Fruitvale taco waddle -- long
A few of use got together this afternoon for another pass through Oakland's Fruitvale district. Windy is going to post on why she thinks Fruitvale is better than they Mission, but here's a short (okay, really long) run-down of where we went and what we ate:
El Novillo taco truck (parking lot of the Guadalajara Restaurant, opposite the BART station on Fruitvale). On the recent Redwood City taco crawl Jen Maiser and I discovered a mutual affection for the carnitas at this truck. For six of us (plus Arlene, who was dieting, silly girl!) we ordered three carnitas tacos, which they kindly cut in half for us, and a tripas taco (because Windy and Chowfun are all about the tripas). Jen's and my opinions were vindicated when a chorus of "yum" burst out spontaneously at the first bite of carnitas. The tripas was also declared to be excellent: crisp and carmelized on the outside but still slightly chewy. Even the non-innard eaters in the group agreed they were good.
We walked up Fruitvale, turned right onto International, and stopped at the first fruit cart we ran into. We bought an ear of corn on a stick, slathered with mayo, rolled in finely grated cheese and dusted with chile. At the peak of corn season, the ear was large and the kernels so plump and juicy that I got spurted on more than once when the person next to me took a bite. We also bought a bag of wagon wheel chicarrones with lime and hot sauce and a bag of mixed fresh "fruit" (which also included some slices of jicama and fresh coconut), into which the vendor squeezed fresh lime juice and sprinkled more chile powder. I think we all had different favorites: I liked the watermelon/lime/chile, Lee liked the pineapple/lime/chile, Windy liked the mango/lime/chile and Celery later bought a bag of coconut/lime/chile to take home.
We sauntered down International, pausing to look wistfully at La Torta Loca, until we got to Mariscos La Costa (corner of 37th and International). We shared three tostadas: ceviche de cameron (shrimp), ceviche de pescado (fish) and "mixto" (shrimp, fake crab and octopus), and two al pastor tacos, washed down with a horchata. The mixto was an ordering blunder on my part, since it was mostly fake crab, but the other two were big hits. I think the ceviche de cameron tostada here is one of the biggest bargains around, at $2.50 -- especially if you get it to go, when they give you a large cup of topping, several tostada shells, a handful of hot sauce and ketchup packages and a handful of saltines for the same $2.50. The al pastor tacos were good but didn't meet Windy's strict al pastor standards. Although it was faulted for a BBQ sauce quality, I liked that the sauce wasn't too sweet and had a distinct cumin note.
We pressed on to the next block and the famed El Ojo de Agua truck (parking lot of the International Market, 3900 block of International). This was mostly a break for liquid refreshment: we shared a mango agua fresca and strawberry and nut liquados (sort of like milkshakes), all of which were outstanding as usual. Arlene also suggested we get a chorizo torta -- which had been noted on the SF Mag 125 Best list. It was good, although the roll was faulted for being too soft. Not sure it was among the 125 best, but hey, I'm impressed that SF Mag even knows there are taco trucks in Oakland.
We continued down International hoping the El Gordo truck with the al pastor Windy was craving would be there, but no luck. I get the impression they are only there in off-hours for the business whose parking lot they use, i.e. after 6 pm and weekends.
Having walked a whole five blocks, we turned back. Our original plan was to stop in Neza, a Mexico City style restaurant featuring rotisserie chicken, but we got side tracked into Otaez Mexicatessen (corner of 40th and International) by a discussion of chiliquiles and machaca. By this point we had lost Arlene and Jen, and our party of five fit perfectly into one of their diner style booths. I love this restaurant (and I'm thrilled that they're planning on opening a branch in Alameda). We started off with a plate of crisp chunks of chicharrones, and chuckled over the fact that four Jewish chowhounds were happily eating pure pork fat (there's no Yiddish word for pork rinds, I pointed out to Lee). By the time our machaca and chiliquiles verde con pollo arrived we were fading, but they were good so we forced ourselves to eat them (washed down with horchata and an excellent strawberry agua fresca). The waitress brought us complimentary dessert of chunks of true sweet potato in a carmelized syrup that was also good. I seem to remember the waitress brought us complimentary dessert last time a chowhound taco crawl ended up there (note: according to the report it was "delicious rice pudding with raisins and cinnamon"), but I don't know why, as I've never had this happen when I've been in there alone. Some kind of gringo outreach program? Maybe they assume we're celebrating a birthday or something. It's not as if we're ordering a lot of food -- in fact we shared only three food items and two drinks, but kept them busy asking for water, extra plates, etc.
We debated whether the Aztec warrior in the mural opposite was rescuing the unconscious maiden in his arms or carrying her off to be sacrificed. Great art makes you think and ask questions, right? Finally, we waddled out. We were so stuffed, in fact, that even though as we passed through the attached tacqueria we noted fantastic-looking al pastor on a spit with pineapple top and bottom we couldn't muster the will to buy a taco to sample. I guess we'll just have to go back!
Finally we headed back toward the BART Station -- stopping along the way to check out Neza in the 3700 block (Celery bought a chicken for later). I also stopped to chat with a woman sketching out a design to paint one of the square trash boxes, which are being painted all up and down International as part of a "improvement project" which will also include a landscaped median strip (palm trees, I assume) and other upgrades. I presume this is all connected with the Fruitvale BART transit village project, which is nearing completion. I just hope the area doesn't gentrify so much that the current residents -- many of whom moved to Fruitvale after being forced out of the Mission by gentrification -- are priced out of the area.
Somehow, we felt compelled to make one last stop: Cinco de Mayo, in the 3400 block, for rasposados. They have about nine (or was it a dozen?) different flavors in the forms of sauces about the consistency of ice cream topping. We settled on pineapple and nut toppings; the sauces were ladled between the scoops of ice and over the top. Excellent, although more syrupy and not as refreshing as the ones we had in Redwood City -- besides, we were sooooo not hungry. Then we waddled back to BART, Windy and Chowfun off to Berkeley Bowl and Crixa and me vowing to hit the gym tonight before all that pork fat (carnitas, chorizo AND chicarrones!) congeals in my arteries.
Elapsed time: three hours. Cost: $12/person.
Ruth Lafler
Jul 31, 2003 08:32PM
Thanks to Ruth for writing this up while ChowFun and I were trying to tell the difference between 25 different kinds of organic tomatoes. It's summer at the bowl...peaches, plums, and crisp Braeburn apples from New Zealand.
I'd love to say I'm an expert on al pastor, but I think that's going to take another year or two of vigorous tasting. My feeling about the tacos at La Costa was that the meat wasn't from a spit; of course the shrimp tostada more than made up for it (were they rock shrimp? they were really tasty), and they had 3 or 4 hot sauces on every table. Next time we should have an al pastor tasteoff.
Maybe I'm just sick of the Mission and burritos after living nearby for 10+ years, but I was also wondering recently if Thai restaurants in SF hadn't sweetened and dumbed down their recipes in response to popularity. Or new food is just more exciting the first time you try it, before you become discriminating enough to care whether it's authentic or in the style from Mexicali or as good as at the truck on 42nd (which wasn't there).
I find that most taquerias in the Mission are trying too hard, doing too many things and end up only being good at a few. Can we blame the lack of authenticity on the popularity of burritos? I like the fresh chips at La Corneta; I like the buche and quesadilla suiza at Taco Loco; I like the al pastor at San Jose, but they have truly awful chips as does Cancun. The window on 21st has great innards with beans (blood sausage, tripas, cabeza, even eyeballs), but you have to sit on a milk crate. Or follow the gringo critics to La Taqueria for delicious tongue or chicken and pay more than twice the going rate for a taco.
It's just a minefield if you don't know what you're doing. Maybe I've gotten too particular, the price of being a chowhound.
I commented that Otaez was like a restaurant in Mexico---not a place for tourists with peacocks and strawberry margaritas but a place where real people eat. Chava's is probably comparable, but the food at Otaez is a lot better and it's a more relaxing place to sit around and eat fried fat with your friends and listen to the jukebox.
As Ruth pointed out, there wasn't a single dud in the bunch (what we ate, not the hounds who came along, sacrificing a workday to the cause).
Many of the Fruitvale taco trucks also offer little extras--wonderful spicy pickled carrots at El Novillo, and I suspect we could have gotten grilled scallions had we asked. There were delicious looking tiny grilled onions in a steam tray at Otaez, when we were too full to even contemplate 1/5 each of another taco but still entrances to watch the chef sharpen his knife and slice some pork and pineapple.
Another benefit of these crawls is our Spanish is collectively improving. I have fewer words to look up each time, and we were all amused on the first truck to see Tripas translated as Chitlins.
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Speaking of Spanish, did you ever figure out what the word at the fruit salad sign at El Ojo and the words at Neza were? Someday I'm going to have to print out a list of food-related Spanish!
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That's what I get for bragging. I was so proud that I looked up mollejas (gizzards).
Today's vocabulary word is:
escamochas
(as in a blend of fruitas y escamochas).
Is this different from a liquado?
There was also a type of taco at Neza with a name like a campesino or campechito. I should have grabbed a menu.
Anyone?
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Campesino means farmer or peasant, with a connotation of poverty and simplicity. Here's how one website puts it:
[QUOTE]
CAMPESINO: "Peasant" doesn't quite do it; nor does "sharecropper." "Rural agricultural workers" is too formal. Campo means countryside, so a campesino is a small farmer or worker who lives off the land. A less neutral term is jincho, which has the slightly derogatory quality of "hick," or "hillbilly."
[/QUOTE]
So a taco campesino is kind of a "poor man's taco" and is going to be something frugal: lots of vegetables and no meat.
Link: http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:...
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Thanks to Luis Valdez I actually know what a campesino is --but is that an official kind of taco that you've eaten?
Now I'll be wondering what kind of potato or sauteed veggies they put in their tacos. More likely, I didn't remember the word correctly.
(And yes, Campeche is a state in the southeast of Mexico, but this is a place that claims to be preparing food in the style of the DF.)
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Windy and Chow Fun,
Did you guys find any goodies at Berkeley Bowl and what did you think of Crixa's? Did they have Marie Sharps hot sauce?
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We looked for the hot sauce, but we didn't find it.
I just downed Crixa's Boston Cream Pie (individual serving) And it was excellent! Great quality chocolate and custard! As to Berkeley Bowl...I found it very overwhelming...as those who have watched me restrain myself at Dim Sum know..I have a real problem with too many choices!! I was very frustrated at the number of fruit and vegetables about which I knew nothing..finally Windy chose things for me as I know I was looking a little FORLORN!
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ChowFun did point out the highlights of the hot sauce aisle--which ironically is not his forte, compared with chicken feet or chicharon.
There was one hot sauce brand called Pain that like fine chocolate came in 70, 85, and 100%, with the spicier bottles simply depicting a person screaming.
I saw noticeably more plum varieties than I can remember in past years--honeydew plums, ten kinds of pluots, etc. Has there been an explosion of plum grafting? And more types of peaches than usual too.
I wasn't too impressed with the chocolate chip cookie from Crixa (pronounced "cricks-a" if you've been wondering). Too much grease, too soft, not enough flavor, especially for $1.25. The chocolate chip cookie at Frishman's deli last week was much better.
No rugalah in sight.
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There has been an explosion of fruit tree breeding and cross breeding as evidenced by the huge number of pluots being generated.
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See the link.
Link: http://www.davewilson.com/br10/br10Pl...
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Thanks Tom--I couldn't imagine that I'd been ignoring that many varieties in the past.
It's worth a visit to the bowl or any good farmer's market this summer for a tasteoff.
Lots of good ® names too (crimson heart, etc.). Guess Zaiger Genetics has been keeping its patent lawyers busy. Or maybe "dinosaur eggs" wasn't such a big seller.
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My CSA sent "cherricots" this week, which I've never heard of before. The description says, "These small fruits are a cross of, you guessed it, cherries and apricots."
I think they taste more like small plums than either cherries or apricots. The skin is plum-like (and purple), they're slightly larger than cherries, and the flesh is apricot-colored. The texture has a bit of cherry to it, but the pit says apricot. Sometimes I think I'm tasting a hint of cherry, but I'm not sure I'd pick it up if I didn't know what they were.
-Beth
Link: http://www.eatwell.com
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I went to Crixa at about 1:30 yesterday (based on postings on this Board) and took the last two rugalach. Sorry! But they do exist, and they are very good - so do go back and try again....
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Thanks for the report, Ruth. I had a great time -- even if I had to cut it a little short. Will have to return to try the machaca. I can definitely say that I enjoyed every stop I participated in.
I'll attach a couple pictures. This one is of the fruitstand. This is where we purchased the corn as well.
Image: http://www.bluerocketdata.com/picture...
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Such a fun day and Lee and I both really liked everything we had. This area is so easy to get on BART, I don't know why I don't go more often.
The coconut with chile/lime is interesting and tasty, I've been snacking on it for days now. Loved the corn on the cob and the carnitas tacos from El Novillo truck.
The roast chicken from Neza was pretty good, despite it being the last pieces from their warming case and eating it cold for dinner. The green sauce that came with it had just the right punch. I'd say it's definately worth checking out maybe around early lunch time when stuff might be fresher.
Thanks to Windy for organizing and everyone for the fun company!
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just a quick response to your question about the aztec warrior and the maiden...he's mourning her death. the famous volcano outside of mexico city "el popo" (i think it's the pet name) is named after this warrior.this volcano is still active and they claim that when it erupts it is his spirit.
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Ha! I win!!
I said it might be the legend of (sp) Popocatapetyl and Ixtaciwatyl (sp) given to the names of two volcanoes.
A little knowledge goes a long way!
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I prefer to think of the Aztec warrior as Chicharron, myself.
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I prefer to think of Chicaron as a God!
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