Antojitos Como en Casa: El Centro CA

 Welcome to mmm-yoso. Most often Kirk blogs here about meals and food from San Diego and from multitudinous places around the country and the world. Cathy, based in eastern fringes of the San Diego area, also wanders widely and eats all kinds of things in all sorts of places and blogs about them here. Today, however, you can read Ed (from Yuma) posting about a place in exotic El Centro.

Last December Tina and I were beginning a road trip up to LA to eat interesting food and visit interesting museums. We figured to get going in the morning and then stop for lunch in El Centro, where Tina had found an interesting Mexican restaurant for us to try. Located on a small side street off of Fourth, the place was a little difficult to find, but iPads and electronic maps make just about anything findable these days:

Although the outside was pretty standard, the interior was bright, clean, and interesting:

I was immediately intrigued by the large jars of aguasfrescas on the counter:

We were quickly served chips with two different salsas: one based on roasted fresh green chilies and one with a good dried red chile flavor:

And the aguasfrescas were outstanding. I had a lemonade, but Tina's cucumber beverage was truly amazing ($1.75 or $3.00):

It tasted more like cucumber than a real cucumber does.

I ordered the daily soup special, which was a chicken tortilla soup that – if memory serves – also contained chickpeas. It was very tasty and looked good too ($6.50, I think):

Again Tina's choice was even better, the green pozole that is only prepared on Thursdays ($10.50):

The side dishes with the green pozole included a roasted chili, pork rinds, and a potato taco along with the standard chopped onions, shredded cabbage, sliced radishes, oregano, and chili flakes:

Since that meal, we have talked about driving over to El Centro just for the Mexican food at this restaurant – which seems kind of peculiar, considering that we live surrounded by Mexican food establishments.

However, El Centro also has the closest Costco to Yuma, so as soon as I had some free time, armed with two reasons for the drive, we headed off on a short road trip.

Again we were impressed by the service and the decor of the restaurant:

Tina had the cucumber aguasfrescas again – just as good as before – and I had a wonderful cantaloupe water:

The aguasfrescas are not overloaded with sugar here; the emphasis is squarely on the featured fruit (or vegetable).

As an appetizer, we ordered a potato tlacoyo, a thick grilled corn patty stuffed with mashed potato, drizzled with crema, covered with a tangy green cilantro/tomatillo sauce and dusted with cotija cheese($2.50):

Slightly reminiscent of a pupusa.

This time, Tina had the regular pozole, which was very good but not unusual ($10.50):

Topped with condiments, it looked like this:

I had an order of the chicken enfrijoladas, sort of like enchiladas except that the sauce covering the corn tortilla wrapped chicken is a bean sauce, not a dried chili flavored sauce ($8.99):

I was intrigued by this entrée because I still have fond memories of the enchiladas verdolagas that the late Danny Mendoza used to prepare with a similar frijole sauce at Viejo Loco in Yuma.

These were good, and I was impressed by the tasty rice and especially by the large chunks of chicken:

Anyway, Tina and I expect to be back for more meals – and more trips to Costco. On the weekends, Antojitos features lamb mixiote, specially marinated lamb wrapped in maguey leaf, and we really want to try that.

So if you are on I-8 in the Imperial Valley area and you need a great place for an interesting, unusual, and well prepared Mexican meal, check out Antojitos. We’re glad we did.

Antijitos Como en Casa, 425 Desert Gardens Dr, El Centro, CA 92243, (760) 482-5621, open 8 am – 8 pm every day, except Mondays. website

 

 

Comments

[Kirk]

You have an iPad Ed??? Oh my, now I know all things are possible!!!

[caninecologne]

The drinks sure do look refreshing, especially the cantelope one! Is that Liz Taylor on the yellow wall?

[Ed (from Yuma)]

Well, Kirk, notice that I did not say that I owned an iPad, though I have used someone else's on occasion.

All the aguasfrescas are good there, cc, but I'm not sure about the picture. I have rather poor facial recognition skills (they actually have a test for this online), but I was wondering Ida Lupino, but I can find neither of them with exactly that pose, and Liz Taylor wore her hair like that more often. Does anyone else have a guess?? But I do recognize Cantinflas!

[Tina]

CC, I have looked at the photo both times we have been there and I do think it is a young Liz Taylor. We need to ask.

[nhbilly]

Looks and sounds like a winner.

[Cathy]

What a great find-food (and description of) look so very good. Always looking for tlaycoyo variations around here. (Cantinflas-with that mustache-and I'd say that is a young Elizabeth.)

[janfrederick]

I should know better by now to to read your posts until around lunch. They always get my saliva going no matter how much I ate for breakfast. Man, I'm going to have to make myself some of those enfrijoladas. I just wish my son like refried beans (he loves tripe though, go figure).

[Ed (from Yuma)]

Well, Cathy, you and Tina and cc are probably right about Elizabeth. We will have to ask. Tlacoyo was new to me - they also had a bean stuffed version, but since we were having enfrijoladas, we decided potato was safer. It is a good restaurant billy.

When I wrote up the Viejo Loco post, jan, a reader commented that he'd grown up eating dishes with frijole sauce. Back in the day, that would be a frugal and healthy basic food, particularly if the tortillas enclosed things like verdolagas that people could find growing wild.