What a week!! There is so much to do and so little time. Makes me wonder why time was invented in the first place. Ahh yes time was invented so we can have wonderful things like Happy Hour. . . and LATE Happy Hour. Haha!! Happy Hour sounds good right now, however it is 7pm and I probably missed it and it's too early for late Happy Hour. I digress, my second installment of my *drum roll* TACO GRAZING ADVENTURE!!!
Quick backtrack started off at Puerto Alegre with my Local Guru, Renee, and had crunchy tacos to set the bar. A sentence ago I mentioned taco grazing and tacos were involved, so were pupusas. Pupusas on a taco grazing adventure?! Hell yeah pupusas, in defense they are related to tacos; like a different evolution, like Pokemon. Nearly grasping at straws, still I could not say no to pupusas especially if it was across the street.
After finishing up our plate Renee threw the idea of trying pupusas. The place was around the corner, best pupusa in the area, and she needed not to say more. She had me at 'pupusa'. This was when Renee's guru side came out, she shared her story about coming over to the city from the Northwest and how she rooted herself. The Mission was her first home when she came to Norcal and for her to share this place with me really created a bridge between the both of us. Food brings lives together and what better way than this tiny Salvadorean place with wooden benches and jars of curtido and salsa.
The pupusas came out and it was quite obvious these pupusas were not the ordinary pupusas I order from the deli in my neighborhood-Hispanic-grocery store. These were huge and one of them had burnt cheese. Not fully burnt, the cheese was crispy. . . oh my goodness. Thinking about it is making my mouth water. We had to dress these babies up, BAM!! There went the curtido and the salsa, took a bite and G-A-M-E OVER!! OBSCENITY! OBSCENITY! OBSCENITY! SF HOW COULD YOU?! Keeping Panchitas to yourself!
There were place after place of different foods and it was more than South America and Hispanic, there was also Thai, Vietnamese, everything!! It was the City's version of It's A Small World. There was this one eatery where it seats only 8 people, cheap, Burmese, and the servers are straightforward if you know what I mean. Every corner there was music playing and neon lights glowing. We passed other local favorite Hispanic spots like El Farolito. As we crossed the street to La Taqueria I could smell the carne asada in the air. . . this was going to get only better.
I paid, went next door to pick up some Italian pastries (which I will cover in my next entry), went back, and it was ready. My tacos, each one, was individually wrapped with love. I had the carne asada first. . .I'm going to talk about the carnitas though. The carnitas was aiight. The end. The carne asada was the most tender carne asada I EVER had. The meat was amazing and what made it foodgasmic was the cheese. The cheese gave it another depth of flavor, the carne asada was tender, juicy, seasoned right, and then there was the cheese with it's salty and gooey at the bottom. When I was done, I never felt so empty from finishing up a taco before. Seriously, I was done. . . La Taqueria set the bar permanently. There was no way I wanted to go anywhere else. . . as a foodie I had to pursue on.
Quick backtrack started off at Puerto Alegre with my Local Guru, Renee, and had crunchy tacos to set the bar. A sentence ago I mentioned taco grazing and tacos were involved, so were pupusas. Pupusas on a taco grazing adventure?! Hell yeah pupusas, in defense they are related to tacos; like a different evolution, like Pokemon. Nearly grasping at straws, still I could not say no to pupusas especially if it was across the street.
PANCHITAS
3091 16th St, San Francisco, CA 94103
3091 16th St, San Francisco, CA 94103
After finishing up our plate Renee threw the idea of trying pupusas. The place was around the corner, best pupusa in the area, and she needed not to say more. She had me at 'pupusa'. This was when Renee's guru side came out, she shared her story about coming over to the city from the Northwest and how she rooted herself. The Mission was her first home when she came to Norcal and for her to share this place with me really created a bridge between the both of us. Food brings lives together and what better way than this tiny Salvadorean place with wooden benches and jars of curtido and salsa.
QUICK LESSON: By definition of Wikipedia, Curtido is ". . . a lightly fermented cabbage relish" you put on pupusas
Renee took full charge, which was great because I seriously didn't know what to order and I kind of wanted to order the whole menu, and ordered a loroco and pork pupusa.
QUICK LESSON #2: Loroco is a plant found in Central America and Mexico. Somewhat of a vegetable and all this information I learned from Renee. I also learned Renee has made several trips to Central America and from what I was getting from her adventures she really LOVES it down there. Renee can correct me if I'm wrong, right Renee?
The pupusas came out and it was quite obvious these pupusas were not the ordinary pupusas I order from the deli in my neighborhood-Hispanic-grocery store. These were huge and one of them had burnt cheese. Not fully burnt, the cheese was crispy. . . oh my goodness. Thinking about it is making my mouth water. We had to dress these babies up, BAM!! There went the curtido and the salsa, took a bite and G-A-M-E OVER!! OBSCENITY! OBSCENITY! OBSCENITY! SF HOW COULD YOU?! Keeping Panchitas to yourself!
The loroco pupusa was simply amazing in flavor; the way it was layered. You bit first into the crunchy cheese that was burnt on the flattop, then the layer of masa, then the gooey-ness of the cheese with the slight bitterness/floral of the loroco, then the subtle vinegar taste of the cabbage, and last the zing of the salsa.
The pork was flavorful because the cook did a great job sealing in the fat and the flavor of the pork. You can dry out pork and this pork was as wet as SF that day. Moist weather. We also ordered alfajores, cookies which originated from South America where it's shortbread sandwich cookie with a dulce de leche layer as the filling. The way the cookie melted in my mouth and how the sweetness of the dulce de leche brought out the buttery side of the shortbread.
Renne and I devoured the cookies but not pupusas since we were still trying to make room for more tacos. This was a learning moment for me as we both looked at our unfinished pupusas. Renee talked about the homeless population in SF and for her if she has leftovers she gives it to a homeless person instead of bringing it home. It was a way to give to them without reverting to giving out money. She emphasized on making friends with everyone you meet, even homeless people because at times they're your neighbors sleeping a block from your house. Trying not be creepy, Renee mentioned she sees regulars.
Panchitas packed up quickly after we left, it was filled with a diverse crowd and as I walked out the doors it felt good to know something so simple like a pupusa can be so satisfying in more than one way.
OVERALL: 5/5
With alcohol in our veins and warm pupusas in our stomachs it was time to take a walk down 24th to La Taqueria
LA TAQUERIA
2889 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110
2889 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110
24th Street in Mission is like Colima Rd in Rowland Heights, it's a stretch of eateries and restaurants that seems to go down for a good mile or two. As we were walking to our next destination Renee pointed out the murals in the alleyways. She explained these were created by the artists in the area to capture the history of this part of SF, how the Mission came to be.
ADDED NOTE: Renee also mentioned " The muralists are sometimes local, sometimes national or international - sometimes quite famous. Here's a link to some background, if you want to add it."
Now that she has mentioned it, there was a mural which portrayed the story of a young boy who goes on a journey to America which she pointed out. Each mural is a quiet reminder of where humanity can be.
It was great seeing these colorful masterpieces in these one-way-narrow streets. One minute you're looking up the gray sky and next minute you're looking at these murals filled with sunshine, so bright and warming.
ADDED NOTE: Renee also mentioned " The muralists are sometimes local, sometimes national or international - sometimes quite famous. Here's a link to some background, if you want to add it."
Now that she has mentioned it, there was a mural which portrayed the story of a young boy who goes on a journey to America which she pointed out. Each mural is a quiet reminder of where humanity can be.
There were place after place of different foods and it was more than South America and Hispanic, there was also Thai, Vietnamese, everything!! It was the City's version of It's A Small World. There was this one eatery where it seats only 8 people, cheap, Burmese, and the servers are straightforward if you know what I mean. Every corner there was music playing and neon lights glowing. We passed other local favorite Hispanic spots like El Farolito. As we crossed the street to La Taqueria I could smell the carne asada in the air. . . this was going to get only better.
Renee recommended getting the soft tacos, carne asad, CON QUESO!! One should not forget the queso. La Taqueria was packed, all seating taken, and open kitchen where the works were churning out tacos like PEZ dispensers. A few on the grill, there was a guy mass-cutting the carne asada. It looked so freaking good, a part of me squealed because it was fresh and I knew I was going to get a piece of it. Renee at the time tapped out from eating, so I had to continue and go strong. I kept it simple, a carne asada and a carnitas both CON QUESO. Found out quickly this is CASH ONLY place and learned fairly quickly there is a TON of cash only place.
My outlook on cash only places is if it's cash only then it must be really good. Two cents right there. It cost about $7.
I paid, went next door to pick up some Italian pastries (which I will cover in my next entry), went back, and it was ready. My tacos, each one, was individually wrapped with love. I had the carne asada first. . .I'm going to talk about the carnitas though. The carnitas was aiight. The end. The carne asada was the most tender carne asada I EVER had. The meat was amazing and what made it foodgasmic was the cheese. The cheese gave it another depth of flavor, the carne asada was tender, juicy, seasoned right, and then there was the cheese with it's salty and gooey at the bottom. When I was done, I never felt so empty from finishing up a taco before. Seriously, I was done. . . La Taqueria set the bar permanently. There was no way I wanted to go anywhere else. . . as a foodie I had to pursue on. 
OVERALL: 5/5
Back-to-back greatness on these street foods. La Panchitas and La Taqueria takes the most simplistic food to prepare and keeps it authentic. It's hard to replicate the authenticity of the food because the ingredients are different up here compared to down there. There is a whole complication with ingredients, travel, the change in the ingredients due to transportation, etc, etc. Basically it's not the same to actually have it where it originated from, however these two places was able to preserve the authenticity. Hats off to you guys, hats off to you.
Please watch out for the third installment in my journey, next week. Happy eatings!!! ^___^
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| Me and my wonderful Local Guru, Renee. I recommend her. |
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