Taqueria Mexico in Westminster, the LA Kings, and Pigs with Baseball Bats

Coming home from a late night game watch at LA Live for my beloved LA Kings hockey team.... I had a chance to go to one of my favorite local taquerias in the area in the aptly namedTaqueria Mexico.
I have been going to this place for years although my move to South OC from Huntington Beach meant my visits were not nearly as frequent. I have had some mixed experience but generally have had good to great results.

There were 3 of us, and since we were good and hungry we ordered 24 tacos, 6 each of the carne, pastor, carnitas, and chorizo. Ironic that I cant recall them having chorizo back in the day but it was indeed on the menu and as one my favorite I had to get it.

They brought our a fresh stack of tortillas, and normally they throw them on the grill to heat them up, but the guy behind the counter said they were still hot and good to go. Boy was he right....the tortillas were light and flakey and had the fresh corn tortilla taste which was amazingly perfect texturally with  the chopped meat.

For me the best thing about these tacos is squeezing the fresh lime(dont be shy with it!) and putting a pinch or two of salt along with some of the spicy carrots is a treat to be sure. Anyhow here are some pics...

4 types of Westminsters Finest Tacos

Carnita with Green Sauce

Ill be honest...this was either pastor or Chorizo...either way it was amazing.

We debated stealing this and selling it on Ebay as an "Urban Art" exhibit.

 At the end of the day every taco was amazing, but I certainly now how a soft spot in my heart for Chorizo Tacos. As a matter of fact authentic mexican style Chorizo is vastly underrated as a meat filling IMO. I am thinking most have the perception of the stuff in the supermarkets with a pig holding a baseball and assume its all the same. But the authentic stuff is soooo good. Nice texture with the bold salty/spicy combo of flavor that just can not be topped. Once again with the fresh lime and prototypical toppings is a taste sensation to behold.

Now as for as my bad experience, and I will preface that this happened probably 10 years ago but my ordered was taken by a man who was giving the stink eye, or the mad dog if you will and what side of the county you live on, then never heated the tortillas and clearly had some disdain for me for no apparent reason. I have been to this place enough where it was what it was and it never happened again but some reviews on Yelp had given similar stories. Once again this experience happened years ago, and visiting last night the Staff could not have been friendlier.

As a matter of fact it had been so long since I had last been there I was surprised by how many asians there were there. Back in the day it was all latinos with myself and my buddies as the only gringos. Was great to see though that OC's multi-cultural mix is becoming the norm and I can point to Albatros in South OC as another mexican place very popular with the UCI crowd.

So the real question now is....how much can that piece of Urban Art fetch on EBay?

La Chiva Torta in SA; the Standard for all Food Truck Tortas

La Chiva Torta...aka everything you knew about Tortas was wrong. 

I love tortas. I remember my very first one I had...was in an alley next to a police station in Tijuana. I remember the smell of the carne on the grill and how the cook slopped gobs of mayo onto a bun and cooked that on the grill before he added tons of meat, a slice of ham, and threw on 1/2 an avocado on top with all of the grace of a  tile guy laying spackle. Seriously a sense memory I will always cherish. I found the Torta at the Taco Factory in Tustin was good and some hit or misses here and there and Albatros Mexican in Lake Forest is always dependable.

But after numerous invitations from a friend I finally made it out to SA for LA Chiva Torta. Now these are a different type of torta then I was used to being known as "Ahogada style" or something thereof. If I had to give a crude analogy I would say a bit like a mexican version of a french dip. The most amazingly delicious mexican french dip the world has ever known that is.

In lieu of a soft torta type bun these are served on a thin baguette. And where other tortas are loaded with goodies-these guys are meat and marinated onions and sauce. Thats it. If you are expecting refried beans or cheese or anything offered at Subway you will be sorely disappointed. Then again...if you like Subway I officially request you never visit my blog again.

The Kicker here is the combo of fresh lime and a blazing hot red sauce. And when I say blazing hot I am not messing around. I was tempted to go hot as I like spicy food and can readily handle jalapenos and other spicy fare. Much attributed to my friend's cajoling I rolled with a Medium and glad I did. The sauce is not immediately hot. It is not like eating the tip of a habanero and immediately going into the fetal position while biting your own tongue involuntary curling of the toes.

No, this is a slow deceptive type burn that sneaks up on you.....but the pain is so overwhelming flavorful you find yourself longing to experience it over and over again. My first torta here left with me a red burning red around my mouth that had me looking like a second hand clown working the swap meet circuit.

Back to it, the texture of the baguette crust, the inner bread acting a sponge, the slight saltiness of the sauce, with the tartness of the lime.....hell the meat is almost a bonus. The sauce to these tortas is akin to the garlic sauce at Zankou Chicken or the Cheese Bread at Clearmans.  It is one of those things that will forever permeate the portion of your brain that associates amazing flavor with a sense of satisfaction to the point of lethargy.

The tortas here are one of those experiences where you have the first time and think "damn, this is pretty good." A week later you think "One of those tortas sounds good right about now." A couple of days later you think "How can I get out to SA for a Torta Lunch". A couple of days after that you wake and set the timer to count down how long you need to wait before getting your Torta. The next day you wake uo and think about it while making your coffee and then start to wonder how many you should get and whether or not you can start freezing them for future use.

Seriously good Tortas...La Chiva Torta-I salute you. As a matter of fact....I love you and the burning sensations you leave me.

The Horrors of the Taco Bell Taste Test

I got paid $25 bucks to eat 2 burritos today. You read that correctly-As part of Taco Bell "experimenting" with some new menu items I was selected to visit the Irvine Headquarters and take part in the program. The Taco Bell headquarters was big nice corporate building with plenty of big tvs that played nothing but Taco Bell Commercials over and over and over again. I was wondering if every 7 or 8 minutes they were going to show a 3 minute snippet of scenes from "How I met Your Mother" or "American Idol."

After herding our group into a very futuristic looking elevator we entered a room that was pretty much what you would expect in a test room with a row of 10 or so side to side cubicles(or in this case side-icles) with a cup of water, a saltine, and a door connected to the wall in which the people from behind would slide out the franchises latest concoctions and a computer monitor and keyboard where we could enter our thoughts on the various products. My Keyboard looked like it needed some cleaning and I secretly longed for a bottle of Purell or a Lysol Wipe. My computer at home looked cleaner and I've got 8 and 4 Year old Sons who regularly sneeze and cough on it as they play Club Penguin.


Burrito A- Your typical Taco Bell Style Burrito with ground beef, rice, and Cheese Whip. Yes thats what I refer to Taco Bell's cheese as. I am sure they refer to it as nacho creamy cheese sauce or some other bastardization of what in reality is probably the lowest grade cheese product one could possibly ingest. Being in Southern California why anyone in their right mind would prefer this over real grated cheese served everywhere else including Del Taco, the Bells main competitor, is rightfully well beyond my overall scope of reasoning. The Beef was good with a nice balance of spice and consistency but along with the aforementioned horror that that is the cheese sauce was also some Taco Bell rice which to me, had an overly fiberous grit like quality not too much different then vacuum packed precooked rice that requires no cooking at all. All in all pretty much what you'd expect from a bunch of Corporate Suits sitting in a conference room overlooking the 5 freeway and the Irvine Spectrum with a goal of "How can we create the most cost effective burrito using the rock bottom cheapeast ingredients yet make it minimally passable to the average high school student in California or average fast foot eater in the MidWest."



Burrito B came around and while they said they were looking for strictly quality of Beef questions, the second burrito had very little rice, much more corporate cheese product, and a meat that was much smaller in grain size with a higher water/liquid content. After a bite or two I decided this was very easily a burrito in which the filling could be simply eaten with a plastic spoon and at the end of the day the tortilla serving more as a delivery vessel then anything else. Who knows-the styrofoam cup on Cup of Noodles may have more flavor and very possibly could be a much healthier alternative. Burrito B also had a lot more Corporate Cheese Whip which once mingled with the smaller, watterier ground beef ended up being what one could best summate as "industrial beef and cheese product."


I used to be a Taco Bell fan back in the day but once again they are now clearly catering to a crowd with zero regard for flavor, authenticity, health factors, and pretty much anything that may remotely hit a small percentage higher then that of rock bottom. Im really surprised at this point why Taco Bell doesnt simply Co-op with AM/PM or 7/11 as the Nacho Cheese in any of those places really cant fall much lower then the Corporate Cheese Whip being served at Taco Bell. I could honestly make a better taco using ingredients from HomeTown Buffett-a franchise that makes no bones about catering to Seniors and boasting about their use of "For Industrial Use Only" Style of ingredients.

I almost envision a full blown gasoline tanker filled with nothing but corporate cheese whip with a dirty hose on the end of the tank, while a beer bellied guy in orange stained blue overalls gets out, flips the cover of a huge holding tank, and uses his dirty boot to hit the on/off switch while a stream of Corporate Cheese Whip fills the coffers of Taco Bell's cheese holding tanks around the Nation. Have you ever seen the guy who cleans out porta pottys? Same Principle, Same Result...only one guy takes **** out and the other puts **** in. On the bright side $25 bucks is $25 bucks. I figure after $10 bucks on ipecac and an enema Ill still have $15 to go to Albertos with.

I have found a new home! Albatros Mexican Food

I have been in Lake Forest now for almost 4 years and always lamented there was no real good Mexican places like Huntington or Long Beach. Tried this place last night and loved it! Its what you'd expect for a hole in the wall but the portions or good, the meat flavored nicely, as ordering a couple of extra flour tortillas was surprised to see they gave me some of the super sized tortillas. I'm a believer...may not be the best in OC but certainly the best is Lake Forest and this area. I'm almost tempted to give 5 stars. The green and red salsas were spicy without being over the top, the tortillas are grilled and stuffed until they get that slightly translucent appearance to them that I love with patches of semi burnt areas. The carnitas was seasoned perfectly and flakey and tender. Its open 24 hours which means nothing to me these days but its a nice option.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/albatros-lake-forest