of the them:
There is a place serving date shakes and another serving Mexican hot dogs:
Another spot that never seems to have customers serves barbecue:
Jersey's is the home of the 3 pound hamburger -- and all sorts of other burgers as well:

This post, however, is just a brief introduction to the three taco trucks located in the area.

La Botana is the fanciest with a semi-enclosed dining room as well as an outdoor deck:
Each table has a squeeze bottle of spicy homemade salsa, a bottle of lightly flavored guacamole sauce, and another rather unusual condiment:

I ordered four different tacos off the extensive menu and asked that they come with "everything." The pork adobada taco was pretty good.  The tortilla was warm and fresh, the pork mildly seasoned, and the toppings (chopped onions, scallions, cabbage, and cilantro) appropriate:
The lengua may have been the best of them all -- the meat tender, rich, and deeply flavored:
The chicken (covered with shredded lettuce and diced tomato) was also good to start with, and even better squirted with some hot sauce and guacamole sauce:

Notice the nice char on some of the pieces of chicken.  Love that.

The only disappointing taco -- and it was only a minor disappointment -- was the fish taco:

Although the fish was perfectly fresh and the toppings decent, my preference in fish tacos is a crunchier crust.

A couple of days later, I went to the second Mexican stand, Tacos Durango:

I had good memories of a visit there last winter when I didn't have my camera with me. It is still a pretty humble little taco truck connected to a covered enclosure:
Here the condiments and salsas are located in a small weatherbeaten little box with a plastic cover:
While the price of the shrimp taco ($2) seemed a bit steep when I ordered, I had no complaints when the taco arrived:

This was a huge taco.  The four shrimp, totally greaseless and completely covered in crunchy coating, tasted exactly like fresh shrimp.  Outstanding.  To my mind, the best in the county.

After I ate one of the shrimp, which reduced the contents of the taco to something that I could fold over, I squirted lemon on them and decorated the remaining shrimp with crema and choices from the salsa bar:
The fish tacos, made with fresh battered pieces of real whitefish were almost as good as the shrimp ones:

The al pastor, on the other hand, was a bit dried out and over cooked:

The spicy coating on it was excellant, however, and I suspect that the  pastor here is usually better than this.

The lengua was tasty if not quite as muy rico as the version at La Botana:

A few days later I returned to the food court again, this time going to Tacos El Cositas:
I was pleased to see asada (skirt steak?) cooking on an outside grill:
Here the condiments are in a covered cooled section of a large aluminum stand:
I received four tacos -- one fish, one shrimp, and one carne asada on the large plate, and something called a chipilones on the smaller plate on the left:
All of these tacos were huge in size.  Both the fish and the shrimp tacos were crunchy, and the fish taco might have been even better than the one at Durango.  I believe the owner/chef double fries them if one requests crunchy. Here is a close up of the shrimp taco as decorated:

The best taco, however, was the chipilones.  At first the name puzzled me (I just ordered it without knowing for sure what I was going to get) but as soon as I saw the taco, I realized that it was El Cositas's version of the eponymous taco from the famous and gigantic taco emporium in San Luis, Sonora.  In fact, the chef/owner told me that El Chipilon is owned by his brother.

with proper toppings the way I like, the taco looked like this:

Heaven on a tortilla de maiz.  The asada meat was tender, moist, and deeply flavorful.  The cheese and roasted green chile added a perfect Sonoran complement to the wonderful beef.

El Cositas has a more extensive menu at dinner and even serves Vampiras, the elusive vampire taco.  Out in The Foothills.  Whodda thunk that?

A couple notes. The only restroom available is in Walgreens. Each restaurant keeps its own hours, and most of them are seasonal. But if you go around lunch or dinner between October and April, you will find something (probably many things) tasty and inviting. I sure did and I will be back.

Comments

[Cathy]

I love this post! To be able to see where and what you eat is so perfect, because every town has their own gems. I so want to drive to Yuma just to see this part of America, and to seek out places like this instead of just driving through wherever I am. I think I have a New Year Resolution.
Those shrimp do look good...and I am wondering how long it takes to cook a 3 pound burger, since that is kind of more like a meatloaf...

[bill]

Some fancy looking tacos from a roach coach.

[Carol]

Those tacos look so good! We've been on a fish taco kick lately so of course now I'm dying for some.

[ed (from Yuma)]

Thanks Cathy. This is an amazing area. I have not eaten at Jersey's, but I think the 3 pounder proabably has multiple patties. I just wish these places were closer to me. The tacos are pretty good looking, bill. I also think the fixed locations and competition keep all of them on their toes. Oddly enough, I have never seen a real cucaracha at any taco truck in town. I love fish tacos also, Carol. Almost a perfectly balanced tasty treat: deep fried crunch, soft corn tortilla, spicy salsa, mellow crema, cabbage, seafood flavor. All good stuff when done right.

[Jimmy M]

Those look really good, I am going to have to try them the next time I visit my parents in the Foothills.

[rich]

Nice. Glad to see that the unofficial Yuma taco foodcourt seen is alive and well, even if I haven't made it out there recently (closest I've gotten is Eloy)

[foodhoe]

How awesome, those are some very fine looking tacos. Has anyone ever ordered the 3 lb burger? is that something people share? dang...

[ed (from Yuma)]

Seriously, Jimmy, these places are amazingly good. So much better than Mi Fajita. Don't know if the trucks are worth driving all the way over here, rich, but certainly worth the trip from downtown Yuma. Yes, fh, someone has ordered the 3 pounder. Stay tuned to this channel to read about it!!